President Shimon Peres this afternoon, Tuesday, 6 Iyar 5773, at his residence in Jerusalem, hosted a reception for the foreign diplomatic corps in honor of Israel’s 65th Independence Day. The reception was attended by Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the members of the diplomatic corps, and leaders of Israel’s faith groups.

During his remarks President Peres addressed yesterday’s events in Boston and said, “Permit me to express our solidarity with the bereaved families in Boston today. Three people lost their lives, 140 were wounded and I want to send on behalf of all of us, our condolences to all the families and wish a speedy recovery to all the injured. When it comes to events like this, all of us are one family. We feel a part of the people who paid such a high price. God bless them. Today the real problem is terror and terror is not an extension of policy, their policy is terror, their policy is to threaten. Terrorists divide people, they kill innocent people.”

President Peres complimented Prime Minister Netanyahu and said, “I want to compliment our Prime Minister because he contributed something very important for peace and that is a unified position for Israel on how we should end vis-à-vis the Palestinian people. We were ideologically divided in a very profound manner but the greatest divide was between the idea of one large country and two nations for two peoples living together as neighbors. I think one of the greatest contributions of the Prime Minister is to bring Israel to a unified position of two states, for two peoples.” President Peres continued and said, “We know where we want to get to, two states for two people. It is the differences we have to negotiate and they are negotiable. I listen to the President of the Palestinian Authority and I don’t have to agree with everything he says but he’s clear in his position against terror and for peace. I think the time has arrived to overcome the differences between us. You know we are a nation that seeks peace and if we have to turn to arms it is only to defend our lives.”

President Shimon Peres received greetings from world leaders including President Barack Obama, President Putin and Pope Francis for Israel’s 65th Independence Day

President Shimon Peres, received greetings for Israel’s Independence Day from a number of world leaders including US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)