Peres bid pope farewell

President Shimon Peres bid Pope Benedict XVI farewell at Ben Gurion International Airport on Friday after his five-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

In his speech Peres told the pope: "Your journey to the Holy Land was a heartfelt example of the exercise of spiritual values. It constituted a significant contribution to the new relations between the Vatican and Jerusalem. It was a profound demonstration of the enduring dialogue between the Jewish people and the hundreds of millions of Christian believers throughout the world." (Ynet)