President Shimon Peres greets Pope Francis in address from the dais on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport with quote from Psalms: “Welcome in the name of the Lord.”
Speaking in Hebrew, Peres thanks the pope “for your warm and loving attitude to the Jewish people.”
Back in English, in a minor slip, Peres calls Francis “Your Highness” instead of “Your Holiness” at one point, but nobody seems to mind.
The president condemns those who “shot innocent people in the Jewish Museum in Brussels [on Saturday] only because they thought they were Jewish.”
“This is a manifestation that poisons wells and cannot be accepted,” he says.
The elder statesman takes the opportunity to promote the message of peace, saying that “Even if peace calls for sacrifices, the sacrifices of peace are preferable to the threat of war.”
Our hand is stretched out in peace and will continue to be stretched out in peace, and we shall seek the right path to achieve it,” Peres says. Earlier in the day he accepted the pontiff’s offer to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Rome on June 6 for a prayer for peace.
President Shimon Peres addresses Pope Francis at Ben Gurion International Airport. (screen capture: GPO)
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Sunday, May 25, 2014
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