Israel’s deputy prime minister asked for help from D.C.’s Jewish community to rebuild his country from the damages of the four-week war with the Hezbollah.
But Shimon Peres said that Israel would not make a token donation to the Lebanese civilians whose homes and lives were torn apart by the war.
“One thousand people were killed in Lebanon,” Peres said. “I regret it. I regret it very much. But undoubtedly some of them were Hezbollah.”
After Israel gave money to Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas’ secular Fatah party in Palestine, the government was toppled by militant Islamist group Hamas because of Fatah’s corruption, Peres said.
“The lesson is, be careful with financial aid,” he said.
Peres refused to answer when asked what mistakes Israel made in its battles to drive Hezbollah out of Southern Lebanon. But he said he was “100 percent” sure that Israel had taken every precaution to protect civilians.
Speaking at a news conference held by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Peres said that the real culprit behind the war was Iran. The theocratic state urged Hezbollah to attack Israel in hopes that the war would distract from international attention on Iran’s nascent nuclear weapons program.
Asked whether this meant that Israel would carry the war to Iran, Peres said Iran was “the world’s problem.”
He also said that Israel remains committed to a two-state solution in the Middle East. However, he admitted that his government had no contact with Abbas — who is battling for control of the unborn state with Hamas — since the fighting began.
Peres met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday. He is a three-time former prime minister of Israel and a Nobel Laureate.
