 It gives me pleasure to welcome a personality whom I really consider a friend of Davos and a mentor of mine, President Simon Peres. Simon, you don't need an introduction. I am delighted that you came here. Your country just had elections. So my first question to you, referring to the elections in Israel, can we already discuss the results and can we already draw some conclusions out of the results? And what have we learned? Well, we have learned the difficulties of the coalition government. And until we shall form a government which will include different parties and different expectations, we cannot really decide which direction the government will take. We have to wait until Wednesday, eight days after the elections, to have the formal conclusions, the formal results, and only then, as the president, we'll call one of the members. I shall consult all the parties and listen to their advice, and then I shall call one of the members to form a government. Until then, I must keep quiet and behave myself, which is very difficult. So I will not probe you more. Now we are two years after the start of the Arab Spring, which has brought, first, a lot of expectations and hopes. It has brought a regime change in Egypt. How do you see Egypt is for you such an important country? How do you see the future of Egyptian-Israeli relations? I don't believe there are profound interests on part of Egypt and ourselves to keep peace. Departing for peace will be too expensive in terms of human life and in terms of finance for both of us. I think there are spring, but two pragmatic results, one, an end of dictatorship. I wouldn't recommend to anybody today to try and be a dictator in the Middle East. Time is over. And the second is they let people go to vote for the first time. President Morsi was elected in real elections and we respect it. But getting rid of dictators and having elections doesn't answer all the problems. The real problems is really the economic situation, poverty, unemployment, and lack of freedom. And living in a new world. I mean, there is not just an Egyptian spring, there is a world spring. And you cannot come to the world spring with winterly clothes. The answer to the explosion of population and the enlargement of poverty lies in two domains. One is adopting science and the second is reforming inside your own country. As far as science is concerned, I shall give you one example. The Nile, alongside the Nile River there are ten countries. All of them have grown five times in the last 50 years. The Nile lost 10% of the water. So they don't have water. If you don't have water, you don't have food. The distribution of water was done by the British eight years ago. It was expired. Now they have to agree how to distribute it. And they cannot reach an agreement. The Ethiopians say the blue Nile is ours. We are not ready to give 80% to the Egyptians. What can science do? And I'm speaking of a country, which is in the Middle East. We can make from one Nile three Niles. We can make from one drop of water, which we are doing three drops. So this is just an example of what science can do. The other thing, which is in my judgment a must, is to give equal rights to women. If you discriminate women, you discriminate the young generation. If the women is not educated, children are not educated. And if children are not educated, they cannot compete in a modern age. You know, President Obama from time to time asked me, who is against democracy in the Middle East? I'm telling him the husbands, they don't want to share with their wives equal rights. The women, they are not giving the chance to be part of it. And that they have to do themselves. It's more important than money and everything else. So they're elected. You can have any religion you want. But you have to answer the fact that your society has changed, your world has changed. And I do believe that we are in a transitional period. The young generation will not give up. Because for them it's a problem of death and life, employment and unemployment, dignity and lack of dignity. And we shall, by the way, continue to see in Egypt a great country. We should look for our friendship. For us the beginning is important. We are an island, a small island, in a large ocean. And it is our desire that the ocean will not be too stormy and have enough food, enough fish, and that people can enjoy the shores of it. We are very pleased to have the Egyptian Prime Minister here among us. Now there is another hot issue. There is a clear security and humanitarian emergence in Syria. How will changes, possible changes in Syria affect the wider Middle East and particularly your own country, Israel? And do you see any solution for this issue? Well, clearly, Syria is a painful issue for all people, all over the world. The bloodshed killing children, I don't believe Assad lost his options. He simply killed too much for a single dictator, over 60,000, maybe 70,000. And over several hundred thousand refugees and maybe a million people without food. It doesn't have a future, just a matter of time. The problem is who shall try and handle the Syrian situation. My judgment is, my proposal is that the Arabs will do it with the support of the United Nations. I think only the Arabs can understand exactly what's happening in Syria. What I propose is