Shimon Peres? (Hebrew: שמעון פרס, born on August 2, 1923 in eastern Poland)
is the 9th President of the State of Israel. He is a senior Israeli statesman with a political career spanning more than 65 years. He joined the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until
June 13 2007, the day he was elected President of Israel.
Shimon Peres was Prime Minister of Israel three times (once as acting prime
minister) and served in 12 Israeli cabinets. He has been Finance Minister,
Foreign Minister, and Defence Minister. In the current Olmert government, he
was Vice Premier of Israel and Minister for the Development of the
Negev, Galilee and Regional Economy.
In 1994, Shimon Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that produced
the Oslo Accords. Peres participated in these talks as the Israeli Foreign Minister, under
Prime Minister Rabin. During his career, he has represented five parties in the Knesset (Mapai,
Rafi, the Alignment,
Labour and Kadima), and has led two of them (the
Alignment and Labour).
In 2007, Peres was nominated by Kadima to run in that year's presidential election. He was elected by the Knesset for the presidency on June 13, 2007[1] and was sworn into office on
July 15, 2007[2] for a seven-year term.
Biography
Early life
Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski in Wiśniewo, Poland (now
Višnieva, Belarus), to Yitzchak (1896-1962) and Sarah (b. 1905
nee Meltzer) Persky. Peres was raised speaking Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian.[3] His father was a
lumber merchant, and his mother taught Russian language and literature. He has a younger brother, Gershon.
Interviewed by Mishpacha, an Israeli magazine, Peres said his grandfather, Rabbi
Tzvi Meltzer, studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva and was a grandson of Rabbi
Chaim Volozhin. This grandfather had a great impact on his life. "I grew up in my
grandfather's home," Peres said. "He looked after my education. He taught me Talmud. It wasn't as
easy as it sounds. I didn't come from an observant home. My parents were not Orthodox. But I was very religious. Once I found my
parents listening to the radio on the Sabbath so I smashed it. But to my father's credit, let it
be said, I received a blessing from the Chofetz Chaim in Raduń when I was a child. My father took me to see him."[citation needed]
In 1934, Peres moved with his family to the British Mandate of
Palestine. He attended the Geula School in Tel Aviv and the Ben Shemen agricultural
school. He lived on Kibbutz Geva for several years, and was one of the founders of Kibbutz Alumot. In 1941 he was elected Secretary of Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, a Labor Zionist youth movement.
In 1944, he returned to Kibbutz Alumot, where he worked as a dairy farmer, shepherd and kibbutz secretary.
In 1947, he joined the Haganah (predecessor of the Israeli Defense Forces). David Ben-Gurion made him
responsible for personnel and arms purchases. In 1952, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Defense, and
in 1953, at the age of 29, he became the youngest ever Director General of the Ministry of Defense. He was involved in arms
purchase and establishing strategic alliances that were of great importance for the young state of
Israel. Thanks to Peres' mediation, Israel acquired the advanced Dassault Mirage
III French jet fighter, established the Dimona nuclear reactor and
entered into a tri-national agreement with France and the United Kingdom during the 1956
Suez Crisis.
Family life
In 1945, Shimon Peres married Sonya (née Gelman), who has preferred to remain outside the public eye. They have three
children: a daughter, Tzvia (Tziki) Walden-Peres, a linguist; and two sons, Yoni (born 1952), director of Village Veterinary
Center, a veterinary hospital on the campus of Kfar Hayarok Agricultural School near Tel Aviv, and Chemi, chairman of Pitango
Venture Capital, one of Israel’s largest venture capital funds. Peres has 8 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Sonya
Peres was unable to attend the inauguration ceremony due to ill health. [4]
Peres is a first cousin of actress Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perski).[5]
Political milestones in the 1950s and 1960s
Peres was first elected to the Knesset in the 1959 elections, as a member of the Mapai party. He was
given the role of Deputy Defense Minister, which he fulfiled until 1965 when he was implicated in the Lavon affair with Moshe Dayan. Peres and Dayan left Mapai with
David Ben-Gurion to form a new party, Rafi which reconciled with Mapai and joined the Alignment (a left-wing alliance) in 1968.
