Love or hate Israeli President Shimon Peres – and both camps are quite crowded – one always has to admire his ability to look forward and imagine what could be while wrestling with what is. The latest example comes from his launching a new YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/peres.

On the site – offered in Hebrew, English and Arabic—he continues his outstanding role as the nation’s President, one in which he has sought to unite the nation while accurately spreading its perspective. And, one must note, he seems to be partnering well in this endeavor with Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, his once rival for the nation’s leadership.

On the site, he offers the requisite Chanukah message as well as video of recent meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a BBC interview, a clip of “thousands visit presidential sukkah” and much more.

His YouTube channel greeting begins, “Welcome to my YouTube channel. I am so glad to speak to you and no less, to listen to you. I would like to share with you my dreams, my thoughts, and I would like also to hear your dreams and your thoughts.”

Indeed, now as a distinguished and still hyperactive 86-year-old – whom as late as 2001 was a serious contender to again be prime minister, Mr. Peres remains the only link to the early and chaotic years of Israel’s formation. Whether from his time at the side of legendary first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, or as the secret architect of Israel’s nuclear program, or in his stints in the 1970s through the 1980s in every major ministry, Mr. Peres remains an omnipresent figure into the Jewish state’s seventh decade.

Now, finally, after a raucous period in the 1990s when he was seen as a savior by some and a destructor of the Jewish state by others, Mr. Peres is at home in the role of dignitary. May he continue with strength in such a role in the years to come.