Shimon Peres, Israel’s elder statesman on defence and peacemaking, dies at 93
JERUSALEM, (Reuters) - Shimon Peres, one of Israel’s last surviving founding fathers who developed its powerful armed forces and nuclear capabilities before seeking peace with the Palestinians and sharing a Nobel prize, died yesterday at 93 after suffering a stroke.
A convinced campaigner for Middle East peace who remained energetic until the final days of his seven decades in public life, the centre-left elder statesman was mourned by world leaders and praised for his tireless engagement.
“A light has gone out,” said U.S. President Barack Obama who, the White House later confirmed, will attend Peres’s funeral on Friday.
“There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves,” Obama said in a statement. “My friend Shimon was one of those people.”
Despite decades of rivalry with Peres, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a right-winger who defeated the then-Labour Party leader in a 1996 election, praised him as a stalwart of the centre-left and a visionary. “There were many things we agreed upon, and the number grew as the years passed. But we had disagreements, a natural part of democratic life,” Netanyahu said after holding a minute’s silence at a specially convened cabinet meeting.