or a famine. there will be more stories. there was something in the story yesterday that was different. it was you, your spirit of, even in a dark day, of hope. ofit spurs the expectations the people. vast and consequential. outsetuirement from the and by the definition, impossible for mortals to fill. announcer: eight look at tim kaine and mike pence at head of the vice presidential debate monday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. c-span.org or at listen on the radioactive.

-- on the radio at. the funeralyou service for former israeli leader shimon peres followed by secretary of state john kerry talking about u.s. engagement in the world. your jamesirect comey talks about the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails. shimon peres funeral, including remarks by president obama and former president hill clinton. this is one point five hours. [speaking foreign language] [indistinct chatter]

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pres. clinton: to the perez family, the leader of the knesset and president obama and all the distinguished leaders who have come from around the world. yesterday the prime minister did something that was unthinkable back in the dark ages when i was president of the united states, he sent out a tweet. and the tweet reminded us of a simple fact. it was israel's first day without shimon perez. he was in the knesset for 48 years, but for more than 70 of his 93 years, in one way or the other, in and out of government, he was a public servant.

i was honored to share almost 25 of those years with him. first in our common efforts with prime minister rabin of blessed memory to forge a just and lasting peace between israel and palestinians. then just as his friend. someone who listened to, learned from, and laugh with him. and always was in awe of his endless capacity to move beyond even most crushing setbacks in order to seize the possibilities of each new day. i am honored the family asked me to tell you what he meant to someone who is not a citizen of this country i love so much.

but who was never the less blessed and inspired, and i think in many ways is representative of millions more he touched though he never met. israel watched him grow first from sort of young genius during best to build undefeatable defense forces. through a long life to become a wise champion of our common humanity. someone who wanted the best for all children. yes, the israeli children. but also the children of his neighbors and the larger world. the previous speakers have reminded me again of a clip i saw last night on television

where shimon was being interviewed by charlie rose, and he looked at him sort of saying "i'm going to serve a softball up to you. and watch you hit a home run. what do you want your legacy to be?" and he said, "i'm more concerned about tomorrow than yesterday." our complicated, brilliant friend steered by a simple straightforward creed. perhaps in no small measure to his constant relentless urging. the tomorrows he envisions are already being lived here in israel. by many young people in spite of all the troubles. you heard the prime minister talk about the dedication of the

new high tech park. he's been talking to me about that for 25 years. and there are young people now throughout the region who are trying to break both the mental and material chains that have held them in bondage perhaps in no small measure to the inspiration he provided. as has been said, his critics often claimed he was a naive, overly optimistic dreamer. they were only wrong about the naive part. he knew exactly what he was doing in being overly optimistic. he knew exactly what he was doing with his dreams.

he never gave up on anybody. i mean, anybody. you heard the prime minister talk about their beautiful friendship. it followed a very tough campaign. but shimon always kept the door open. we shared so many wonderful times but my personal favorite was sitting with him and his old foe and personal friend sharon at his 80th birthday party listening to the back and forth was a sight to behold. it was worth the price of admission as the saying goes. in addition it was a perfect perez night. the stage was full of young people talking about what he had meant to their lives, including

a young ethiopian member of your defense forces who was met as a very young child at the airport as part of the operation he supported. the night ended, however, with a choir of israeli jewish and arab children singing together john lennon's wonderful song "imagine." shimon actually could imagine all the people living in the world today. he imagined all the things the rest of us could do. he started off life as israel's brightest student, became its best teacher, and ended up its biggest dreamer. he lived 93 years in a state of

constant wonder. over the unbelievable potential of all the rest of us to rise above our wounds, our resentments, our fears, to make the most of today and claim the promise of tomorrow. now, it must have been hard for him to do this. it's easy to say things like this at a memorial service. it's hard to do. first he had to master his own demons, forgive himself for his own mistakes, and get over his own disappointments. the monumental effort required to do that grew his heart to be bigger than his brain, which is

really saying something. that effort also, i am convinced, is what made him forever young. now he is gone. leaving only a blessed memory and a powerful example. that's more than enough if those of us who loved him from near and far accept our duty to keep his gifts alive. so, for the rest our lives, whenever the road we travel comes to a dead end, or the good we seek to do hits a stone wall, or the hand of friendship we

extend meets only a cold stare, in his honor i ask that we remember shimon perez's luminous smile. and imagine. >> the honorable barack obama, president of the united states of america.

