Shimon Peres, a pillar for Israel from founding to Oslo Accords, dies at 93

SHIMON PERES, one of the last surviving pillars of Israel’s founding generation, who did more than anyone to build up his country’s formidable military, then worked as hard to establish a lasting peace with Israel’s Arab neighbours, died Wednesday in a Tel Aviv area hospital. He was 93.

His death was announced by his son Nehemya Peres, who is known as Chemi, and his personal physician and son-in-law Dr. Rafi Walden, outside the Sheba Medical Centre, where he had been hospitalised for the last two weeks.

Peres died just over two weeks after suffering a stroke. Doctors kept him largely unconscious and on a breathing tube since then in hopes that it would give his brain a chance to heal. But he deteriorated as the nation he once led watched his last battle play out publicly and leaders from around the world sent wishes for his recovery.

As prime minister (twice); as minister of defence, foreign affairs, finance and transportation; and, until 2014, as president, Peres never left the public stage during Israel’s seven decades.

He led the creation of Israel’s defence industry, negotiated key arms deals with France and Germany and was the prime mover behind the development of Israel’s nuclear weapons. But he was consistent in his search for an accommodation with the Arab world, a search that in recent years left him orphaned as Israeli society lost interest.

In his efforts to help Israel find acceptance in a hostile region, Peres’ biggest breakthrough came in 1993 when he worked out a plan with the Palestine Liberation Organisation for self-government in Gaza and in part of the West Bank, both of which were occupied by Israel.

After months of secret negotiation with representatives of the PLO, conducted with the help of Norwegian diplomats and intellectuals, Peres persuaded his old political rival Yitzhak Rabin, then the prime minister, to accept the plan, which became known as the Oslo Accords.

Peres, who was serving as foreign minister, signed the accords on September 13, 1993, in a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House as Rabin and their old enemy Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the PLO, looked on and, with some prodding by President Bill Clinton, shook hands.

It was a gesture both unprecedented and historic. Up to that time, Israel had refused to negotiate directly with the PLO. Peres broke the taboo, and the impasse.

“What we are doing today is more than signing an agreement; it is a revolution,” he said at the ceremony. “Yesterday a dream, today a commitment.”

Peres, Rabin and Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

Peres was born Shimon Persky on Aug. 16, 1923, in the small village of Vishniewa, Poland, to a merchant family. His parents, Yitzhak and Sara Persky, took him to Palestine when he was 11, where he studied in Tel Aviv and then entered an agricultural school.

Peres was married to the former Sonya Gelman. She died in January 2011. They had three children: a daughter, Zvia, and two sons, Jonathan and Nehemya. They and Peres’ eight grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren survive him.

Peres, who frequently drew on historical allusions, thought of himself as philosopher more than a politician. When asked about the 1993 Oslo Accords, he said: “There was no alternative. We had to do it.”

He added, “An ancient Greek philosopher was asked what is the difference between war and peace. ‘In war,’ he replied, ‘the old bury the young. In peace, the young bury the old.’ I felt that if I could make the world better for the young, that would be the greatest thing we can do.” NYT

Reuters/file Shimon Peres died just over two weeks after suffering a stroke.