Israeli President turns 90 as the nation celebrates
The Times of Israel reported that it was a love fest at Shimon Peres’s 90th birthday party Tuesday night, as world leaders, beloved performers and regular folk spoke, sang, and sent their messages of love and affection for the president, former prime minister, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Peres sat by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara. Behind them was an auditorium full of who’s who in Israel and abroad, from Prince Albert of Monaco and IDF chief Benny Gantz, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, former prime minister Ehud Barak, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon and former defense minister Shaul Mofaz.
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair opened the festive evening at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, commenting that he admires Peres as a leader and loves him as a friend.
“We have a queen, you have Shimon,” said Blair, referring to Peres’s “abiding love for the State of Israel,” as well as him being a “man of passion and compassion.”
From there on in, it was a cornucopia of entertainment and nostalgia, reflecting on Peres’s many contributions to the state, his decades of service and his own personal history, as he escaped Poland and the Holocaust and made it to then-Palestine, already serving in a public role by his mid-20s.
The president was greeted by his family, including his young granddaughter, Eden, who brought him a flower; dozens of young singers and a cluster of violinists; a young Arab boy who successfully survived a heart transplant as a baby, and a series of recorded messages from world leaders.
Netanyahu, who first spoke in English, but switched to Hebrew, referred to the first time the two leaders met, at the funeral of Yoni Netanyahu, the prime minister’s brother who was killed in the July 1976 raid on Entebbe. The prime minister talked about Peres’s longing for peace, commenting that when the president was a young boy, “we had no peace and we had no life,” referring to the period of the Holocaust. “Peace favors the strong,” continued the prime minister. “No one will make peace with the weak.”
Peres spoke last, after a host of celebrity guests. He spoke of his years of leadership, the support of his family, friends and fellow politicians, and as always, prayed for peace and for the future “before us.”
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. Psalm 122:6 (NKJV)
Read The Times of Israel article, June 19, 2013
Photo credit: Kobi Gideon/Flash 90
