San Diego (special) -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres was in San Diego briefly Thursday, Oct. 1, to discuss formation of a new center for science on the Palestine-Israel border with the Scripps Research Institute.

Peres, who last year forged links with San Diego State University's Hansen Institute for World Peace, met for several hours with SRI director Dr. Richard Lerner and former Congresswoman Lynn Schenk, a member of   SRI's board of trustees, to discuss a second pact between his Peres Peace Center and a San Diego institution.  At a reception following the conclusion of their talks, Lerner said that Peres "has a great vision of solving some, perhaps all, of the problems that occur in the Middle East by bringing science to prevail."  Such a center on the border between Israel and the

Shimon Peres,  left, and Richard Lerner

Palestine Authority must be created with the intention of being "the best in the world because that is the only way for the working scientific community to be working in such a place," said Lerner, whose work on converting antibodies into enzymes won Israel's coveted Wolf Prize for 1994-95. 

Peres, in brief remarks, said that "science can be key to peacemaking in the Middle East." 

An enduring peace in the Middle East will require a prosperous Palestinian state and a prosperous Israel working together side by side, Peres said. 

Israel's former prime minister said the research center would focus on ways to increase food production in the Middle East, and at the same time could serve as a way of rebuilding Palestinian pride. 

"We want to put together with the Scripps Institute a research center for biotechnology oriented on agriculture and join them and the United States with the Arabs and ourselves." 

Noting that the invited guests were drawn primarily from the Jewish community, Peres said, "Maybe you and the Arab community will start here in San Diego a combined operation to bring the people together, scientifically and responsibly." 

Few other details of the proposed institute scientific institute emerged at the reception, with Schenk explaining later to HERITAGE that the idea is still in its conceptual stage. 

"It is embryonic," agreed Ehud Keinan, an Israeli scientist who divides his time between Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and the Technion in Haifa. Like Lerner, Keinan's field also deals with using antibodies as enzymes. 

Lerner went to Jerusalem last May to attend a symposium of fellow Wolf Prize winners from throughout the world. Peres was the keynote speaker at the Wolf Prize Symposium, which Keinan had organized as a way to help Israel celebrate its 50th anniversary. 

The pact between SDSU's Hansen Institute and the Peres Peace Center was formalized Aug. 28, 1997 when Peres visited San Diego State University and accepted an honorary doctor of laws degree from that institution.  Two months later, SDSU President Stephen Weber attended the inaugural ceremonies in Tel Aviv launching the Peres Peace Center, on which Weber serves as a member of the board of directors. 

The SDSU-Peres Peace Center agreement focuses on projects to maximize the use of scarce agricultural water in desert areas. With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the program administered by SDSU brings together agricultural experts in Israel, the Palestine Authority, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan to work cooperatively. 

Their cooperation includes such projects as growing plants with saline water, using drip irrigation and hothouse techniques, developing drought resistant plant varieties, and improving seed stock. 

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In a question-and-answer session at the reception, Peres was asked his perspective on the current status of the peace negotiations. He replied that besides how much land should be ceded by Israel to the Palestine Authority, other contentious issues include Israeli security and the repeal of the covenant by the Palestinian National Council which calls for Israel's destruction. 

He said the outstanding security questions probably are simple matters of wording. Demands by Israel's Right Wing that the Palestinians formally repeal the PNC covenant is "a nonsense issue," Peres said. 

"It is nonsense to reconvene the so-called Palestinan National council to change their covenant because this is a dead body," Peres said. "They belong on the junk heap of history. I don't feel that we as Jewish people need the approval of terrorists...to approve our existence." 

Asked whether the impeachment crisis was affecting America's ability to exercise leadership in the Middle East, Peres replied: "I consider President Clinton as an excellent friend of Israel...We shall not change our minds. In Israel, he enjoys much higher support than the United States." As for the American role, he added, "The United States cannot and should not enforce a peace on the Middle East; the United States can help the partners." 

The reception ended on a light note when Schenk conferred upon Peres a reminder of "what we started this afternoon" -- a sweater with the Scripps Research Institute logo.