Israeli President Shimon Peres was honored on Tuesday (10th) with a solemn sitting of the National Congress in which deputies stressed the ties of friendship between Brazilians and Israelis and Peres’efforts in the search for peace between Jews and Arabs.

The Presisdent of the Chamber, Michel Temer, also emphasized the growth of the trade between the two countries, which exceeded 1.5 billion dollars in 2008. Michel Temer said that 20 years ago only five Israeli companies were operating in Brazil, while today "150 powerful organizations" are in the country. "This reveals the degree of integration between the two nations," he declared.

Technology
Shimon Peres said that the cooperation between Brazil and Israel may also occur in the field of technology. He stressed that although his country has an area 400 times smaller than that of Brazil, little water, little land, no oil or gold, it "was able to enrich the human intelligence."

According to the Israeli president, as the country can not afford to be a great producer, it decided to be a "world laboratory, with the largest number of scientists per square kilometer”. According to Peres, now Israel is dedicated primarily to six new industries: renewable energy, water technology, biotechnology, education, defense and space industry. "We can establish broad and deep exchange in these fields," he observed.

Efforts for peace
Michel Temer noted that, throughout his speech, Shimon Peres mentioned the the word "peace" at least 30 times. For the president of the Chamber, this shows that, when speaking in the Brazilian Parliament, the President of Israel spoke to the world so that his words "come to the Arabs, the Israelis, and they all know that radicalism has to be stopped." Temer also quoted a phrase from Peres: "It is preferable an imperfect peace than a perfect war." According to the Israeli president, "boldly, it is possible to achieve peace in a year or two."

Territories
Peres noted that Israel has already given back to Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon all the territories and all the water conquered in wars. The country, he added, has also proposed to return territory to Syria, who declined to negotiate. "With the Palestinians, we begin to negotiate. Israel recognizes the right of Palestinians to a state of their own and is ready to make difficult and painful concessions to live as good neighbors," he said.

Shimon Peres stressed that he did not want to comment anything in Brazil about the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but said he could not ignore "that this country builds nuclear weapons." "It’s necessary a voice against terror and destruction. Brazil denies terror and its voice echoes high in the world," he said.

Reporting - Maria Neves
Edition - Patricia Roedel
Translation – Adriana Resende/Danielle Currlin