pres. obama: generations of the perez family, prime minister netanyahu, members of the israeli government, and the knesset, heads of state, and government, and guests from around the world including president abbas whose presence here is a gesture and reminder of the unfinished business of peace. to the people of israel -- i could not be more honored to be

in jerusalem to say farewell to my friend, shimon perez, who showed us that justice and hope of the zionistt ideals. a free life in a homeland regained. a secure life in a nation that can defend itself by itself. a full life in friendship with nations who can be counted on as allies. always. a bountiful life driven by simple pleasures of family and by big dreams. this was shimon perez's life.

this is the state of israel. this is the story of the jewish people over the last century. it was made possible by a founding generation that counts shimon as one of its own. shimon once said the message of the jewish people to mankind is that faith and moral vision can triumph over all adversity. with shimon that moral vision was rooted in an honest reckoning of the world as it is. he said he felt surrounded by a sea of thick and threatening

forest. when his family got the chance to go to palestine, his beloved grandfather's parting words were simple, "shimon, stay a jew." propelled with that faith he found his home. he found his purpose. he found his life's work. but he was still a teenager when his grandfather was burned alive by the nazis in the town where shimon was born. the synagogue in which he prayed became an inferno, the railroad tracks that carried him toward the promised land also delivered so many of his people to death camps. and so from an early age shimon bore witness to the cruelty that human beings could inflict on each other in ways that one

group of people dehumanize another. the particular madness of anti-semitism, which is run like a stain through history. that understanding of man's ever present sinfulness would steel him against hardship and make him vigilant against threats to jewry around the world. >> but that understanding would never harden his heart. it would never extinguish his faith. pres. obama: instead, it broadened his moral imagination. and gave him the capacity to see all people as deserving of dignity and respect. it helped him see not just the

world as it is, but the world as it should be. what shimon did to shape the story of israel is well chronicled. starting in the kibbutz he founded with his love he began work on building the model community. ben-gurion called him to serve at headquarters to make sure the jewish people had the armaments and organization to secure their freedom. after independence surrounded by enemies who denied israel's existence and sought to drive it into the sea, the child who had wanted to be a poet of stars became a man who built israel's

defense industry, who laid the foundation for the formidable armed forces that won israel's wars. his skill secured israel's strategic position, his boldness sent israeli commandos to rescue jews from ethiopia. his statesmanship built an unbreakable bond with the united states of america and so many other countries. his contributions didn't end there. shimon also showed what people can do when they harness reason and science to a common cause. he understood that a country without many natural resources could more than make up for it with the talents of its people. he made hard choices to roll back inflation and climb out from a terrible economic crisis. he championed the promise of

science and technology to make the desert bloom, and turned this tiny country into a central hub of the digital age, making life better not just for people here, but for people around the world. indeed, shimon's contribution to this nation is so fundamental, so pervasive, that perhaps sometimes, they can be overlooked. for a younger generation, shimon was probably remembered more for a peace process that never reached its end point. they would listen to critics on the left who might argue that

shimon did not fully acknowledge the failings of his nation, or perhaps more numerous critics on the right, who argued that he refused to see the true wickedness of the world and called him naive. but whatever he shared with his family or his closest friends, to the world, he brushed off the critics. and i know from my conversation was him that his pursuit of peace was never naive. every year, he read the names of the family that he lost. as a young man, he had fed his

village by working the fields during the day, but then defending it by carrying a rifle at night. he understood, in this war-torn region, where too often, arab youth are taught to hate israel from an early age, he understood just how hard peace would be. i'm sure he was alternately angry and bemused to hear the same critics who called him "hopelessly naive" depended on the defense architecture that he himself had helped to build. i don't believe he was naive, but he understood from hard-earned experience that true security comes through making peace with your neighbors.

