Shimon Peres

Background

Sh.Peres was born on August 16, 1923, in a small town Vishneva, Ashmiany district of the Vilna Province (now in Valozhin district of the Minsk Region, Belarus) into the family of a forester. In 1933, he moved with his family to Palestine, where his father lived.

His father was an affluent timber merchant and his mother worked as a librarian. He was raised at the house of his grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer who educated him and taught him Talmud. His grandfather had a great influence on his early life. His father moved to Tel Aviv in 1932 and the family joined his father in 1934.

Education

In Tel Aviv, Sh. Peres finished Balfour Gymnasium and was brought up at an agricultural youth settlement. There he became an active participant of the Zionist movement and in 1946 he joined Mapai ( a predecessor of the Israel Labour Party). Also, he got an education at Jewish orthodox school, Balfour Elementary School, and Balfour High School. In 1938 Shimon studied at Ben Shemen agricultural school. Since 1949 to 1952 Peres studied advanced management at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Also, Shimon studied English, philosophy, and economics at The New School in New York City, United States, and New York University, in New York, New York, United States.

Career

For many years he stayed in Kibbutz Geva. He was a co-founder of Kibbutz Alumot. In 1941 he became the Secretary of a ‘Labor Zionist’ youth movement called the ‘Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed’. After coming back to Alumot he became secretary of the Kibbutz and led a life as a shepherd and dairy farmer. The ‘Holocaust’ massacre during the reign of the Nazis claimed the lives of all his relatives living in Wiszniew in 1941. When he was twenty he became one of the twelve elected members of the ‘Working and Learning Youth’ national secretariat of which only two including him were ‘Mapai’ party supporters. He led the movement after three years and went on to win a majority.

He was inducted in the secretariat of ‘Mapai’ by its head David Ben-Gurion. He led an illegal quest encompassing a group of teenagers, an archaeologist, a zoologist and a Palmach scout to the restricted military zone at Negev in 1944. While the idea of the expedition was that of Yitzhak Sadeh, the Palmach head, it was funded by David Ben-Gurion. However, a British officer leading a Bedouin camel patrol arrested the group and interned them in a local jail in Beersheba for two weeks, Shimon Peres had to pay an additional fine.

He and Moshe Dayan were made the youth delegates in the 1946 ‘Mapai’ delegation to the ‘Zionist Congress’. He enlisted in the ‘Haganah’, a Jewish paramilitary organization in 1947 and was delegated with the responsibility of arms purchase and personnel management. He became the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Defense in 1952 and in 1953 he was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Defense by the then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. He was the youngest person to serve in the post and held it until 1959. His responsibilities included initiating strategic alliances and purchase of arms.

Through his negotiation, Israel successfully signed up a tri-national agreement with the UK and France, obtained advanced Dassault Mirage III French jet fighter and set up the ‘Dimona’ nuclear reactor.

Since 1954 he participated in the planning of the 1956 Suez War with the UK and France in the capacity of Director-General of the Ministry of Defense of Israel and visited Paris a few times in this pursuit.

When Israel resolved to go to war against Egypt by 1956, France evolved as the closest partner of Israel in the Middle East. The UK and France strategized with Israel, in its war against Egypt, to achieve their objective of taking control of the Suez Canal through a pre-planned mid-war intervention thus placing it under Anglo-French management. Their plan, however, failed following severe adverse response from USSR and the US.

In 1959 he was elected as a member of the Knesset representing ‘Mapai’ party and became the Deputy Defense Minister, a position he held till 1965. In 1965 he left ‘Mapai’ party along with David Ben-Gurion, who formed ‘Rafi’ party. He became secretary-general of the new party. Thereafter, ‘Mapai’, ‘Rafi’ and ‘Ahdut HaAvoda’ merged on January 23, 1968, to form the ’Israeli Labor Party’.

