Peres: Arab 'wind of change' peace opening

Peres: Arab 'wind of change' peace opening
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Israel welcomes the Arab "wind of change" as a Middle Eastern opportunity, Israeli President Shimon Peres said before meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.

"A great revolt has been initiated by young people and women, to gain freedom, bread and hope. Israel is watching with great expectation. These events are both unprecedented and unplanned," Peres wrote in an op-ed article published in The Guardian ahead of his Tuesday White House meeting.

"Israel welcomes the wind of change, and sees a window of opportunity," Peres' article said.

The opportunity is for the region, led by its young people and women, to redefine what is meaningful -- to see the importance in valuing technological developments and science more than land -- and then, based on these common values, to work together to create regional prosperity, he said.

"The older generation had greater respect for land than science," Peres said in the article. "But we live in an age when science, more than soil, has become the provider of growth and abundance. Living just on the land creates loneliness in an age of globality."

"Democratic and science-based economies by nature desire peace," he said. "Israel does not want to be an island of affluence in an ocean of poverty. Improvements in our neighbors' lives mean improvements to the neighborhood in which we live."

"Israel is more than willing to offer our experience in building a modern economy in spite of limited resources to the whole region," he said. "We seek only the acceptance from our neighbors and the opportunity to play a full role in the life of the region."

Peres' article "could be seen as an encouragement to some of his compatriots to give up their obsession with land and realize the need to release it for the establishment of a Palestinian state," The Guardian said.

Many Israelis are unwilling to give up land conquered in the June 1967 Six-Day War in exchange for peace. In that war, Israel took effective control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria.

Peres' meeting with Obama will cover the Middle East and North Africa turbulence, U.S.-Israeli security cooperation and stalled regional peace efforts, the White House said.

U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders stalled Sept. 26 when a temporary freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank expired.

Israeli media reported Peres would deliver a message from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu about Israel's position on peace-talks renewal.

Obama and Peres will follow their Oval Office meeting with a working lunch in the Old Family Dining Room, the White House said.

The Israeli leader last visited the White House in May 2009.



Copyright 2011 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 04/05/2011