by michael soltys
herald staff

Concluding a two-day official visit to Argentina yesterday, Israeli President Shimon Peres paid tribute to the victims of the 1994 terrorist bomb attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre, met with AMIA, DAIA, the Argentine-Israeli Chamber of Commerce and other Jewish community leaders as well as Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández and continued sniping away at Iranian and Venezuelan Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chávez during a morning session with the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI).
Aníbal Fernández was sufficiently impressed by his meeting with Peres to give him a rapturous introduction to his CARI address in a rare appearance of a government official at that forum — finding himself “face to face with history ... a real leader and statesman” in tribute to his 60-year career (including 14 consecutive Knesset terms) which straddled pioneering Israel’s nuclear development and winning the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for agreeing to a Palestinian state with Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat.
Thanking “Prime Minister Fernández,” Peres spoke of the need to adapt to a borderless, leaderless world where precedents no longer mattered and where children could be adults at the age of 14 while he did not consider himself old at the age of 86 (and nor should he). If history had been “written in red ink with wars over land,” greater fortunes were now being made out of globalized scientific talent while the land itself had become an extension of hi tech more than traditional agriculture — everybody faced the “same questions in different languages.” Relations should not be “more of the same but something new.” Praising the warmth of Argentina as against the politeness he received elsewhere, Peres then opened the floor to questions.
Asked about Ahmadinejad and Chávez, Peres said they were also their own problem, especially Ahmadinejad who was self-destructively creating opposition to himself both at home and abroad (especially young Iranians) — both deluded themselves that they could buy the world with oil but “drinking oil” is dangerous. Ahmadinejad’s Iran (with the second highest number of executions in the world) was quite capable of exhausting the patience of even United States President Barack Obama and Russia, Peres insisted.
Asked why Israel was denying Palestine the same statehood it had sought from the United Nations in 1947, Peres replied that the UN had then proposed two states which David Ben Gurion had accepted but the Arabs had rejected, attacking Israel no less than nine times in subsequent years. Never asking for help from the United States or anyone else, Israel had expanded since then but had given land back (even forcing its own settlers out of the Gaza Strip) and was ready to hand back more and aid its neighbours — only Hamas stood in the way. Like love, peace was best made with eyes closed (but not forever), Peres concluded.
On whose side was time? Nobody’s, Peres replied, time is strictly neutral and “winners don’t wait.”
Peres then praised both sides of the previous Cold War: Obama’s intelligence, the sheer power of the US (its defence budget equals all other defence budgets combined) and its willingness to fight for others rather than in strict self-defence throughout the 20th century, making Germany and Japan better countries. As for Russia, it had no choice but to resist Iran’s nuclear armament with 20 of its 142 million people Muslim (two million in Moscow alone) — with a ninth of the world’s land surface and a quarter of its fresh water, Russian expansionism need not be feared and NATO should question its outdated need for an enemy.
Pointing out that the humblest today live better than kings 200 years ago, Peres concluded by saying everybody dies the same way but can live differently.
Already the recipient of a CARI diploma on his first visit in 1991 (and an Illustrious Citizen of the City of Buenos Aires as from Monday evening), Peres was made an honorary member by CARI president Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini while the two ambassadors to each countries, Daniel Gazit (here) and Atilio Molteni (in Tel Aviv), looked on.
Thus ended one Middle East visit here and next week another begins — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (whom Peres described yesterday as his friend).