However, even his fellow party members were not overly fond of Peres. Moshe Sharett, late Israeli Prime Minister, wrote in his
Personal Diary (1957): "I have stated that I totally and utterly reject [Shimon] Peres and consider his rise to prominence a
malignant, immoral disgrace. I will rend my clothes in mourning for the State if I see him become a minister in the Israeli
government."
Political milestones in the 1970s
In Government
In 1969, Peres was appointed Minister of Absorption and in 1970 he became the Minister of Transportation and Communications.
In 1974, after a period as Information Minister, he was appointed Minister of Defense in the Yitzhak Rabin government having been Rabin's chief rival for the post of Prime Minister after
Golda Meir resigned in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur
War. During this time, Peres continued to challenge Rabin for the chairmanship of the party, but in 1977, he again lost to
Rabin in the party elections.
First time acting as Prime Minister
Peres succeeded Rabin as party leader prior to the 1977 elections
when Rabin stepped down in the wake of a foreign currency scandal involving his wife. As Rabin could not legally resign from the
transition government, he officially remained Prime Minister, while Peres became the unofficial acting Prime Minister. Peres led
the Alignment to its first ever electoral defeat, when the Likud Party under Menachem Begin won sufficient seats to form a coalition that excluded the left. After only a month on
top, Peres assumed the role of opposition leader.
Political milestones in the 1980s
Shimon Peres and international model Tami Ben-Ami, early 1980s
In the Opposition
After turning back a comeback bid by Rabin in 1980 Peres led his party to another, narrower, loss in the 1981 elections.
Prime Minister for the first time
In 1984, the Alliance won more seats than any other party but failed to muster a majority of 61 mandates to form a leftist
coalition. Therefore, the two parties agreed on an unusual "rotation" arrangement in which Peres would serve as Prime Minister
and the Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir would be Foreign Minister.
A highlight of this time in office was a trip to Morocco to confer with King Hassan.
In rotation with Shamir
After two years, Peres and Shamir traded places. In 1986 he became foreign minister. In 1988, the Labor party led by Peres
suffered another narrow defeat. He agreed to renew the coalition with the Likud, this time conceding the premiership to Shamir
for the entire term. In the National Unity government formed in 1988-1990, Peres
served as Vice Premier and Minister of Finance. He and the Alignment finally left the
government in 1990, after a failed bid to form a narrow government based on a coalition of Labor, small leftist factions and
Haredi parties.
Political milestones in the 1990s
Leader of the Opposition
From 1990, Peres led the opposition in the Knesset, until, in early 1992, he was defeated in the first primary elections of
the new Israeli Labor Party (which had been formed by the consolidation of the
Alignment into a single unitary party) by Yitzhak Rabin, whom he had replaced fifteen years earlier.
Foreign Minister and the Oslo Accords
Peres remained active in politics, however, serving as Rabin's foreign minister from 1992 and without Rabin's knowledge, began
illegal secret negotiations with Yassir Arafat's PLO organization. When Rabin found out, he let them continue. The negotiations led to
the Oslo Accords, which would win Peres, Rabin and Arafat the Nobel Peace Prize.
Prime Minister for the second time
After Rabin's assassination in 1995, Peres again became Prime Minister. During his term, Peres promoted the use of the
Internet in Israel and created the first Web site for an Israeli prime minister. Peres was
narrowly defeated by Benjamin Netanyahu in the first direct elections for Prime
Minister in Israel's history in 1996.
With Barak
In 1997 he did not seek re-election as Labor Party leader and was replaced by Ehud Barak.
Barak rebuffed Peres's attempt to secure the position of Party President and upon forming a government in 1999 appointed Peres to
the minor post of minister for regional development. Peres played little role in the Barak government.
Political milestones in the 2000s
With Sharon and Olmert
In 2000 Peres ran for a seven-year term as Israel's President, in a ceremonial
head of state position, had he won, as was expected, he would have been the first ex-Prime Minister to be elected President. He
lost however, to Likud candidate Moshe Katsav.
