NEW YORK (JTA) – Former Israeli President Shimon Peres seemed to repudiate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for embattled European Jews to move en masse to Israel. “Come because you want to live in Israel,” Peres said Sunday night in New York. “Jews can live all over the world. Just keep your children Jewish.”

Peres made his remarks in a discussion with Times of Israel editor David Horovitz at the publication’s gala at Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria. The evening featured a variety of bold-faced names, including Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, Israeli actress Gal Gadot, Israeli singer Miri Mesika and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

On the issue of Israeli-Arab peace, Peres, 91, said the rise of the Islamic State makes peace with the Arab world more likely because Arab countries realize that the real threats they face are from violent extremists, not Israel. “Terrorists are the greatest danger, not us,” Peres said.