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Shimon Peres on Obama, Iran and the Path to Peace
(New York Times) Ronen Bergman - In discussions over the past five months, Israeli President Shimon Peres told me: "America knows how to throw a punch when it has to, in order to keep the world balanced. But the punches follow a set procedure. They don't begin by shooting. They try all the other means first - economic sanctions, political pressure, negotiations, everything possible. But in the end, if none of this works, then President Obama will use military power against Iran. I am sure of it." "If there is no diplomatic decision, the Palestinians will go back to terror. Knives, mines, suicide attacks. The silence that Israel has been enjoying over the last few years will not continue, because even if the local inhabitants do not want to resume the violence, they will be under the pressure of the Arab world. Money will be transferred to them, and weapons will be smuggled to them, and there will be no one who will stop this flow." "Assad knows that using chemical weapons will immediately invite an attack by outside elements. The whole world would mobilize against him....No less important, Assad is liable to transfer the chemical weapons to Hizbullah, which from our point of view will constitute crossing a red line. It is incumbent upon Israel to prevent such a thing from happening, and it will take firm military action to do so." Peres expressed strong support for the recent Israeli operation in Gaza. "This wasn't a war or a military operation, but rather an educational lesson for Hamas. We acted in order to explain to Hamas that it has to decide on one or the other. You want to build houses? No problem. You want to build missile bases inside those houses? Then we'll relate to those houses as targets for our aircraft."