Shimon Peres steps down, says world peace a guiding principle of Israel Israels elder statesman Shimon Peres bowed out of active political life on Thursday with an ardent defense of the assault in Gaza and a defiant prediction that peace will come one day to the region. At a ceremony overshadowed by the 17-day Gaza conflict in which nearly 800 people have died, Peres, 90, relinquished his largely ceremonial post as Israeli president to Reuven Rivlin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party. In his farewell speech, Peres invoked the biblical prophets he said had taught Israel to see social justice and world peace as guiding principles and he urged the Zionist state to practice equality for all its citizens. I will not give up my right to serve my people and my country. And I will continue to help build my country, with a deep belief that one day it will know peace, he added, making clear he did not envisage a quiet retirement. But Peres also defended Israels offensive in Gaza, launched in response to rocket attacks on its territory, despite the deaths of at least 797 Palestinians and 32 Israeli soldiers. He accused Hamas of turning Gaza into a man-made tragedy and of deliberately putting civilians in harms way. Israel is not the enemy of the people of Gaza, he said. But he also said Israel should welcome and encourage debate about the rights and wrongs of the conflict in Gaza. In these difficult days in which the eyes of the nation are on its leaders, on you, please do not lessen the debate. It is the essence of democracy, said Peres. Peres was born in Poland in 1923 and began in politics as a close aide to Israels founding father and first prime minister David Ben-Gurion. In a career spanning nearly seven decades, he has served in a dozen cabinets and twice as prime minister. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Israels late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for a 1993 interim peace deal that they and their successors failed to turn into a durable treaty. Unlike Peres, Rivlin, a former parliamentary speaker, is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state. A champion of Zionist settlements built on occupied land, Rivin, 74, has called for a confederation with the Palestinians rather than negotiating an independent state for them - something Palestinian leaders have long rejected. Rivlin had tears in his eyes as he was sworn in as head of state, but he sounded a combative note against Gaza militants. They will not defeat us. Terror will not defeat us, or weaken our resolve or our spirit or conviction in our feeling of justice, the new president said.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 22:59:27 +0000
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