Following Ehud Barak's defeat by Ariel Sharon in the 2001 direct election for Prime
Minister, Peres made yet another comeback. He led Labor into a national unity government with Sharon's Likud Party and secured
the post of foreign minister. The formal leadership of the party passed to Benjamin
Ben-Eliezer, and in 2002 to Haifa Mayor Gen. Amram Mitzna. Peres was much criticized
on the left for clinging to his position as foreign minister in a government that was not seen as advancing the peace process,
despite his own dovish stance. He left office only when Labor resigned in advance of the 2003 elections. After the party under
the leadership of Mitzna suffered a crushing defeat, Peres again emerged as interim leader. He led the party into coalition with
Sharon once more at the end of 2004 when the latter's support of "disengagement" from Gaza presented a diplomatic program Labor
could support.
Shimon Peres with Donald Rumsfeld
Peres won the chairmanship of the Labor Party in 2005, in advance of the 2006 general elections. As party leader, Peres
favored pushing off the elections for as long as possible. He claimed that an early election would jeopardize both the September
2005 Gaza withdrawal plan and the standing of the party in a National Unity government with Sharon. However, the majority pushed
for an earlier date, as younger members of the party, among them Ophir Pines-Paz and
Isaac Herzog, overtook established leaders like Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Haim Ramon, in the party ballot to
divide up government portfolios. It turned out that elections could not be held in June, as planned, when a scandal erupted over
possible fraud in registering party members. The investigation of this scandal delayed elections until November 9 2005.
Irrespective of before or after the delay, Peres continually led in the polls, defying predictions that rivals would overtake
him. His bitter exchanges with opponents began when former Prime Minister Barak began backing the holding of primaries early that
year, as Amir Peretz and Haim Ramon, two staunch anti-Barak Knesset members vowed to support
Peres at any cost to defeat Barak. In a bizarre change of events, Peretz soon declared his own candidacy, a move viewed by Peres
as the greatest betrayal.
Though Peres continued to trade nasty barbs with Barak in the newspapers, his feud with Peretz soon superseded that,
especially when Barak pulled out of the race in early October. One of Peretz's main charges against Peres was that he neglected
socio-economic affairs as a member of the Sharon government, and did not fulfill his statement that Labor had joined the
coalition with only the intent of seeing through the Gaza Withdrawal. Peres lost the leadership election with 40% to Peretz's
42.4%.[6]
Joining Kadima
On November 30 2005 Peres announced that he was leaving the
Labor Party to support Ariel Sharon and his new Kadima party. In the immediate aftermath of
Sharon's debilitating stroke there was speculation that Peres might take over
as leader of the party but most senior Kadima leaders, however, were former members of Likud and
indicated their support for Ehud Olmert as Sharon's successor.[7]
Labor reportedly tried to woo Peres back to the fold.[8]
Peres announced, however, that he supported Olmert and would remain with Kadima. Media reports suggested that
Ehud Olmert offered Peres the second slot on the Kadima list, but inferior cabinet positions
to the ones that were reportedly offered to Tzipi Livni. Peres had previously announced his
intention not to run in the March elections. Following Kadima's win
in the election, Peres was given the role of Vice Prime Minister and
Minister for the Development of the Negev, Galilee and Regional
Economy.
President of Israel
On June 13, 2007, Peres was elected President of the State of Israel by the Knesset. 58 of 120 members of the
Knesset voted for him in the first round (whereas 38 voted for Reuven Rivlin, and 21 for Colette Avital). His opponents then
backed Peres in the second round and 86 members of the Knesset voted in his favor,[9] while 23 objected. He resigned from his role as a Member of the Knesset the same day, having been a
member since November 1959 (except for a three month period in early 2006), the longest serving in Israeli political history.
