President Shimon Peres is what Israel should have been.

He is a prototype who has been shelved due to the situation. He is a light unto the nation, a vision and paragon to the region; he is a beacon of lucid thought that is predicated on clear moral values and tenacious pursuit of peace and brotherhood among nations. For dozens of years, Peres has demonstrated steadfast resolve for these notions.

The problem, however, is that Israel is no longer at the same place.

When Peres stops for a second to look around him, what he finds is an Israel that has sailed to a different place altogether. Albeit much better than its surrounding neighbors, it is drifting away nonetheless. The current situation is bizarre and charming all at the same time: While Peres is soaring high above the country he had helped to establish, the latter continues sweating profusely in the lower spheres of Middle Eastern reality. Peres can be likened to a powerful satellite orbiting in the area, with eyes wide open and a feverish mind, connected and disconnected at the same time to his homeland below, maintaining with it a continuous love-hate relationship, whispering in its ears words of love, even though it is defiant, skeptical, headed in different directions and changing its face.