that the United Nations will appoint the Arab League to establish a transitional government in Syria made of Arabs, have an Arab army on behalf of the United Nations with blue caskets, say for a year or two years. Clearly Assad has to leave the country if he wants to participate in the next elections from abroad, it's okay. All other solutions are complicated because today many Arabs say why don't you intervene to America, to the Europeans, but if you intervene they say why do you intervene in our business. I believe the Arabs are capable. We saw one thing with the Africans in Mali and now also with the Arab League. I think it's proper. Let the people handle their own problems and find a solution. Let the world support them to find solution and give them all the aid which is given by the United Nations to other parties and let them have it. I hope such a solution is envisaged with a sense of urgency because we cannot remain witnesses of the tragedy which is going on. It's more than urgent because every day 160 to 100 people are being killed, children, women, innocent people, and not only the killed, they are being left without shelter, without food. My God, it's before our eyes, we see it every day. And our children are children, it doesn't matter if you're Arab or Jewish or Christian doesn't. We cannot let it, we cannot let it happen. Now 2013, Mr. President, will be also a very crucial year because next month there will be a new round of P5 plus 1 talks which are with Iran scheduled to take place, this discussion is foreseen. In your view, how can we stand off which we see now with Iran? How can we overcome this situation? The problem, if Iran would try to change the situation in Iran, one can argue yes or not. But Iranians want to become a hegemon, a religious hegemon in the Middle East. And that people cannot agree, neither Arabs and non-Arabs. The problem with Iran is that they're irrational. I mean, to believe that they might have passed away to under the 300 years ago will come back is not a very political promise to say the least, but they are the center of terror, the send-downs, then courage, terroristic acts all over the places from Venezuela to Sudan. They are building a nuclear weapon. I believe it's not a problem for Israel, it's a problem for the world. And from all my talks with the leaders of different countries, including the superpower, they cannot permit that the world economy will fall in the hands of the mullahs, no way. Because if they will win, you must understand that the Saudis and other countries will be under their control. If they have a nuclear weapon, they will threaten everybody. And I do believe that the policy of President Obama is the right one. I think he's serious, I think he's responsible. By the way, it's the American way. If the Americans usually face a problem, they try to solve it politically or economically. They don't start by shooting approach, a shooting approach. And they suggested to the Iranians, the Iranians wouldn't listen. Now they introduce the economic sanctions which are beginning to have an effect, more and more so. That awakens the Iranian people themselves to get involved in changing it. And I think if this won't help, there will be more pressure. There will be more attempts to try and negotiate. But there will always be in the horizon a military option. Why? Because if the Iranians will think it's only economic and political, they won't pay attention. They will maneuver. And only if they will know it is serious. And nobody wants to hurt them or kill them or shoot at them. But if they will continue to shoot at others and threaten others, the world will not remain indifferent. And I think what the president did, first of all, he created a coalition, European Americans, he tries to have even the Russians and the Chinese in. He doesn't want to go alone. He started the coalition by economic sanctions, political sanctions. He will continue. But there is a red line, too. Because if the Iranians will go to nuclear weapons and they'll continue to arms the Hezbollah, to arms Hamas, to send to Sudan weapons, I mean, we cannot go on like it. Not us. Israel clearly is a member in this coalition. We are not the leaders of it, because it's not just a problem for Israel. And I believe that President Obama is serious. I trust his policy. He has shown a capacity of restraint and a capacity of action when necessary. So it will take a little bit more time. I don't know exactly how much. But Iran cannot win because they don't have a message for anybody but of terror, of threat, of irrationality. Those were clear answers related to some issues of utmost actuality. Now, President Paz, I want to be a little bit more personal. In June this year, as part of the President's Conference in Jerusalem, you will celebrate your 90th birthday. I'm just imagining if I'm sitting here and celebrating with you, I'm just calculating it would be probably the 70s annual meeting of the forum. But you have witnessed the world for such a long time, and you have been involved in your public life over 60 decades. But if you look forward, I mean, you have seen so many changes, and changes certainly are accelerating. What is your vision of what will happen in the world? How will the systems and structures and ideas and attitudes of people evolve