Busy schedule for Peres in US

By GREER FAY CASHMAN - The Jerusalem Post 06/07/2012 23:56
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=273135

Yes, Peres also hopes to obtain freedom forPollard, but the president has a
lot more than that on his agenda.

Anyone who was under the impression that the sole purpose of President
Shimon Peres’ visit to the United States next week is to receive the Freedom
Medal from President Barack Obama is mistaken. Yes, Peres also hopes to
obtain the freedom of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, who is an Israeli
citizen, but the president has a lot more than that on his agenda.

Peres, who last traveled to the US in March, is scheduled to leave Israel on
Saturday night and will be in America from June 10-15. His round of meetings
begins in New York on Sunday, and then he will meet with top ranking
representatives of the US media.

On Monday, he will fly to Washington and will tour the Pentagon, where he
will be welcomed by a military honor guard. Following the welcome, Peres,
who is a former defense minister, and the key architect of Israel’s defense
establishment, will have working meetings with Secretary of Defense Leon
Panetta, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey and heads
of the various branches of the armed forces.

Peres will discuss strengthening of the strategic political and defense
alliance between Israel and the US.

On Tuesday Peres will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Long
standing friends, the two will participate in a panel discussion on
democracy under the aegis of the Saban Forum. The discussion, in the
presence of some 200 major political figures, will be moderated by Martin
Indyk a former US ambassador to Israel who is currently vice president and
director for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Wednesday is Freedom Medal Day, but Peres will also have a presentation to
make to Obama – the exchange of letters between Chaim Weizmann and Harry
Truman at the dawn of the establishment of the State of Israel.

The presentation ceremony will be followed by a festive dinner at the White
House.

On Thursday, Peres will meet with leading politicians in Washington and will
also have a series of meetings with the media throughout the day. If he is
successful in persuading Obama to release Pollard, the focus of his media
interviews will be less on Iran and more on Pollard who has been
incarcerated for 27 years. In the evening Peres will be the guest of honor
at a reception hosted by Israel Ambassador Michael Oren who met with Peres
less than a month ago when he was in Israel for the visit by US Secretary
for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Peres will return to Israel on Friday. On June 19, the President’s
Conference Facing Tomorrow opens; The Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Steve
Linde will moderate one of the panels.