WASHINGTON  – Israel’s president charged Monday that Iran’s nuclear program threatens the United States, Europe and Arab nations, as well as Israel.

“The fanatic rulers of Iran are on the wrong side of history,” Shimon Peres told a convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

“In addition to their nuclear option, they invest huge capital in long-range missiles,” he said, asserting that Iran is not threatened by anybody. He said that “Iran funds and arms Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza to spread divisions in Lebanon and among the Palestinians, divisions and terror.”

Peres said, “Their agents target Americans, Europeans, Arabs and other people.” However, he did not call for action against Iran.

Israel considers Iran a strategic threat because of its nuclear program, suspected development of ballistic missiles and repeated calls from its president to wipe Israel off the map. Rejecting Iranian claims that its nuclear program is peaceful, Israel has called on the world to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and has not taken the option of military action off the table.

The Israeli president meets President Barack Obama on Tuesday. He endorsed Obama’s call for an outstretched hand instead of a clenched fist but warned that the world is under a dark cloud of militant extremists.

Peres said that Israel’s new, hawkish government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, wants to work for peace. But Peres, like Netanyahu, did not mention creation of a Palestinian state, although the Israeli elder statesman has worked for what is known as the “two-state solution” for many years. Netanyahu was scheduled to address the AIPAC convention later.

Peres, 85, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, explained that while Netanyahu used to be his political opponent, “now he is my prime minister,” emphasizing the ceremonial nature of his role as president.

Peres praised a 2002 Arab peace initiative offering Israel normal relations in exchange for withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem, while adding that since Israel was not a party to drawing up the proposal, it does not have to agree to every word.

After five straight days of punishing air attacks, Israel rejected a proposal for a 48-hour cease-fire in its military onslaught in Gaza on Wednesday, saying it would maintain pressure on Hamas.

LEESBURG, Va. – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told a cheering crowd Monday that Democrats would raise taxes and “punish hard work” if Virginia voters break a 44-year preference for GOP presidents and helped send Barack Obama to the White House.

Palin, Republican John McCain’s running mate, also tried to burnish her foreign policy credentials by meeting here with Israel’s ambassador to the United States, apologizing for the session’s delay.

“I look forward to hearing about your work with the Jewish Agency and all the plans that we have,” Palin told Ambassador Sallai Meridor. “We’ll be working together.”

She was apparently referring to the Jewish Agency for Israel, an organization of which Meridor was formerly chairman.
  
Israeli embassy officials said Palin and Meridor discussed relations between the United States and Israel and the Iranian nuclear threat. They added that Meridor also discussed ongoing peace efforts in the Middle East and noted that he was to talk with Palin’s Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joe Biden, later Monday.
 
After meeting Meridor, Palin took a short bus ride through the tony Lansdowne development in Loudoun County – a battleground county in Virginia and a neighborhood where Obama yard signs appeared to outnumber McCain signs – to an enthusiastic rally that drew more than 5,000 supporters.

Palin was introduced to the crowd by Tito Munoz, a small business owner from neighboring Prince William County, whom Palin referred to as “Tito the Builder.” He wore a yellow hard hat and drew chants of “Tito, Tito.”
  
“Not since the Jackson Five has the name ‘Tito’ been used so often,” Palin said.

Palin portrayed Obama as “on the side of bigger, more controlling government” and warned that an Obama White House would leave the Democratic agenda in Congress unchecked.
 
“If big government spenders control the House and Senate and, heaven forbid, the White House, they will have a monopoly of power,” she said.

“You understand that his plan to redistribute wealth will, ultimately, punish hard work, and it discourages productivity, and it will stifle the entrepreneurial spirit that made this country the greatest country on earth.”

Obama has proposed tax increases for workers who make more than $250,000 a year and tax cuts for the remaining 95 percent of workers and their families.

Palin’s three-city tour through the Old Dominion was designed to upend Obama’s lead in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 1964. Recent polls show Obama ahead in Virginia, home to the Confederate capital during the Civil War, and Democrats are on track to add to their congressional majorities.

At a later stop Monday in Fredericksburg, Palin appeared before thousands of supporters who began to arrive hours before gates opened to spectators. An overflow crowd watched Palin’s address broadcast on a large screen.

She again criticized Democratic tax proposals. “You know they’re coming after you folks,” Palin told the crowd as rain began to fall.