Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 5 August 2009:

In the past President Peres has shared such pearls of wisdoms as "it doesn't
matter what they say" to rebuff warnings by critics of Oslo who quoted what
PLO leaders were saying and that Israel should ignore the past and move
boldly to set the future as an answer to those who cited the Oslo's track
record as a basis for opposing policies based on the same mindset.

Now we have the gem that "The second question is, what sort of a peace? My
answer is simple: the only one which we can achieve.”

Not "the one Israel requires".

But President Peres does not advocate having a signing ceremony next week on
the White House lawn for an all encompassing agreement.

Instead, as his Spokesperson Ayelet Frish explained to IMRA today,
President Peres believes in following the intermediate sovereign Palestinian
state option that is an option in the Roadmap.

As Frish noted, under that option the Palestinians have a sovereign
Palestinian state without concluding an agreement with Israel that resolves
all the issues.

IMRA asked to clarify if President Peres does in fact support the
establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state without the major issues of
the conflict resolved.

Frish explained that the sovereign Palestinian state would be in temporary
borders and that there would be solid international guarantees to make sure
that everything would work out.

====

President's Spokesperson Tuesday, August 04, 2009

The President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, addressed a delegation
of 40 Republican members of Congress :

“If we miss the opportunity for peace, the Middle East will become an
uncontrolled nuclear region and that will be a point of no return.”

The President of Israel met this afternoon with a delegation of Republican
members of Congress, headed by Republican Whip Eric Cantor, with the aim of
exposing the members of the new Congress – many of whom have never been to
Israel - to Israeli issues.

Representative Cantor told President Peres at the start of the meeting that
the delegation was the largest delegation of Congressional members that has
ever visited Israel. “To a person, all of us will tell you that we are here,
first and foremost, to reconfirm the message that the U.S. Congress stands
staunchly on the side of Israel and its struggle, and we are here to figure
out how to strengthen the U.S – Israel relationship.”

In his political review to the members of Congress, President Peres told
them, “We have to ask ourselves two basic questions - One, what will happen
if we do not attain peace? I’m afraid the Middle East will go nuclear and
nobody is interested in seeing the Middle East becoming nuclear. This is a
point of no return. It would be a mistake that all of us would regret. We
have to stop the Iranians and we have to prevent others from going this way.
The second question is, what sort of a peace? My answer is simple: the only
one which we can achieve.”

The President also addressed the nature of the political agreement that can
now be attained, saying that first we must establish the issues on which
agreements already exist, and afterwards continue on to issues that are
currently hard to agree on.

President Peres told his guests that Israel is making enormous efforts to
improve the quality of life in the West Bank (the president related
primarily to the removal of 25 out of the 41 checkpoints by Israel) and
said, “The West Bank is growing economically, enjoying greater freedom than
ever before, and it is all happening even before we have signed a peace
agreement. It’s quite an important achievement and, as an Israeli, I am
happy - our people are happy - to see the Palestinians in a better state.”

For further information:

Ayelet Frish- 050-6205111
Meital Jaslovitz – 050-4205230