Peres to EU: Put Hezbollah on list of terror groups

"Nasrallah, wearing the robe of the religious, is pushing Lebanon toward war, even though Lebanon has no enemies,” president says.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
President Shimon Peres 521 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
President Shimon Peres 521
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
President Shimon Peres has called on the European Union to place Hezbollah on its list of terror organizations.
Peres, who on Thursday was the keynote speaker at the Roaring Lion Monument at Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee to commemorate the heroism of Yosef Trumpeldor, who fell in battle 93 years ago while defending the area, said it was time for every organization, particularly the EU, to list Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
“In Syria the president is slaughtering his own people and the children of his country,” Peres said, looking to the northeast. “Close by, in Lebanon, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, wearing the robe of the religious, is pushing Lebanon toward war, even though Lebanon has no enemies.”
Against the backdrop of revelations of Hezbollah’s terrorist activities in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Nigeria, Peres said that “the time has come to call Hezbollah what it is – a murderous terror organization.”
Israel has stretched out a hand of peace to the land of the cedars, said Peres, adding that it was regrettable that Nasrallah was sending flames into the cedars.
Earlier in the day, when Peres was flying from Jerusalem to the Upper Galilee and was over Kibbutz Ein Harod, he was surprised when the helicopter pilot, speaking to him through headphones, told him to look to the field on his right, where members of Kibbutz Tel Yosef had helped create a mammoth field drawing featuring an image of Peres and the figure 90 as a tribute to his upcoming 90th birthday in August.
“I worked these fields and now I’m flying above them. It’s an exceptionally thoughtful gift,” he said as he looked down in delight.
Artist Peter Wiener created the 250-dunam image in the fields of the kibbutz. It is believed to be the largest field drawing ever created in Israel, and perhaps the world.
Although his birthday is not until later in the summer, Peres will have a major celebration in June when world leaders converge on Jerusalem for his Facing Tomorrow conference, which has become a presidential tradition to be carried on by his successors.
Peres still has almost a year and a half left in which to complete his tenure as president.