Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres spoke yesterday about terrorism in the Middle East. “We have to make peace now,” he said.

Former Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shimon Peres conveyed a message of hope for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a the Institute of Politics (IOP) yesterday.

“We have to make peace now and as difficult as it may sound, I believe it’s possible,” Peres said, speaking to a packed IOP forum.

In his speech entitled, “Challenges of Democracy in the Twenty-First Century: An Israeli Perspective,” Peres, who recently served as foreign minister under current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, discussed the evolving causes of conflict and terrorism from the 20th to 21st centuries.

Peres explained that we have “a war of terror, basically suicide bombers who can cause a great deal of death and destruction and danger. We are lucky to have the United States taking the lead to bring an end to this war.”

He emphasized the importance of land in war, calling it one of the central causes of war and obstacles to peace.

Peres then described an evolving and increasingly more globalized world, one driven by modernity and not by land.

“You cannot go back to the age of the stone and the age of land. Either you go and move with the new development and new cause and potentials,” Peres said.

He recognized that modernity is an issue in many Muslim countries, but said, “There is not a contradiction between being modern and being Muslim.”

Pointing to Turkey, Peres described a Muslim government that is taking great strides to move toward modernity.

“More and more of [Muslims] understand that they have to go and enter the new age and new opportunities,” Peres said.

Focusing his attention on Israel, Peres divided the history of Israel into two parts.

“Until the [Yom] Kippur War in 1973, Israel was fighting for its life. Its main challenge was survival.”

However, after the Kippur War, Peres described a shift in policy.

“We made peace with Egypt and gave back all the land, all the peace. We did the same thing with the Jordanians. We gave back all the land, all the water and we have a peace—at least no war—with the Jordanians. Now we are trying to reach a peace with the Palestinians.”

Peres described a culture of mistrust and dislike between Israelis and Palestinians.