Peres was sworn in as President on July 15.[2]
Political views
Peres was at one time considered something of a hawk.[10] He was a protégé of Ben-Gurion and Dayan and an early supporter of the West Bank settlers during the
1970s. However, after becoming the leader of his party his stance evolved. More recently he has been seen as a dove, and a strong
supporter of the notion of peace through economic cooperation. While still opposed, like all mainstream Israeli leaders in the
1970s and early 1980s, to talks with the PLO, he distanced himself
from settlers and spoke of the need for "territorial compromise" over the West Bank and Gaza. For a time he hoped that
King Hussein of Jordan could be Israel's Arab negotiating partner rather than
Yasser Arafat. Peres met secretly with Hussein in London in 1987 and reached a framework
agreement with him, but this was rejected by Israel's then Prime
Minister, Yitzhak Shamir. Shortly afterward the first intifada erupted, and whatever plausibility King Hussein had as a potential Israeli partner in resolving the
fate of the West Bank evaporated. Subsequently, Peres gradually moved closer to support for talks with the PLO, although he
avoided making an outright commitment to this policy until 1993.
Peres was perhaps more closely associated with the Oslo Accords than any other Israeli
politician (Rabin included) with the possible exception of his own protégé, Yossi Beilin.
He has remained an adamant supporter of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority since their inception despite the First Intifada and the Al-Aqsa Intifada. However, Peres
supported Ariel Sharon's military policy of operating the Israeli Defence Forces to thwart suicide bombings.
Often, Peres acts as the informal "spokesman" of Israel (even when he is in the opposition) since he earned high prestige and
respect among the international public opinion and diplomatic circles. Peres advocates Israel's security policy (military
counter terror operations and the Israeli
West Bank barrier) against international criticism and de-legitimation efforts from pro-Palestinian circles.
Books
Shimon Peres is the author of eleven books, including:
- The Next Step (1965)
- David's Sling (1970) (ISBN 0-297-00083-7)
- And Now Tomorrow (1978)
- From These Men: seven founders of the State of Israel (1979) (ISBN 0-671-61016-3)
- Entebbe Diary (1991) (ISBN 965-248-111-4)
- The New Middle East (1993) (ISBN 0-8050-3323-8)
- Battling for Peace: a memoir (1995) (ISBN 0-679-43617-0)
- For the Future of Israel (1998) (ISBN 0-8018-5928-X)
- The Imaginary Voyage : With Theodor Herzl in Israel (1999) (ISBN 1-55970-468-3)
Quotations
- "What, I'm a loser?" (Shimon Peres asks the Labor Party central committee, and they yelled back a resounding "YES!")
- "When you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and
resentful."
- [To Ruth Matar, a Jerusalem resident who criticized him in American-accented Hebrew] "Go back where you came from."
(Jerusalem Post International Edition, February 3 1996]
- "If you want to serve the future, don't be afraid to belong to a minority."
- "A godless man is not a human being."
- "I am totally uninterested in the past. If you wouldn't ask me I wouldn't talk about it. The past bores me. (Interview with
Michael Kapel, Australia/Israel Review, June 6-June 26, 1997)
- "If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem but a fact that must be coped with."
- "Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable."
- "An optimist and a pessimist die the same way; they only live differently. I prefer to live as an optimist" - interview with
Benny Hinn on a TV program aired on March 22 2007
- "I have become totally tired of history, because I feel history is a long misunderstanding." (Wall St. Journal,
September 30 1994)
- "Israel's economy is flourishing. These days, empires can be founded even without colonizing and deploying the army. Look at
Bill Gates, what an empire he has built for himself without police and soldiers, and notice his power. Governments, however, are
unable to realize their powers; they have a budget, but they do not have money. So, governments are incapable of efficient
operation, while companies are not bound by limitations. Israeli businesspeople are investing everywhere in the world. Israel has
unprecedented economic success. By today, we have won economic independence and are buying out Manhattan, Poland and Hungary." At
an economic forum held in Tel Aviv on October 10, 2007
References
Peres: Father of Israel defense ministry who never served in the military by Amiram Barkat (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtStEngPE.jhtml?itemNo=870789&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&title=%27Presidency%20rounds%20off%2066-year%20career%20%27&dyn_server=172.20.5.5)
External links
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