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President Shimon Peres on Sunday evening phoned and thanked bus driver Michael Yoger and passenger David Papo, whose actions saved lives in the explosion on the 240 bus in Bat Yam earlier in the day. Peres asked to hear the details of the event and thanked Yoger and Papo for their actions in discovering the device and clearing the passengers from the bus, saving lives in the process. The explosion took place shortly after passengers noticed a suspicious object and reported it to the driver, who quickly removed all passengers from the bus. .....

US Secretary of State John Kerry's scheduled meeting with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday has been postponed due to the snowstorm which hit the capital, American sources told The Jerusalem Post. Kerry, who is due to arrive on Thursday, is still expected to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. .....

Israeli leaders mourned the loss of former South African president Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday evening. Mandela was "the father of his nation, a man of vision, a freedom fighter who opposed violence," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page late Thursday night. "He posed as a personal example to his people in the many years he spent in jail, and never became haughty," Netanyahu wrote. "He worked to heal the tears in South African society and succeeded with his personality to prevent outbreaks of racial hatred." "He will be remembered as the father of the new...

Commentator Shalom Yerushalmi wrote, Monday in Ma'ariv, that senior politicians feel that if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arranges another presidential term for Shim'on Peres, Peres won' leave the Presidential Residence, despite his declaration, Sunday, that he is not interested in staying. ...Netanyahu is concerned that Peres would run for Knesset and could defeat him because there no leadership figure of Peres's stature has emerged since him in the center or the left.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet Pope Francis and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Italy next week. Netanyahu will meet Francis in the Vatican Wednesday, ahead of the pontiff’s expected visit to Israel next year. In Rome, the prime minister will meet with Kerry to discuss the current nuclear negotiations between six world powers on Iran, and the peace process with the Palestinians, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. The first round of renewed nuclear negotiations between the so-called P5+1 powers and the Islamic Republic concluded Wednesday with cautious optimism from both sides....

<p>President Shim'on Peres sent a letter to Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland of the Council of Europe, Monday, urging the council to reconsider its recent decision against circumcision.</p>

US Secretary of State John Kerry extended for a third day on Saturday his shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, raising speculation of progress in reviving long dormant "peace talks." In a sign of Kerry's desire to keep negotiating, AFP reported, he paid a rare visit to Jerusalem during Shabbat – the sabbath day. Kerry arrived just before sundown to see Peres, with aides warning that the two would have been obliged to cancel a photo opportunity after the sabbath began at around 7:15 pm. Peres, realising that they were cutting it close, quipped that the sabbath began at...

American actor Robert De Niro landed in Israel with his son Tuesday morning for a 24-visit, highlighted by his appearance at this evening’s birthday bash for President Shimon Peres, who turns 9o on August 2. DeNiro, who is not Jewish, met with the president at his Jerusalem home, and among other topics, they spoke about the Iranian nuclear threat. The president also related to the actor and his 17-year-old son the modern history of the re-establishment of the State of Israel and the country’s relations in the Middle East. The prize-winning actor said he brought is 17-year-old son with to...

It was a love fest at Shimon Peres’ 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 flanked by former US president Bill Clinton and Jewish stage diva Barbra Streisand on his right, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, on his left. Behind them was an auditorium full of who’s who in Israel and abroad, from actors Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone, Prince Albert of Monaco and Chicago mayor...

Tehran Times reports....President Shimon Peres. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Telegraph in an interview published on Tuesday, adds Tehran Times, Peres said Israel has no natural antipathy towards Iran. Asked if Iran and Israel could ever have direct negotiations with each other, he replied, “Why not? The citizens of Iran are not our enemies.” President Peres is considered a global visionary of peace.

Israeli government sources claim Francis is apparently thinking of calling a meeting between leaders and faithful of the world’s three biggest monotheistic religions, in Rome, to launch a message of peace, countering violence and the use of God’s name to justify hatred and terrorist acts. The sources say the Pope announced his intention to call a meeting, during an Audience last 30 April. But there was no mention of this in the communiqué the Holy See’s issued after the Audience. President Peres “told the Pope that there are people who use God’s name to justify terrorism” and religious leaders should...

