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Former US President Bill Clinton admitted Tuesday that he intervened in the Israeli elections in 1996 to help then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres defeat rival Binyamin Netanyahu. "It would be fair to say that I tried to help Peres win the elections, and I tried to help him in such a way that I would not be openly involved," Clinton said in an interview with Israel's Channel 10 News. "I tried to help him, because I thought he was a bigger supporter of the peace process, and I tried to do it in a way that served, in my opinion, Israel's...

He noted that with the exception of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, “not even one Arab leader” attended Peres’s funeral. “You consider him a man of peace, but as a matter of fact, in the Muslim tradition, they remember what happened in the past. You could see it in the Arab media after Peres died,” said Herrera. Peres was called “the butcher”, “the engineer of genocide against Arabs” and “the architect of apartheid and aggression against Egypt”...

President Barack Obama, in a rare move, ordered the US flag be flown at half-staff at the White House and on federal grounds and government properties on Friday to mark the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the White House announced on Wednesday. Peres, the Israeli elder statesman who shared a Nobel Prize for forging a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, died at age 93 on Tuesday following complications from a recent stroke. In top Israeli leadership roles over the decades -- including prime minister and president -- the Labor Party veteran became a face of the...

President Obama last night issued a name-dropping, self-referential statement about Israeli President Shimon Peres, who died Tuesday at 93, noting three times that he and Shimon were “friends.” “My friend Shimon” “Our dear friend Shimon Peres” “I will always be grateful that I was able to call Shimon my friend.” Like, what kind of friends? As in, Hey Shimon, I’m calling because you’ll never guess what happened to me today!” They weren’t friends. I doubt if Peres, whose personality was seared in the struggle for the birth and preservation of Israel, had much respect for this man who rose to...

Moments after news of Shimon Peres’s death emerged early Wednesday morning, eulogies began pouring in from world leaders from across the globe. “There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people,” US President Barack Obama, who is expected to attend the late president’s funeral Friday, said in a statement. […] “A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us...

Shimon Peres, one of Israel’s defining political figures and a Nobel peace prize laureate, has died at the age of 93, two weeks after having a stroke, the official Israel News Agency has confirmed. Peres had twice served as prime minister of Israel and later as the country’s ninth president. He had been seriously ill on a respirator in an Israeli hospital near Tel Aviv and died after his condition deteriorated sharply.

Israel's former President Shimon Peres was rushed to hospital after experiencing chest pains, just a week after suffering a mild heart attack, his spokeswoman said Sunday night. The 92-year-old statesman had been discharged from hospital on Tuesday last week. Medics treated Peres at his home and detected a "light irregular heart rate" after conducting an EKG test, spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch said. "Due to the diagnosis, his doctors decided that the 9th President will spend the night in hospital for observation and testing," she said. ...

US President Barack Obama called former President Shimon Peres over the weekend to wish him well, after Peres suffered a heart attack. In the conversation, Obama thanked Peres for their long friendship, according to a press release on Saturday night from Peres's office. "I was lucky to be treated by a dedicated medical team that worked around the clock, not only to open and improve my artery but to improve my heart. I left hospital stronger than I entered," said Peres in the phone call. He also lauded Obama for sealing the controversial Iran nuclear deal, even as it has...

Israel's 92-year-old former President Shimon Peres suffered a "mild" heart attack Thursday but was in "excellent" condition following a heart procedure, his personal physician said. Peres was rushed to a hospital near Tel Aviv from his home on Thursday morning after he fell ill with chest pains and a check-up found an irregular heart rate, his spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch told Israeli Army Radio. His personal physician Raphi Walden said Peres had a "mild heart attack" but that "his condition is excellent" following a successful cardiac catheterization. ...

Rabin never offered any such two-state compromise Former Israeli President Shimon Peres has pre-empted the memorial rally this Saturday evening to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination on 4 November 1995 of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin - by writing – quite misleadingly - of Rabin’s vision in the Jerusalem Post this week. Former US president Bill Clinton, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and Yitzchak Rabin’s daughter - former deputy defence minister Dalia Rabin - are scheduled to participate in the rally – and hopefully will set the record straight.

