Speaking after a children´s choir singing rendition of ´Silent Nights,´ Peres expresses hope that people of all faiths live in a better, more peaceful world next year.

President Shimon Peres on Wednesday wished the Christian world a merry Christmas and a peaceful new year, as a children´s choir from the Latin Patriarchal School in Nazareth sang carols in honor of the upcoming Christmas holiday.

"We would like to take this opportunity from here, from Jerusalem, to send out profound greetings to the Christians all over the world and wish all of them a happy, peaceful, hopeful new year," Peres said before the children and dignitaries at the president´s office.

After thanking the children for singing a rendition of "Silent Night," Peres wished the children would sing next year in a better and more peaceful situation.

"Let´s pray that all the evil winds in the world, whether they come by nature or wrong people, disappear, and it will be a beginning of a new hope and a new era," Peres told the children.

"Many things depend upon us, and we depend upon hope and faith. We have many weapons and we have many things. But the strongest weapon we have is a prayer. And the greatest force we have is good will. So let us pray and hope that the lord will listen to our joint hopes that you children, girls, boys, Arabs, Christians, Jews – all of us – will have a better world. And when we sing next year, this beautiful song you have sung, it will be in a much more hopeful situation." (© Copyright 2010 Ha´aretz 12/24/10)