Rivlin, Blair honor Shimon Peres at state ceremony

During a state memorial to mark the one-year-anniversary of the passing of Shimon Peres, President Reuven Rivlin says the Israeli elder statesman’s dream of peace, determination and faith will live on “for generations to come.”

Speaking at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem at the ceremony, attended by Peres’ family and state and business leaders, Rivlin says: “You have left us much more to do, but the path you paved, the dream you spoke of, and most of all, your determination and faith, will be with this people for generations to come, and you will continue to be an advocate of all of us.”

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, at the event, said that the country Peres “wanted to create “was to be a gift to the world.”

Former British prime minister Tony Blair speaks at the first state memorial in honor of Shimon Peres at Mound Herzl in Jerusalem, September 14, 2017. (Josef Avi Yair Engel)

“It drew upon the best of the Jewish character developed over the ages, sustained through pogroms, persecution and holocaust, often battered but never subdued. This spirit is the spirit of striving…” Blair said.

“He grasped completely the extraordinary potential there would be if Israel and the region were working together, not simply on security, but on economic advance, technological breakthrough and cultural reconciliation,” he said of Peres, who died last year on September 28 at 93.

Chemi Peres, Peres’ son and the chairman of the Board of the Peres Center said: “My father struggled all of his life with his tremendous love for the State of Israel… His biggest dream – peace – my father did not get to see realized.

“I ask, in the spirit of my father, that you don’t stop dreaming and daring, because it’s the best thing that could happen to our beloved country,” he went on.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, Dr. Henry Kissinger and Yoni Peres at the first state memorial in honor of Shimon Peres at Mound Herzl in Jerusalem, September 14, 2017. (Josef Avi Yair Engel)