Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres
שמעון פרס
Official portrait, 2007
9th President of Israel
In office 15 July 2007 – 24 July 2014
Prime Minister	Ehud Olmert Benjamin Netanyahu
Preceded by	Moshe Katsav
Succeeded by	Reuven Rivlin
8th Prime Minister of Israel
In office 4 November 1995[a] – 18 June 1996
President	Ezer Weizman
Preceded by	Yitzhak Rabin
Succeeded by	Benjamin Netanyahu
In office 13 September 1984 – 20 October 1986
President	Chaim Herzog
Preceded by	Yitzhak Shamir
Succeeded by	Yitzhak Shamir
Acting 22 April 1977 – 21 June 1977
President	Ephraim Katzir
Preceded by	Yitzhak Rabin
Succeeded by	Menachem Begin
Member of the Knesset
In office 17 April 2006 – 13 June 2007
In office 30 November 1959 – 15 January 2006
Ministerial portfolios
1969–1970	Immigrant Absorption
1970–1974	Communications Transportation
1974–1977	Defense Information
1984	Internal Affairs Religious Affairs
1986–1988	Foreign Affairs
1988–1990	Finance
1992–1995	Foreign Affairs
1995–1996	Defense
2001–2002	Foreign Affairs
Personal details
Born	Szymon Perski (1923-08-02)2 August 1923 Wiszniew, Nowogródek Voivodeship, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Minsk Region, Belarus)
Died	28 September 2016(2016-09-28) (aged 93) Ramat Gan, Israel
Resting place	Mount Herzl, Jerusalem
Nationality	Israeli
Political party	Mapai (1959–1965) Rafi (1965–1968) Labor (1968–2005) Kadima (2005–2016)
Other political affiliations	Alignment (1965–1991)
Spouse	Sonya Gelman ​ ​ (m. 1945; died 2011)​
Relations	Lauren Bacall (cousin) Uzi Peres (nephew)
Children	Tsvia Yoni Chemi
Education	The New School New York University Harvard University
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize (1994)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Israel
Branch/service	Haganah Israel Defense Forces
Shimon Peres's voice Shimon Peres on the signing of the Oslo Accords Recorded 19 September 1993
a. ^ Acting: 4–22 November 1995

Shimon Peres (/ʃiːˌmoʊn ˈpɛrɛs, -ɛz/ shee-MOHN PERR-ess, -⁠ez;^[1][2][3] Hebrew: שמעון פרס [ʃiˌmon ˈpeʁes] ^ⓘ; born Szymon Perski, Polish: [ˈʂɨmɔn ˈpɛrskʲi]; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth 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.^[4] Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and except for a three-month-long interregnum 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 (with the first uninterrupted stretch lasting more than 46 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.^[5]

From a young age, he was renowned for his oratorical brilliance, and was chosen as a protégé by David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding father.^[6] He began his political career in the late 1940s, holding several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. His first high-level government position was as deputy director general of defense in 1952 which he attained at the age of 28, and director general from 1953 until 1959.^[7] In 1956, he took part in the historic negotiations on the Protocol of Sèvres,^[8] which was described by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden as the "highest form of statesmanship".^[9] In 1963, he held negotiations with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, which resulted in the sale of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, the first sale of U.S. military equipment to Israel.^[10] Peres represented Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labor and Kadima in the Knesset, and led Alignment and Labor.^[11]

Peres first succeeded Yitzhak Rabin as acting prime minister briefly during 1977, before becoming prime minister from 1984 to 1986. As foreign minister under Prime Minister Rabin, Peres engineered the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty,^[12] and won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the Oslo Accords peace talks with the Palestinian leadership.^[7] In 1996, he founded the Peres Center for Peace, which has the aim of "promot[ing] lasting peace and advancement in the Middle East by fostering tolerance, economic and technological development, cooperation and well-being."^[13] After suffering a stroke, Peres died in 2016 near Tel Aviv.^[14][15]