Hours before stroke, Peres issued video urging Israelis to buy home-made products

Hours before he suffered a massive stroke Tuesday evening, former president Shimon Peres posted a video on social media urging Israelis to purchase more Israeli-made products.

“What is a ‘blue-and-white’ product?” wrote Peres in a caption accompanying a clip published on his Facebook page.

“For me, it’s Israeli salad, our wonderful fruits, our excellent industry and our developed high-tech sector. I am proud of Israeli industry,” he wrote.

In the video, Peres said he recommended “all of us, for all of you, buy ‘blue-and-white’ products. Not only because it’s not just more patriotic, it’s also better.”

“Can you imagine a meal without an Israeli salad, can you imagine setting the table without [a plate of] Israeli fruits? There are 350 foreign companies investing in Israel… Why did they come? Because our products have an outstanding reputation. And so, what’s good for them is good for us. Give a ‘like’ for Israeli-made products,” Peres urged.

https://www.facebook.com/ShimonPeresInt/videos/1128443463909356/

The 93-year-old suffered a stroke Tuesday evening that left him fighting for his life at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, outside Tel Aviv.

Peres suffered “a major stroke today with a component of bleeding,” Dr. Yitzhak Kreis told journalists outside the hospital Tuesday.

At a brief press conference outside the hospital Tuesday, his son Chemi Peres asked Israelis to “pray for him” in “these difficult hours.” Chemi said “difficult decisions” would have to be made in the next few hours.

Sources close to the Peres family said Tuesday night that the elder statesman’s life was “in danger” due to bleeding on the brain. The 93-year-old suffered what Channel 1 described as “a massive intracranial hemorrhage.”