He held several ministerial positions including Minister of Immigrant Absorption in 1969, Minister of Transportation and Communications from 1970 to 1974 and Information Minister in 1974. After a brief period he became the Minister of Defense in 1974 and held the post till 1977. He became the leader of the party before the 1977 elections. When the then Prime Minister Rabin resigned following a scandal, Peres served as acting Prime Minister from April 22, 1977, to June 21, 1977.

He was made the chairman of the party following its defeat in the 1977 elections, a post he held till 1992. In 1984 a ‘National Unity Government’ was formed where he became the Prime Minister of Israel for two non-consecutive terms in a rotation arrangement with Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the ‘Likud’ party. He remained Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1986 to 1988 and thereafter Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance till 1990.

The ‘Israeli Labor Party’ made a comeback in the 1992 elections and Peres once again became the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The ‘Treaty of Peace’ with Jordan was signed in October 1994.

He became Prime Minister of Israel for the second time in November 1995 following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4 that year. He held the post till June 18, 1996. The Peres Center for Peace’ that aims to create a foundation of peace between the people of the Middle East and advocates for social and economic development was founded by him in 1996.

He was a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member at the Knesset from 1996 to 1999. From July 1999 to March 2001 he remained the Minister of Regional Cooperation and thereafter served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the National Unity government till October 2002.

He left ’Israeli Labor Party’ and joined a newly formed ‘Kadima’ party on November 30, 2005, to support Ariel Sharon.

He became Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee and also Vice Prime Minister in May 2006 after ‘Kadima’ won the elections and Ariel Sharon became Prime Minister of Israel. The Knesset elected him as the 9th President of Israel on June 13, 2007. He took charge from July 15, 2007, and held the position till July 24, 2014. Queen Elizabeth II conferred upon him the honorary ‘Knight Grand Cross’ of the ‘Order of St Michael and St George’ in November 2008. In June 2012 President of United States, Barack Obama conferred upon him the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom. Shimon Peres died on 28 September 2016 after suffering a massive stroke two weeks ago.

Achievements

• During his life, Shimon was engaged in literary activities. In youth, he wrote poems. He was the author of a series of accounts: From the Diary of a Woman and the books The Next Step (1965), The Next Step (1965), David’s Sling (1970), And Now Tomorrow (1978), From These Men (1979), The New Middle East (1993), For the Future of Israel (1998) and Ben Gurion: A Political Life (2011).
  
  At the time of his retirement in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation.
  
  As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he initiated and negotiated a peace accord with the then chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Yāsir Arafāt that resulted in the signing of the Declaration of Principles’ in September 1993.
  
  Sh.Peres contributed greatly to the development of the military industry of Israel and to the establishment of two nuclear centers in Dimona and Nahal Sarek.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Battling for Peace:: A Memoir

    (Certain to fascinate anyone intrigued about the future of...)

  • The New Middle East

    (The co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1994 offers a ...)

  • The Imaginary Voyage

    (In this moving and often astonishing memoir, Nobel Peace ...)

  • For the Future of Israel

    (One of the greatest recent moments in the annals of peace...)

  • Ben-Gurion: A Political Life

    (Part of the Jewish Encounter series Israel’s current pres...)

  • From these men

    (Seven founders of the State of Israel.)

  • David's Sling

Religion

Peres' grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer had a great impact on his life. In an interview, Peres said: "As a child, I grew up in my grandfather's home… I was educated by him… my grandfather taught me Talmud. It was not as easy as it sounds. My home was not an observant one. My parents were not Orthodox but I was Haredi. At one point, I heard my parents listening to the radio on the Sabbath and I smashed it."

Politics

Peres was once considered a "hawk". 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 peace through economic cooperation.

Peres described himself as a "Ben-Gurionist", after his mentor Ben-Gurion. He felt that Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel as a means to a progressive end in which the State of Israel both inspire the world and survive in a region of the world where it was unwelcome.