Former US president Bill Clinton on Monday night urged Israel to work toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians, saying that he had never heard a credible alternative that would enable Israel to remain a Jewish and a democratic state. “No matter how many settlers you put out there [in the West Bank], the Palestinians are having more babies than the Israelis as a whole,” Clinton said, and thus demographics were working against Israel. Clinton was answering questions after a speech at the Peres Academic Center in Rehovot in honor of President Shimon Peres’s 90th birthday celebrations, which continue Tuesday...

DEAD SEA, Jordan – US Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled on Sunday a $4 billion economic plan to revitalize the Palestinian economy, as he called on Israelis and Palestinians to forgive past wrongs and return to the negotiating table. “The plan for the Palestinian economy is bigger and bolder and more ambitious than anything proposed since Oslo more than 20 years ago,” said Kerry as he spoke at the closing session of the World Economic Forum by the Dead Sea in Jordan.

AL SHUNAH, Jordan: US Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled on Sunday a plan to boost the Palestinian economy by attracting $4 billion in private investment, saying it could transform the lives of the people. As he seeks to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the table to negotiate a peace deal, Kerry said it was also imperative to create jobs and meet the hopes of young people for a better economic future. He has tasked Tony Blair, the Quartet's special envoy to the Middle East, with drawing up a plan to revitalise the West Bank through boosting industries...

President Shimon Peres said that he believes that U.S. President Barack Obama will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomatic efforts fail. "I have no doubt that if diplomatic talks fail with Iran and Tehran doesn't stop accelerating its nuclear development – U.S. President Barack Obama will conduct a military attack against Iran," Peres told the Israel Hayom newspaper this week, in an interview ahead of Israel’s 65th Independence Day next week. "Preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon isn't only an Israeli interest, but a global and an American interest. As long as the U.S. is in the lead —...

President Shimon Peres held out hopes Wednesday of seeing the Middle East draw inspiration from the European Union by one day turning a region long at war into one at peace. Praising Europe for overcoming 1,000 years of conflict in six short decades as he visited EU headquarters, Peres said, "You have the gift of a united hope even if you have a divided economic situation." "I hope the time will come when the Middle East will become a peaceful united region like you," he added. Peres, on an eight-day tour to Brussels, Paris and Strasbourg, said he believed there...

Israel will award President Barack Obama the country’s Presidential Medal of Distinction during his upcoming visit. Israeli President Shimon Peres’ office said Monday that Obama will be recognized for his “unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens.” …

I'm getting a lot of email asking me how Israel could be awarding its 'highest civilian honor' to the most anti-Israel President of the United States ever, Barack Hussein Obama. Here's some fairly typical coverage from Fox News. Israel will award President Barack Obama the country's Presidential Medal of Distinction during his upcoming visit. Israeli President Shimon Peres' office said Monday that Obama will be recognized for his "unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens." Obama is scheduled to visit Israel in March -- his first as president. Obama has often...

Newly-installed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry isn't wasting any time in getting started on his new job. After two full days in office, Kerry spoke to officials in Mexico, Canada, Israel, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority (PA), his office said Sunday. On Sunday, Kerry called PA chief Mahmoud Abbas. According to an Abbas spokesperson, Kerry told the PA chief that he expected to meet him in the near future in order to discuss restarting negotiations with Israel. Kerry told Abbas that President Barack H. Obama supported such talks, and that he hoped both sides would agree to participate. In...

President Shimon Peres's comments that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is a partner for peace hurt Israel's public diplomacy efforts, Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said on Monday. Edelstein told Arutz Sheva that it is now clear that the Oslo Accords were a nightmare, adding that the focus of the storm around Peres's comments should not be whether the president should express a personal opinion during an election period but rather how his remarks affect Israel's public diplomacy. "We spit blood while the Palestinians - sometimes successfully - try to convince leaders in Europe and North America that...