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© Latuff
President Shimon Peres warned of the evil represented by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a graveside ceremony in Sde Boker on Monday honoring Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, on the 36th anniversary of his passing.

Peres, as well as Israel's fifth president, Yitzhak Navon, who also attended Sunday's ceremony, were both close disciples of Ben-Gurion's and continue to preach his legacy.

Trying to imagine how Ben-Gurion would have reacted to Ahmadinejad, Peres said Iranian threats must be taken seriously and that Israel must work with other nations to mitigate them.

"Ahmadinejad wants to destroy a nation and he denies the Holocaust. His ambition is to rule the Muslim world with unmitigated force and terror," Peres said.

The fact that he does not speak about the future, Peres continued, is indicative that he has no future.

"He will fall; his people will topple him," Peres predicted, noting that other tyrants have been overcome in the past.

Speaking of Ben-Gurion, Peres portrayed him as a lone wolf who dedicated his life to a single vision: the revival of Israel in its homeland.

"What was thought at the time to be impossible to accomplish, has become an amazing reality," said Peres, noting that Ben-Gurion led a state that didn't exist, in a land in which he was not born, and waged a war before he established an army.

This, in Peres' view, made him the most unique leader in history.