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 remained an adamant supporter of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority since their inception despite the First Intifada and the al-Aqsa Intifada (Second Intifada). However, Peres supported Ariel Sharon's military policy of operating the Israeli Defense Forces to thwart suicide bombings. Peres was a proponent of Middle East economic integration.

Views

Quotations: "The most important thing in life is to dare. The most complicated thing in life is to be afraid. The smartest thing in the world is to try to be a moral person. "

"It's better to be controversial for the right reasons than to be popular for the wrong reasons. "

"Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives!"

"When you have two alternatives, the first thing you have to do is to look for the third that you didn't think about, that doesn't exist. "

"I read when I get up in the morning when I can during the day and every single evening. Most of my weekends are spent reading great books. Books are my constant companions. If you eat three times a day you'll be fed. But if you read three times a day you'll be wise. "

"In Israel, a land lacking in natural resources, we learned to appreciate our greatest national advantage: our minds. Through creativity and innovation, we transformed barren deserts into flourishing fields and pioneered new frontiers in science and technology. "

"I don't think anybody who carries a rifle carries the future. Because I don't believe that you can really change the world by killing and shooting. You have the change by creating and competing. "

Membership

Haganah Movement of 1947. Knesset since 1959; Mapai Party 1959-1965. And Secretary-General Rafi Party 1965, member Labour Party after merger 1968.

• 

  Mapai , Israel

  1946

• 

  Rafi , Israel

  1965

• Labour Party , Israel

  1977

• The Alingment , Israel

  1977 - 1991

• Labour Party , Israel

  2005

• 

  Kadima , Israel

  November 30, 2005

Personality

Peres was a polyglot, speaking Polish, French, English, Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew, although he never lost his Polish accent when speaking in Hebrew. In his private life, he was a poet and songwriter, writing stanzas during cabinet meetings, with some of his poems later being recorded as songs in albums. As a result of his deep literary interests, he could quote from Hebrew prophets, French literature, and Chinese philosophy with equal ease.

Interests

• Languages, literature.

Connections

In May 1945 Peres married Sonya Gelman, whom he had met in the Ben Shemen Youth Village, where her father served as a carpentry teacher. The couple married after Sonya finished her military service as a truck driver in the British Army during World War II.

Father:

Yitzhak

Mother:

Sarah

Wife:

Sonya Gelman

Daughter:

Zvia

Son:

Yoni

Son:

Nehemia (Chemi)

sibling:

Gershon Perski

aunt:

Lauren (Betty Joan)

Peres is the first cousin of American movie star Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske, 1924).

References

• Shimon Peres: The Biography Twice Israel’s prime minister, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, bold leader in a war-torn region, Shimon Peres is one of the great statesmen of the modern world. Peres is also a fascinating, complex man–a brilliant intellectual who is entirely at home in the corridors of power; an individual revered by the world and yet highly controversial in his own country; at once a hero and a figure of tragedy. Now, in this definitive biography, Michael Bar-Zohar takes the full measure of a towering, enigmatic leader.
  2007
• Memorable Quotes and Life Lessons from Shimon Peres Shimon Peres, (August 2nd, 1923 – September 28th, 2016), was an Israeli statesman, ex-President, ex-Prime Minister, Interim Prime Minister, a member of twelve cabinets, a poet, and a songwriter.
• Phoenix: Shimon Peres and the secret history of Israel The Jewish people doesn’t know what it owes to Shimon Peres”. Said David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father. Indeed, the young Peres, operating in secrecy, was the builder of Israel’s military might. In Israel’s Independence war, he acquired weapons from all over the world, and later drew the plans for the conquest of the Negev. Appointed Director General of the Defense Ministry at the age of twenty-nine, he built Israel’s Aircraft Industry; laThe Jewish people don’t know what it owes to Shimon Peres”. Said David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father. Indeed, the young Peres, operating in secrecy, was the builder of Israel’s military might. In Israel’s Independence War, he acquired weapons from all over the world, and later drew the plans for the conquest of the Negev.
  2008