Thursday criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his upcoming speech before the US Congress that was arranged without the knowledge of US President Barack Obama. Speaking at a memorial ceremony for former prime minister Ariel Sharon in the Negev, Peres said, "Bibi [Netanyahu] can make speeches at any place or date, but when the President of the United States asks him not to come before elections, he must respect that request." Peres also addressed the tension between Israel and Hezbollah after an attack that killed two IDF soldiers on Wednesday, saying that "both sides understand that there is no choice...

President Shimon Peres said the Israeli security crackdown will persist in its efforts to combat terror. “Alongside the heavy mourning, we will remain determined to punish the villainous terrorists with a firm hand,” he said. “Our war on terror will only grow, and will not be weakened, such that this murderous terror will not dare raise its head.” The president also offered his deepest condolences to the families and praised them for “devotedly raising their children.” “The kidnapping and murder of innocent youths in the dead of the night is a heinous and unforgivable crime,” opposition leader and Labor Party...

..... Hours after being elected president, MK Reuven Rivlin published a personal post on his Facebook page, in which he thanked the MKs who voted for him. "I want to thank you. Those who voted for me - for placing your confidence in me and those who didn’t vote for me - for placing their confidence in me in the future,” he wrote. “I hope to have the strength to fulfill the mission in a way that will meet the expectations of my supporters and a dispel the concerns of those who were opposed to me,” continued Rivlin. “I thank...

I strongly disagree with Caroline Glick’s conclusion in her May 27 article that Pope Francis “is leading the Catholic Church in a distressingly anti-Jewish direction.” I can understand Caroline’s distress at some of the pope’s actions and words but it is important to have balance and not draw wrong conclusions. Pope Francis is totally committed to reconciliation between the Church and Israel. I would like to demonstrate this under five headings: 1. State of Israel Pope Francis in his first Encyclical in November 2013 affirmed God’s everlasting covenant with the Jews: “We hold the Jewish people in special regard because...

The Ecumenical Patriarch has accepted the invitation extended by Pope Francis and will be in the Vatican with Presidents Mahmoud Abbas and Shimon Peres (©LAPRESSE) FRANCIS WITH BARTHOLOMEW IN JERUSALEM At the encounter to pray for peace in the Holy Land, called by Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sunday, June 8th there will be also the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew.   Vatican Insider received this confirmation from authoritative sources of the patriarchy. The decision will be made ​​official most likely tomorrow, after the meeting of the synod during which the patriarch will present the initiative.  It was Pope Francis...

President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas immediately accepted a surprise invitation by Pope Francis in Bethlehem on Sunday to join him at the Vatican to pray for peace. He issued his call on the second day of his Middle East trip, in the midst of a large public Mass he celebrated in Manger Square, the site of Jesus’s birth. “Here, at the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite you to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace. I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this...

President Shimon Peres revealed on Monday that three years ago he reached a peace agreement with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Speaking to Channel 2 News in a special interview on the occasion of Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day), Peres said that his contacts with Abbas were made on behalf of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but that at the last minute, Netanyahu changed his mind and the agreement fell through. .....

President Shimon Peres on Monday hailed remarks by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on the issue of the “Palestinian refugees”, AFP reported. Peres, who said Abbas’s comments showed his "seriousness about reaching peace", was referring to what Abbas said during a meeting Sunday with more than 300 Israeli university students at his Ramallah headquarters. At the meeting, the PA chief told the students said he did not want to "flood Israel" with so-called “Palestinian refugees” and that there was no need to "re-divide" Jerusalem. "I was happy to hear him," Peres's office quoted him as saying at the start of...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday urged Israel to seize this moment in history to make peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA), AFP reported. Biden’s comments were made in a meeting with President Shimon Peres, hours after both paid their last respects to former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who was buried on Monday. The meeting focused on the U.S.-led direct peace talks between the sides, which resumed in July. "The one place (in the region) where there's a possibility for an island of stability ... is between the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, in two secure states...

President Shimon Peres addressed the escalation in the south on Tuesday evening. "If Gaza wants peace and quiet they had better act accordingly...."