A Conversation with Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres Discusses Israel's Recent Concerns for Peace in the Middle East. The Vice Premier and Former Prime Minister of Israel explains that he had a distinctly different purpose in each of his two speaking engagements during this three-day trip in November 2006 to the United States.

The bulk of this piece is a recording of Mr. Peres' talk (with Questions and Answers following) at Cornell University on 28-November-2006. His specific purpose statement (''SPS'') for this talk at Cornell explains why he would not be saying the same thing that he said earlier at the United Nations during this same US visit.

To understand what he is saying here at Cornell, it is important to note his SPS in which he said, among other things, that the United Nations belongs more to the past than the future; while Cornell University belongs more to the future than the past. In his talk that was limited to sixty minutes, it would be a no-brainer for any to suggest that Vice Premier Peres failed to share with us all he knows on this subject.

It spoke well of him that after speaking for a half-hour, the Former Prime Minister allowed an equal half-hour to the Cornell audience for questioning. There were some thoughtful questions yet none took the opportunity to explore or bring to the fore an understanding of the origin, ab initio, of the cause for the current animosity between the tribes of Israel and the offspring of Ishmael -- Isaac's half brother -- both stemming from the one father Abraham (Isaac by Sarah and Ishmael by Hagar).

Mr. Peres underscored that Israel cannot afford to lose even once -- or it's over for Israel. Apparently not understanding the ''causa sine qua non,'' Mr. Peres muses over why Ishmael continues the hate after Israel finally gave back land taken in the Six-Day War and he indicated that what he hopes for is an age [future] when Israel's enemy will no longer live in the past. More at: http://www.prww.org/eval.html