"It's time for women to be part of negotiations, because they have a different language."
By TALYA HALKINsharon stone peres 298 (photo credit: AP)
Tossing her signature mane of blonde hair and smiling to the cameras, Sharon Stone appeared alongside Shimon Peres at a Tel Aviv press conference on Wednesday, following her arrival in Israel Tuesday evening.
The Hollywood star embarked on her first visit to the country as a guest of the Peres Center for Peace. The Center invited Stone to participate in the "Woman" festival in Holon, which is taking place in honor of International Women's day.
Stone will participate in a panel entitled "Women Leading Change," as well as in the first ever female-led economic conference to take place in Israel.
"I had a dream that I would arrive in this country," Stone said, before proceeding to speak on the subject of women's liberation.
"The most wonderful thing that has happened is that women found freedom, but what do we do with it?" she said. "Are we women in our freedom? We didn't ask for freedom to become men, but to aid them with our feminine instinct."
"That is the same instinct," she added laughingly, "that allows us to do six things at the same time while also looking for the mustard."
During her five-day visit, Stone will also visit a series of projects for children and peace-mediating activities supported by the Peres Center. She will play soccer with Palestinian and Israeli kids in Jaffa, and visit Palestinian children hospitalized at Tel Hashomer in the framework of the Peres Center's "Saving Children" project.
Stone also said she would be willing to "kiss just about anybody for peace in the Middle East," drawing laughter from a throng of Israeli reporters. She playfully turned down calls to give Peres a peck on the cheek.
"We don't look at her being here as a visit but as a mission to support peace and help children," Peres said. "As a politician, I discover children and adults admire artists more than politicians, and artists can really help enhance tolerance and peace."
In honor of her birthday, which will take place during her visit, Stone has requested a fundraising gala whose proceedings will go to the Peres Center's projects.
"On my birthday I like to be of service, to give something to children in a non-partisan, non-political way," she said.
"The future of our children depends on now," she said. "We can't go on killing in the name of our children's future. They need us to make a decision today and never turn our backs on it that is the instinct of the maternal, of creation, of peace."
Asked about the forthcoming release of the movie "Basic Instinct 2," in which she will star, Stone said: "I'm naked usually that's what people really want to know, so we can move on to the next question."
Stone said she did not consider herself to be a feminist, but rather a "humanist."
"I don't want to be a man," she said. "Equal for me is distinctly separate. I want us to be in a partnership, not dominating one another. We were meant to be a team. That was the plan from the beginning. We don't need to both be men in the room. But we both need to be in the room."
"It's time for women to be part of negotiations, because they have a different language," Stone said. "Imagine 'I was considering going to war, let's discuss, let's consider the other angles.'"