as you see it based on your such great experience, but I should say I have interacted with so many people. You are also one of the most visionary people. So we are eager to hear how you see the world of tomorrow. I don't know. Many people said that I'm ahead of time, but I'm afraid too many people are late on time. I think the world moves faster than our mind. We have a new age with an old mind, and we have to renew our mind. Let me say a few words. What do I mean by it? Once the world was living on land, we needed nations, we needed Francis, we needed armies to defend or extend the land. The minute we went over to science, finished. Science is uncontrollable, neither by distances, nor by fences, nor by police, nor by armies. An army can conquer land, it cannot conquer wisdom. And when a scientist goes through customs, you can check his beliefs, you cannot check his brain. I had a meeting with President Obama. I told him, look, one boy, Zuckerberger, 27 years old, introduced a revolution greater than Lenin and Stalin without killing anybody, and it's still there. And it goes on. As a result, governments that were built to defend the land found themselves unemployed because the economy became global, and government remained a national. So every government is affected by the global economy without being able to affect it. And the same goes for security. Security is no longer a clash of armies, but a spread of terror. A small group of people, 15 of them can come to Manhattan, destroy the twin towers, kill 3,000 and run away. We don't know where they're coming from, we don't know what are their motives, we don't know how to stop them. So today, a traditional politician is being asked, what do you suggest? He says, I'm wise, I'm strong, I'm great, he says, really? Can you stop the economic crisis? He's not sure, he cannot. Can you stop terror? No, he cannot. So people are asking why they want to rule us. We are not looking for rulers. We are looking for people that will serve us. As a result, there gradually was developed another way of government, and those are the global companies. At the beginning, it wasn't true and clear. Today, 40 global companies have more fortune and means than all the governments in the world. Governments have budgets, they don't have money. The companies have money, they are not dependent upon politics. Now, you know, the head of those companies, many of them are Rindabos, and you're their mentor. When you want to come back home, you wouldn't like that these children will say, father, you make money by profiteering from poor people. They want to make money, but they want also to serve and they're serious. Now, the companies did the following things. Number one, they put an end to racism. You cannot be global and racist, finished, no way. And they have empowered the individual. They don't govern like governments by law, army or police, but by their ears, listening to the desires and expectations of the individual people. It's a must. Because the young generation doesn't listen not only to government, they don't listen to their own parents. The young generation are telling the parents, thank you for bringing us to life, but stop telling us about your great experience and great wisdom. You weren't so great. What sort of a world did you live to us? Full of wars, of hatred, of suspicion, we don't want it. We don't want to continue it. We don't want to be strangers. Their concept about democracy is different. For them, democracy is not just the attempt to be equal, but on the contrary. The equal attempt to be different. I want to remain personal. I want to develop my own potential, my own inclination. And then they say, we don't want to have a collective group of equal people, but we want to have an open club of different people that live together in peace. Now we have to answer them. The global companies are trying not only to answer the new situation of globality, but the new expectation of individuality. What are you desired, desires? No matter where you come from, they don't hate you. They don't suspect you. They won't have a freer world. And they will not give up, because today, you know, today to be a young man or young women is very expensive. You must be more educated. You must be more competitive. Your parents cannot answer all your needs. And the deficit is not just of money. It's a deficit of expectations. And the global companies are introducing more and more individuality. You know, we are the same human beings, but each of us are individual. Nineteen, nine point two percent of our genome of our DNA is the same. But the zero point two makes each of us individual. The zero point two is enough to have individual fingerprint. Even when it comes to maladies like cancer, cancer two is individual. Now we are going to replace the mass production with individual production. It's a major change in the world. I mean, we can have the three-dimensional print. If I can see some ladies, if a lady comes into a company on ladies, and she finds that there are four ladies that have the same dress like her, my God. But today every lady over soon will be able to make her own dress. And she doesn't have to be worried. She can keep her personality the way she wants. And it's a major change. Now there are more and more, the computers are every year