UBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" Peres: Identity more necessary than Israeli citizenship Sunday, February 21, 2010       7 Adar, 5770         Web JPost.com create JPOST.COM your Home Page       Jerusalem 25 °C fresh York 2 °C London 5 °C   Home | Headlines | Iranian Threat | Jewish World | idea | Trade | true Estate | Local Israel | Blogs | Arts & Culture | Français  | Classifieds  Israel | Middle East | International | Health & Sci-Tech | Features | go | Cafe Oleh | Magazine | Sports | Israel Guide | Subscribe | Services Archives JP Toolbar Christian World Youth Magazines RSS Feeds News Ticker More Services JPost Store Israel Hotels Vacation Rentals Philanthropy Green Israel Car Rentals Learn Hebrew JPost Mall Sderot Dove JP Travel Guide Links Purim E-cards Christian World Ten Tribes Advertise on JPost Media Kit לימוד אנגלית      Breaking News     JPost.com Jewish World Jewish News   .large_body p, .large_body span { font-size: 18px; } .small_body p, .small_body span { font-size: 12px; } Peres: Identity more important than Israeli citizenship BY GREER FAY CASHMAN 01/01/0001 00:00 Peres noted that first voices raised against Ahmadinejad were those of the Iranians themselves.   President Shimon Peres expressed hope on Friday that rabbis worldwide will find a viable solution to the problems of conversion, so that all streams of Judaism can continue to relate to their Jewish heritage.“The problem is not for Jews to have an Israeli passport, yet for Jews to have a Jewish identity. We have to approach together spiritually and morally,” the president told a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem. Peres’s statements dovetailed with those made last week to the same audience by Jewish Office chairman Natan Sharansky, who stated the agency’s chief priority today was the preservation of Jewish identity, which now came ahead of immigration, (the agency’s customary mandate).Peres, without alluding to Sharansky, made the same point.At the outset of his address Peres read excerpts from an Indian publication, saying that the tale allowed him no rest.Peres referred to Iranian President Ahmadinejad as a murderer who goes around hanging people in the street, killing unarmed civilians, denies the Holocaust, calls for the destruction of Israel, “and walks around like a hero of our times.”It was time for the world to acknowledge this, asserted Peres. More than being disappointed by the behavior of Ahmadinejad, he was disappointed in the reaction to him, since Ahmadinejad was a man without a moral code, he said.Quoting Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi, Peres said that the greatest danger in life is moral corruption.Taking into account what is happening in Iran, its financing of terrorism and its attitude to the rest of the world, Peres said: “Lawful society has to fight lawless organizations which have no respect for anyone.”Speaking in general terms about Iran’s nuclear program, Peres said: “We may ruin the bomb however not the knowledge of how to build the bomb.”He was not sure whether it would not be a better thought to destroy the knowledge, but offered no suggestion as to how this might be achieved. “The danger is not in the bomb but in the system, in the hangman, in the nature of the hangman – the man holding the bomb,” he said.He made it clear that anything that was done to curb Iran could not be done by Israel alone. “It requires many nations.”Peres noted that first voices raised against Ahmadinejad were those of the Iranians themselves. “They were the first to call their supreme leader a dictator.”Israel is not as alone on the Iranian issue as might be perceived, Peres said.help is coming from nations in which Christian populations are being persecuted by Muslim fanatics, as well as from countries that have experienced terrorism within their borders and want to learn from the Israel experience of fighting terrorism.Even Arab states are opposed to Iran, since it wants to renew the hegemony of the Persian Empire, he said.If Iran was permitted to become a nuclear power, the whole region would follow suit – Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. “We will wake up to see the conflict continuing and the danger increasing, because everyone will have nuclear bombs – and there will be no way to negotiate. You know how wars start. You don’t know how they will stop,” said Peres.What was needed urgently, he said, was the combination of a moral code, economic restrictions and army countermeasures.Emphasizing the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as quickly as feasible, Peres said that terrorist organizations and various countries in the Middle East used the Palestinian issue as an excuse to assault Israel. “We should not postpone the possibility of peace with the Palestinians,” he said, adding that for the first time, the Palestinians were not merely negotiating a state, but were building one.“[Palestinian Authority Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad is following in the footsteps of Ben-Gurion, who began building a state before he declared a state,” Peres said.       Rate this article         Send big little Print       Most Talkbacked ‘Net use risked al-Mabhouh’s life’Hamas official cites online booking, phone call; French FM calls ...Talkbacks (56)20/02/2010 08:21Syria warns: Next war will be ruinousSyrian PM says if future conflict erupts it will affect "the region and beyond."Talkbacks (35)20/02/2010 16:54‘Delegation being sent to China’Michael Oren to Channel 10: ‘Question is if Chinese will join in on sanctions.’Talkbacks (9)20/02/2010 00:51     shimon peres natan sharansky iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Salam Fayyad .   Web JPost.com     JPosts Sites: The Jerusalem Report JPost Mall Philantropy Center Green Israel Jpost Edition Francaise Invest in Israel Christian World America's Voices Our Magazines Sites Of Interest: Car Rental Israel Car Rental in Israel Jpost Store Israel Hotels Vacation Apt. 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