Shimon Peres’ son Chemi: ‘Maybe it’s time for me’ to enter politics

Chemi Peres, Israeli venture capitalist and son of late Israeli president Shimon, told Chicago’s Jewish mayor Rahm Emanuel that “maybe it’s time for me” to enter politics.

The chairman of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation visited Chicago this week, where he appeared on Emanuel’s weekly podcast “Chicago Stories”.

“The infrastructure in the political system today is so problematic I don’t even know where to start. As long as my father was in politics, I stayed out of it,” he told Emanuel.

“Now that he’s gone, maybe it’s time for me and as I said I am a carrier of the disease, but I’ve not been completely affected.”

Peres travelled to Chicago to pledge to strengthen tech ties with the city of Chicago and sign a memorandum of cooperation on Monday to cooperate on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Peres spoke to Emanuel about innovation, technology and his views on the future of Israel.

“We in Israel are at a crossroads between the idea of being a Jewish democratic state and either to become a Jewish state or a democracy,” he said.

“I always try to look at it as a train that is running on rails. One rail is being Jewish. The other one is being a democracy.

“When one rail is being diverted and trying to cross over the other rail then that’s the time where the train is getting off track.”

You can listen to the episode in full on Apple, SoundCloud and Spotify.