or two years doubling themselves. These are the robots. And people are afraid, what will happen with us? They will work instead of us. I think it's wrong because there will be new industries. Instead of building different instruments to aid the human being like glasses or sticks, there will be an industry for human spare parts, for human empowerment. Because you don't have to have foreign aids, you can improve your part of your own body. Then I think we should have more to learn and less to work. Because today the distribution is old. I'm not sure that we have to work eight hours a day. I think maybe it's enough to work three or four hours a day. But the other four hours, to learn and you have to learn every day. I mean in the class, the children, the students are occasionally more informed than the teachers. The teachers stopped learning three or four years ago, since then the world has changed. He has a smartphone, he knows what's happening, everything. If I can say it jokingly, we eat three times a day. We eat three times a day, we're becoming fat. If you should eat three times a day, we should become wise. Better be wise than fat, in our ways. And more and more give the freedom to your spirit. All events are becoming old. But values, spirit and wisdom are not aging. We have to learn them and adopt them. I think that in the future, I know the world is becoming ungovernable. Really it's impossible. The weakness of the government is the weakness of our society. I'm not speaking about it with great happiness. And I think there will be three major elements that will enable us to continue and not letting the world becoming wild and out of balance. One is to understand that the national governments have their limitations. They cannot run, say, companies or economy. But somebody must be in charge of the changing of the climate. For that we need a government. So there will be diet governments really doing what is must to be done. And in charge of the husbandry of the state. There will be an empowerment of the global companies. They will deal with development and investment in science and enabling other countries to enjoy it. And now the great march that we are doing is to our own brain. It's so strange with such a brilliant instrument on our shoulders that we can create artificial brains, artificial intelligence. But we are unable to understand ourselves. What is shame? We are strangers to ourselves. We don't know what makes us decide to do this and that. Now we are trying to enter the brain. We are quite ahead of it, very far from solutions. But if we shall know how our head functions, how do we make decisions? I believe that every person, if you have to make a choice of being happy or unhappy, you will say to be happy. To make a choice to be extremely moderate, you'll be moderate. I told Klaus before we started here. I asked him myself, when was really civilization introduced? When a mirror was introduced. Before the mirror, people didn't comb their hair, didn't cut their nails. You have a mirror? Everybody washes himself every morning without governance and without dictators. The minute we shall have a mirror of our own functions, I believe people will be the government of themselves. And you know, it's beginning. We know that we can already overcome a great deal of maladies, of sicknesses, of weaknesses. They are just on the great march inside ourselves. When I was a young boy, I admired telescopes. I wanted to see the stars and the moon and the sun. And to say nice things to my girlfriend about the moon light. Today, I prefer a microscope. To enter in ourselves, the secret in every cell of our brain is maybe greater than the secrets of the moon. We have been there. We want now to be inside ourselves. And there are already billions and billions of dollars and millions and millions of scientists that are making this effort. I believe in the coming decade, there will be an entirely new world. Entirely. And clearly, there will be problems as well. But there will be more balances, more possibilities. And I'm basically, I'm 90 years old, I never lost anything by believing or by hoping. If I lost, it's when I was disappointed. Better to create hope than to suggest hopelessness. Better to suggest friends, to suggest friendship and make friends than to look at your enemies and instead of fighting animosities. So these are the three angles that I can focus for the future. And we are on the way. You don't have to, all of you will reach this age. Diet governments, husbandry of the state, global companies offering to innovate, to introduce new ideas of science, human science and other sciences and the control of the human being upon himself. So pessimists and optimists are passing away the same way. But they live differently. The advice I give you, live as an optimist. I tried it for 90 years, it's not bad. Thank you, President Perez. Thank you for making us part of such, I would say, a combination of wisdom and vision. We are grateful to you to have shared not only your views on some of the hot issues, but to have shared with us your conclusions of so many years of life, of exciting life and I add of optimistic life. Thank you and we wish you already now all the best for this year and I hope you all will be in Jerusalem to celebrate your birthday. Thank you very much.