Shimon Perez

The visit of Peace Nobel Prize Winner Shimon Perez coincided with a bloody assault of a Palestinian kamikadse in Jerusalem. In the dramatic fate of Israel terror was becoming again everyday life. Despite the bad news Shimon Perez captured the Bulgarian audience with his charismatic presence, with his tranquility and the belief that things will get better. They will get better…because there is no other way. Golda Meir said that the most difficult job in the world was to be Israel’s Prime Minster. Maybe to be Israel’s Prime Minister and an optimist like Shimon Perez is even harder.

“…do you know, that if you are in Israel and if you are a friend of Bulgaria you will have many adherents, because there are many Bulgarians in Israel. I like not only your country, I like the people in Bulgaria…with a few exceptions it was the only country that saved its Jews during WW II. This is something we will be grateful forever…”

“…I’m happy to see that Bulgaria is changing. I was here in 1997 and Bulgaria was quite different, today it is different in a positive sense. This makes me think of a story, written by Nabokov. He describes the painful way the wings of the butterfly grow. And when I’m in a country like Bulgaria I understand its pain, the pain of the butterfly, but this is a country that undoubtedly will fly one day. I understand the pain of the people that try to cope with the difficult situation and to become modern, to build up a new system, but the most important thing is that Bulgaria has taken the right way…”