Israel’s President Shimon Peres

The day was sunny, clear and warm in Jerusalem, Israel.

image Knessest, sign in flowers

The flowers offered a colorful  ‘Welcome to the Knesset.”

The streets outside were unusually quiet.

But inside was a different story.

DSC_7212b Knessest building during voting for president

 With Israeli flags flying, there were three puffs of white clouds

over the Israeli Knesset building and

Reuven Rivlin was elected  Israel’s 10th president.

image Peres,

RJS was with outgoing President Shimon Peres

before his trip to Rome to see the Pope.

Pau Gasol and Shimon Peres meet.

Peres hosted basketball player Pau Gasol at Beit Hanasi,

the official Israeli President’s residence.

image Pau Gasol, photo Shimon Peres

The seven-foot tall Gasol plays for the LA Lakers,

but also was on the Spanish Olympic team

and presented Peres with this team shirt.

image Pau Gasol, photo Shimon Peres

Gasol signed the shirt as requested.

Though looking serious in this photo,

Shimon Peres made a few age and height jokes.

Then posed for an official photo

image Pau Gasol, photo Shimon Peres

with a mixed Arab-Jewish teen basketball team.

One thing for sure,

Peres’ staff had schedules which ran like clockwork.

Diplomats were leaving as the basketball players arrived,

and when we left another event was being set up.

image Peres

 RJS first close-up photo of Shimon Peres was on October 2009,

greeting the public at a Sukkah open house.

Shimon Peres and Jams Snyder at Israel Museum

Peres was in great form at the Israel Museum 50th celebration.

Receiving a photo of himself from the groundbreaking

50 years early had to be special moment.

At a conference in Jerusalem after leaving office,

Peres was talking about the human brain and its function,

and used the word “orgasm” instead of “organism.”

Any other politician would have made headlines,

only Peres could get away with such a slip-up.

image new bust of Shimon Peres in Presidential gardens

Shimon Peres is in the garden of Beit Hanasi, 

the Israeli presidential official residence,

the last in row of nine former Presidents of Israel.

No age jokes now.

Updated: September 27, 2016

after family called to hospital.

4 thoughts on “Israel’s President Shimon Peres

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.