A president with all due respect

President Shimon Peres is set to mark one of the biggest highlights of his career on Wednesday night when he receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. honor bestowed on a civilian, at the White House.

Among the many guests slated to attend the special ceremony in Peres’ honor are his three children and their spouses, who flew to Washington this week especially for the event.

Peres is set to arrive at 6:30 p.m. (Washington time) at the White House, where he will be received by U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

The award ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. and will include speeches by Obama and Peres, as well as other notable speakers who will discuss reasons for bestowing the honor upon the Israeli president.

Ahead of the anticipated award ceremony on Wednesday, Peres continued to meet with U.S. officials as part of a busy schedule during his visit in Washington.

On Tuesday, Peres and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participated in a special discussion held at the Brookings Institution, hosted by former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, in an event marking a decade since the founding of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

„I want … to say a word or two about Hillary, not because my — only my personal admiration, which is really tremendous, but by the uniqueness of her role,” Peres said at the start of the discussion. „Never before did anybody in history, men or women, traveled thousand of thousands of miles, from place to place, day and night, not because traveling is such a great pleasure but because she has an unprecedented responsibility.”

Peres went on to discuss events in Syria, expressing his admiration for citizens who have risen up against Assad’s rule.

„People are facing fire every day, a dictator that kills children. For me, the most shocking photo is to see a small coffin and a dead child in it. I can’t stand it. People are reluctant to say, ‘Well, if Assad will go, we don’t have an alternative.’ My answer: Assad stopped to be an alternative. Even if there is no alternative, he’s neither an alternative,” the president said. „So this is the first time that I really want to express my admiration for an Arab attempt to fight for their own freedom. It’s admirable, and I wish them success.”

Commenting on the Iranian nuclear threat, Peres stressed that, „the Iranians are not our enemies. In history, we have many very friendly relations, and now very dangerous. So I’m asking ourself, why are we really against Iran? Is it just because of nuclear bomb? Not only.”

He continued, „What revolts the world against Iran is that in the 21^st century, the Iranian leaders, not the Iranian people, are the only one that wants to renew imperialism — we can’t accept it — in the name of religion. From that, it started. That’s the reason why many Arabs are against not Iran, but the Iranian hegemony. The Iranians don’t say the hegemony should be Arab, because they’re not Arabs. So they want to say it’s Muslim, because they’re Muslims. And we see the way they want to construct an empire — by terror, by sending money, sending arms, hanging, bluffing. We cannot support it. The world cannot support it.”

Clinton, for her part, spoke about the upcoming nuclear talks with Iran in Moscow, expressing hope that a unified international front would stop the Iranian nuclear threat.

„I can’t, sitting here today, tell you what the Iranians will or won’t do, but I am quite certain that they are under tremendous pressure from the Russians and the Chinese to come to Moscow prepared to respond,” Clinton said. „Now, whether that response is adequate or not, we will have to judge. They, for about the last 10 days, have been pushing to get a so-called experts meeting, pushing to try to even postpone Moscow in the absence of such meeting. And there was not a single blink by any of the negotiators. And then, as you saw in the news, there was a statement that yes, the Iranians would show up.

„And the Russians have made it very clear that they expect the Iranians to advance the discussion in Moscow, not to just come, listen, and leave. We’ll know once it happens. But I think that the unity and the resolve that has been shown thus far is of real significance, because clearly the threats that Shimon outlined are very real. The continuing effort by the Iranians to extend their influence and to use terror as a tool to do so extends to our hemisphere and all the way to East Asia. So the threat is real. We’re dealing with a regime that has hegemonic ambitions. Those who live in the near neighborhood are well aware of that, trying to manage it, and avoid the Iranians’ ability to score points and create more islands of influence is one of the great challenges that we are coping with,” the U.S. secretary of state said.

Peres then spoke about the peace process with the Palestinians, declaring, „now it is the time to make peace with the Palestinians.”

He added, „The Israeli government has a wider base. The Palestinians understand that not everything which was happening in the Arab Spring is necessarily bringing them time, because one of the important thing about the Arab Spring is the Arab youngsters understand that their situation is not a result of the conflict between us and the Palestinians. They know that reform begins at home. What’s happening in Syria has nothing to do with Israel. What happened in Tunisia has nothing to do with Israel, or Libya. And I think we should let the Arabs reform their lives and stop using the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as an excuse.”

Peres began his visit to Washington by taking a special tour of the Pentagon on Monday, where he later met with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey. The three leaders discussed ways to strengthen the strategic cooperation between Israel and the U.S., and also talked about a series of security issues on the agenda.

Meanwhile, ahead of Peres’ meeting with Obama on Wednesday, Esther Pollard, the wife of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, called on the Israeli president to „save my husband.”

Jonathan Pollard has been imprisoned in the U.S. for the last 26 years. During a recent visit with bereaved families of terror victims, Peres was asked to use all his political weight to try and secure Pollard’s release during his upcoming trip.

Pollard’s wife on Tuesday appealed to Peres, saying, „President Peres, save my husband. I wait in anticipation and with great hope for the decisive moment of your meeting [with Obama]. Please be a faithful messenger and bring about the release of my husband. It has been 27 years, Jonathan has expressed regret and has been serving a terrible punishment. I lay awake at night, hoping, praying, dreaming that our nightmare will come to an end. I wish that Jonathan would be home soon, maybe even on the plane with President Peres.”

Following the award ceremony on Wednesday, Peres is set to raise the issue of Pollard’s release with Obama. „I appeal to you man to man, heart to heart, to take into account all the considerations of the Pollard case, with emphasis on the humanitarian aspect, and to release [Pollard] after all these years,” Peres is expected to tell Obama.