Universal Dependencies - English - GUM

s-1

GUM_interview_peres-1

The future of the peace process in Israel

s-2

GUM_interview_peres-2

'The future is only peace. The problem is how long will it take and how many victims will it call for.'

s-3

GUM_interview_peres-3

Shimon Peres image: David Shankbone.

s-4

GUM_interview_peres-4

Mr. President, as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and as one of the fathers of the modern peace process in Israel, do you still think that there is a future to the peace process?

s-5

GUM_interview_peres-5

The future is only peace.

s-6

GUM_interview_peres-6

The problem is how long will it take and how many victims will it call for.

s-7

GUM_interview_peres-7

Why do I say peace?

s-8

GUM_interview_peres-8

Because when you look historically, at the development of humanity, most of our lives we are living on the land.

s-9

GUM_interview_peres-9

The history is written with red ink.

s-10

GUM_interview_peres-10

The reason for it is because people were fighting for our land, either defending it or extending it, because that was the main source.

s-11

GUM_interview_peres-11

The land, the natural resources, the markets, all these go together.

s-12

GUM_interview_peres-12

The minute the land was replaced by science, what is there to fight about?

s-13

GUM_interview_peres-13

Armies cannot conquer science.

s-14

GUM_interview_peres-14

Customs cannot check what a scientist has in his mind, they can see what he has in his pocket but not what he has in his mind so it’s uncontrolled; it means that borders aren’t important and distances aren’t important.

s-15

GUM_interview_peres-15

How do you approach the difficult challenge of talking to the Palestinians when, in the end, they don’t want Israel to exist.

s-16

GUM_interview_peres-16

How do you come to an understanding to make peace possible?

s-17

GUM_interview_peres-17

Well, what is the problem?

s-18

GUM_interview_peres-18

I mean, is the problem national, say between Jews and Arabs; or is it a matter of generations between an old age and a new age?

s-19

GUM_interview_peres-19

You see, the terrorists are protesting against modernity.

s-20

GUM_interview_peres-20

They think that modernity may endanger their tradition.

s-21

GUM_interview_peres-21

They are simply afraid and hate modernity.

s-22

GUM_interview_peres-22

They consider modernity as their enemy, but then they have two problems.

s-23

GUM_interview_peres-23

First of all, can they exist on tradition?

s-24

GUM_interview_peres-24

They cannot.

s-25

GUM_interview_peres-25

Sooner or later they will have to enter the new age.

s-26

GUM_interview_peres-26

All the talks about nationalities, etcetera, well, the new age has very little patience for history.

s-27

GUM_interview_peres-27

History is becoming more and more irrelevant.

s-28

GUM_interview_peres-28

How do you feel about that?

s-29

GUM_interview_peres-29

Well, I distinguish between two histories, the spiritual and the material.

s-30

GUM_interview_peres-30

Or the history of events and the history of values.

s-31

GUM_interview_peres-31

The history of values is okay because wisdom is ageless; it doesn’t grow old, like material.

s-32

GUM_interview_peres-32

But events are totally unimportant for 2 reasons.

s-33

GUM_interview_peres-33

First, the event is unimportant.

s-34

GUM_interview_peres-34

Tell me, what events is today important such as how many elephants Hannibal had on the Alps, when you can have helicopters?

s-35

GUM_interview_peres-35

Why should I bother my children with all this nonsense?

s-36

GUM_interview_peres-36

What sort of a nose did Cleopatra have?

s-37

GUM_interview_peres-37

God, I don’t know!

s-38

GUM_interview_peres-38

You can invite people to war over noses, but nobody will go to fight for noses any more.

s-39

GUM_interview_peres-39

On the other hand, there are already machines that can replace our memory.

s-40

GUM_interview_peres-40

Why should I bother my child with memory when he can buy a computer that will remember everything you asked him to remember?

s-41

GUM_interview_peres-41

The waning importance of history

s-42

GUM_interview_peres-42

Isn’t the answer to that question that wise decisions are made with a basis from memory?

s-43

GUM_interview_peres-43

Although a computer can have …

s-44

GUM_interview_peres-44

No, no.

s-45

GUM_interview_peres-45

Forget memory.

s-46

GUM_interview_peres-46

Look, the new age is unprecedented.

s-47

GUM_interview_peres-47

When something is unprecedented, it means it doesn’t have a past, doesn’t have a history.

s-48

GUM_interview_peres-48

It’s totally oriented on the future.

s-49

GUM_interview_peres-49

And whoever dwells in the past, doesn’t understand the future because the past is full of prejudices, of commitments.

s-50

GUM_interview_peres-50

It arrests us.

s-51

GUM_interview_peres-51

And then you say you won’t commit a mistake, so you’ll commit new mistakes.

s-52

GUM_interview_peres-52

It doesn’t matter.

s-53

GUM_interview_peres-53

`` I say brains is the greater producer of wealth, not oil.

s-54

GUM_interview_peres-54

It’s limitless, and you’ll see that the GNP of Israel is very close to the Saudis’.

s-55

GUM_interview_peres-55

So they are 3 times larger than us and they have all the oil in the world.

s-56

GUM_interview_peres-56

We have brains.'

s-57

GUM_interview_peres-57

— Peres, on whether the Arab states' oil wealth will eclipse Israel's prominence in the region.

s-58

GUM_interview_peres-58

What about the adage, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it”?

s-59

GUM_interview_peres-59

So they will make new mistakes.

s-60

GUM_interview_peres-60

Mistake is inevitable as long as there are human beings.

s-61

GUM_interview_peres-61

But you cannot repeat mistakes because the world is not built on repetition; it’s built on mutation.

s-62

GUM_interview_peres-62

Don’t you think Darfur is repetition?

s-63

GUM_interview_peres-63

I think Darfur is, again, the last, or among the last battles between old and new.

s-64

GUM_interview_peres-64

What are they fighting for?

s-65

GUM_interview_peres-65

What are they killing killing killing over?

s-66

GUM_interview_peres-66

They don’t carry futures.

s-67

GUM_interview_peres-67

It’s not a mistake.

s-68

GUM_interview_peres-68

It belongs to a past.

s-69

GUM_interview_peres-69

It doesn’t have a moment.

s-70

GUM_interview_peres-70

I am sure that the reasons for war are over, even though still there are wars which are an inertia from the past, a continuation that doesn’t make sense.

s-71

GUM_interview_peres-71

I’m answering your question.

s-72

GUM_interview_peres-72

The problem is how to enable the whole world to enter the new future, including the Arabs.

s-73

GUM_interview_peres-73

And there are already Arabs who did it.

s-74

GUM_interview_peres-74

Look at Turkey, who is knocking on the doors of the united Europe.

s-75

GUM_interview_peres-75

Why?

s-76

GUM_interview_peres-76

It’s not a geographic endeavor, it is an intellectual endeavor.

s-77

GUM_interview_peres-77

They say you can be Muslim and modern.