"we won them all," he said of israel's wars, "but we did not win the greatest victory that we aspire to, relief from the need to win victories." and just as he understood the practical necessity of peace, shimon believed that israel's exceptionalism was rooted not only in fidelity to the jewish people, but to the moral and ethical vision, the precepts of his jewish faith. "the jewish people weren't born to rule another people," he would say. "from the very first day, we are against slaves and masters."

out of the hardships of the diaspora, he found room in his heart for others who suffered. he came to hate prejudice with a passion of one who knows how it feels to be its target. even in the face of terrorist attacks, even after repeated disappointment at the negotiation table, he insisted that as human beings, palestinians must be seen as equal in dignity to jews and must therefore be equal in self-determination. because of his sense of justice, his analysis of israel's security, his understanding of israel's meaning, he believed that the zionist idea would be best protected when palestinians, too, had a state

of their own. of course, we gather here in the knowledge that shimon never saw his dream of peace fulfilled. the region is going through a chaotic time. threats are ever-present, and yet he did not stop dreaming, and he did not stop working. by the time that i came to work with shimon, he was in the twilight of his years, although he might not admit it. i would be the 10th u.s. president since john f. kennedy, to sit down with shimon. the 10th to fall prey to his charms.

i think of him sitting in the oval office, his final member of israel's founding generation, under the portrait of george washington, telling me stories from the past but more often talking with enthusiasm of the present. his most recent lecture, his next project, his plans for the future, the wonders of his grandchildren. in many ways, he reminded me of some other giants of the 20th century that i have had the honor to meet, men like nelson mandela, women like her majesty, queen elizabeth. leaders who have seen so much, whose lives span such momentous

epics that they find no need to posture or traffic in what's popular in the moment. people who speak with depth and knowledge, not in sound bites. they find no interest in polls or fads, and like these leaders, shimon could be true to his convictions even if they cut against the grain of current opinion. he knew better than the cynic, that if you look out over the arc of history, human beings should be filled not with fear but with hope. i'm sure that's why he was so

excited about technology, because for him, it symbolized the march of human progress, and it's why he loved so much to talk about young people, because he saw young people unburdened by the prejudices of the past. it's why he believed in miracles, because in israel, he saw a miracle come true. as americans and israelis, we often talk about the unbreakable bonds between our nations, and yes, these bonds encompass common interests, vital cooperation that makes both our nations more secure, but today, we're reminded that the bonds which matter most run deeper.

anchored in a judeo-christian tradition, we believe in the irreducible value of every human being. our nations were built on that idea. they were built in large part by stubborn idealists and striving immigrants, including those who had fled war and fled oppression. both our nations have flaws that we have not always fixed. corners of our history which dates back to our founding that we do not always squarely address, but because our founders planted not just flags eteranalternal soil --

soil, but also planted the seeds of democracy. we have the ability to always pursue a better world. we have the capacity to do what is right. as an american, as a christian, a person partly of african descent, born in hawaii, a place that could not be further than where shimon spent his youth, i took great pleasure in my friendship with this older, wiser man. we shared a love of words and books and history, and perhaps like most politicians, we shared too great a joy in hearing ourselves talk, but beyond that , i think our friendship was rooted in the fact that i could

somehow see myself in his story and maybe he could see himself in mine, because for all of our differences, both of us had lived such unlikely lives. it was so surprising to see the two of us where we had started, talking together in the white house, meeting here in israel. i think both of us understood that we were here only because , in some way, we reflected the magnificent story of our nations.

shimon's story, the story of israel, the experience of the jewish people. i believe it is universal. it's the story of a people who , over so many centuries in the wilderness, never gave up on that basic human longing to return home. it is the story of a people who suffered the boot of oppression and the shutting of the gas chamber's door, and yet never gave up on a belief in goodness. it's the story of a man who was counted on and then often counted out again and again and who never lost hope. shimon peres reminds us that the state of israel, like the united states of america, was not built by cynics. we exist because people before us refuse to be constrained by the past or difficulties of the

present, and shimon peres was never cynical. it is that faith, that optimism, that belief, even when all the evidence is to the contrary, that tomorrow can be better, that makes us not just honor shimon peres, but love him. the last of the founding generation is now gone. shimon accomplished enough things in his life for a thousand men, but he understood it is better to live to the very end of his time on earth with the longing not for the past but for the dreams that have not yet come true, an israel that is secure and a just and lasting peace with its neighbors. so now, this work is in the hand

of israel's next generation, in the hands of israel's next generation and its friends. like joshua, we feel the weight of responsibility that shimon seemed to wear so lightly, but we draw strength from his example and the fact that he believed in us even when we doubted ourselves. scripture tells us that before his death, moses said, "i call upon heaven and earth to bear witness, this day, that i have set before you life and death, blessing and curse, therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live." [speaking in a foreign language] "choose life."

for shimon, let us choose life as he always did. let us make his work our own. may god bless his memory and may god bless this country and this world that he loved so dearly. shimon -- [speaking a foreign language] [applause]

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