Historical Figure
Shimon Peres
1923–2016
Israeli politician (1923–2016)
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Biography
Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 to 2014. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and except for three months out of office in early 2006, served as a member of the Knesset continuously until he was elected president in 2007. Serving in the Knesset for 48 years, Peres is the longest serving member in the Knesset's history. At the time of his retirement from politics in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation, as well as the last Prime Minister to make aliyah rather than being born on territory that would become Israel.
In Their Own Words (5)
Optimists and pessimists die the same way. They just live differently. I prefer to live as an optimist.
As quoted in Serving "60 Years to Life", Newsweek Europe (12 December 2005) , 2005
There's a great deal of criticism about the United States, but there is one thing that nobody criticizes the United States. Nobody thinks the United States went to strike against Iraq in order to gain land or water or oil, nobody thinks America has any ambitions about real estate. As it happened in the 20th century, the American boys went to fight in two world wars, many of them lost their lives. The United States won the wars, won the land, but you gave back every piece of it. America didn't keep anything out of her victories for herself. You gave back Japan, an improved Japan, you gave Germany, an improved Germany, you've heard the Marshall Plan. And today, I do not believe there is any serious person on earth who thinks the United States, whether you agree or don't agree with this strike, has any egoistic or material purposes in the war against Iraq. The reason is, for this strike, that you cannot let the world run wild. And people who are coming from different corners of our life, attack and kill women and children and innocent people, just out of the blue. And I think the whole world is lucky that there is a United States that has the will and the power to handle the new danger that has arrived on the 21st century.
Speech at Harvard University (20 October 2004) , 2004
If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact, not to be solved, but to be coped with over time.
As quoted by Donald Rumsfeld in "Sharon's Victory" (link is to a preview, but the quote is in the first few visible lines), Wall Street Journal (7 February 2001) , 2001
India represents the new world in a unique sense. Traditionally democracies were trying to bring equality to all walks of life, today there is a change. Democracy wants to enable every country to have the equal right to be different; it's a collection of differences, not an attempt to force or impose equality on every country. I think India is the greatest show of how so many differences in language, in sects can coexist facing great suffering and keeping full freedom... Many of the countries in the Middle East should learn from you how to escape poverty. You didn't escape poverty by getting American dollars or Russian Roubles but by introducing your own internal reforms and by understanding that the new call of modernity is science. In between the spiritual wealth of Gandhi and the earthly wisdom of Nehru, you combined a great performance of spirit and practice to escape poverty...I know you still have a long way to go but you do it without compromising freedom. The temptation when you're such a large country to introduce discipline and imposition is great but you tried to do it, to make progress not with force and discipline but in an open way. Many of us were educated on the literature of India when we fell in love we read Rabindranath Tagore and when we matured we tried to understand Gandhi.
Israeli President Shimon Peres praises India as greatest 'show of co-existence' (4 December 2012) , 2012
There isn't a single person in Israel who wants to destroy or harm Egypt. In contrast, there's a whole country that openly wants to destroy Israel, and that's Iran. That is the difference between ours and Egypt's security problems. Egypt is not threatened by anyone. Israel is threatened by the second circle. Israel has never been and will never be a danger to Egypt. [...] Israel is not threatening Iran, Iran is threatening Israel. The situation is not similar.
ArabYnet online chat (6 February 2006) , 2006
Timeline
The story of Shimon Peres, told in moments.
Born Szymon Perski in Wiszniew, Poland (now Belarus). His grandfather, a rabbi, teaches him the Talmud. His family emigrates to British Palestine when he's 11. Everyone in the family he leaves behind is murdered in the Holocaust.
Appointed by David Ben-Gurion to head naval services during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He's 24. He spends the next decade in defense, secretly purchasing arms from France and building Israel's military-industrial base.
Negotiates a secret arms deal with France that provides Israel with Dassault Mystere jets and, most critically, the Dimona nuclear reactor. He's the architect of Israel's nuclear program. He'll neither confirm nor deny its existence for the rest of his life.
Shares the Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the Oslo Accords. The three men stand together in Oslo. Peres and Arafat shake hands. Within a year Rabin is assassinated. The peace process stalls. It never fully recovers.
Elected ninth President of Israel at age 83. He's the oldest person to hold the office. He loses more elections than he wins over his career. Prime minister twice, president once, runner-up repeatedly. He runs for office across six decades.
Dies at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv after a stroke. He's 93. He served Israeli politics for 66 consecutive years, from the founding of the state to two weeks before his death. Barack Obama delivers a eulogy. Bill Clinton weeps.
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