Israel's Peres pens "greeting" for Beijing Games

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres has published a "greeting" he had penned wishing for peace and harmony at the Beijing Olympics, whose opening he will attend as the most senior representative of the Jewish state.

"Birds of all feathers come and sing together/ A hymn of hope in an Olympic nest," the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said in his free-verse English poem, a handwritten copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

"Forget your borders, ignore your cages and fly free/ Reject your different nightmares and have one dream/ The same dream: of glory, of harmony, of peace/ An equal dream for poor and rich, black and white

"Win, don't kill. Lose, don't hate. Hope, don't regret/ Go Home with an olive branch in your lips: together in harmony. Breathing fresh air and singing for the newly born in the cradles and the nests."

The main Olympic stadium in Beijing is known as the Bird's Nest.

Peres's office said he would attend the Games' opening ceremony on Friday as a guest of the Chinese government, which arranged hotel lodging within walking distance of the Olympic village so he will not have to drive during the Jewish Sabbath.

Peres said at the sendoff for Israel's delegation to Beijing last week that critics of China's human rights policies would not achieve their aim if they were able to implement a boycott of the Games.

"You will be our sporting envoys, I will represent the politicians," he told the athletes. "I have read criticism -- 'why are you going there, there is the Tibet issue' -- but you know what, there is much that can also be said about us," Peres said.

"We are not going to China because of its demerits, we are going because China has positives and is making a supreme effort to improve everything," he added.

More than 80 state leaders and royals are expected to attend the opening of the August 8-24 Games.

Attendance and non-attendance is a closely watched issue, as rights groups have urged leaders to boycott the Games to protest against China's crackdown on May unrest in Tibet and its ties with the government in Sudan.

Israel's decades-old conflict with the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip became a tragic focus of the 1972 Games in Munich, where the Israeli delegation was raided by Palestinian gunmen. Eleven athletes and trainers were killed.

(editing by Jon Bramley)

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