Israeli veterinarian in San Diego County |
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By Donald H. Harrison San Diego, CA (special) -- Horses, oxen, dogs, and even a chicken embryo were some of the animals that Israeli veterinarian Yonatan Peres met while visiting San Diego County June 19-21 on behalf of the Hebrew University, where he is director of the teaching hospital of the School of Veterinary Medicine. As Dr. Peres is the son of former Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shimon Peres, not all the discussions during the three days were about animals. Politics--both American and Israeli--were another favorite topic. Dr. Peres was met at the San Luis Rey Equine Clinic in Bonsall by fellow veterinarians Barry Grant, Joe Cannon and Norman Rantanan where he questioned them about their equipment and procedures. He explained that Hebrew University's veterinary hospital in Rishon LeZion is planning to build an intensive care unit for horses, with particular emphasis on delivering post-natal care for foals.
At Congregation Beth Am, Peres was shown a bottle containing a chicken embryo by Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, who before entering the rabbinate had studied and practiced as a poultry scientist. "Zucky," as the popular rabbi is known, also rolled up his sleeves to show Peres the muscles he still has from his days milking cows on an Israeli kibbutz.
Asked at a gathering sponsored by the American Jewish Committee what his father might do in Ehud Barak's new government, Peres said that titles mean nothing to Shimon Peres, as he has held them all already. But, the son said, his father would like to be actively involved in the peace negotiations still to be completed with the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese.
Horn and Nussbaum-- respectively a conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat--separately told Peres he should tell his father not to give back any more land to the Arabs. This prompted Peres to observe wryly to Scott Nebenzahl, regional director of the American Friends of Hebrew University and his host, "So, this is Netanyahu country?" Peres' niece, Mika Walden, an actress now working in Los Angeles, drove down to San Diego to meet her uncle, staying in La Mesa at the Comfort Inn operated by Tovik Liberman, whose father Ya'acov Liberman is a columnist for HERITAGE and a former general secretary of Menahem Begin's Herut party. Although the Liberman and Peres families may have their political differences in Israel, partisanship stopped at the water's edge. Walden paid the "family rate" at the La Mesa motel which also has been hosting an Israeli family whose child has been going through extended eye surgery and recuperation at UCSD's Shiley Eye Clinic. Before returning home, Peres stopped at the S.C.R.U.B. Factory outlet
in Santee where he
purchased for doctors and other staff members at his veterinary hospital
colorful smocks bearing animal patterns. He said he had seen the store's
catalogue at a convention and couldn't resist bringing back to Israel the
cheerful attire. Why doctors and veterinarians typically wear drab green
gowns and smocks in the operating theatres is a mystery, he said.
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