Peres praised for supporting peace
Former Israeli president and elder statesman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres has died. He was 93.
Peres was hospitalised in Tel Aviv following a stroke two weeks ago, and had made some progress before a sudden deterioration in his condition yesterday.
Peres was part of almost every major development in Israel since the country’s founding in 1948. In a career spanning nearly 70 years, he served in a dozen cabinets and was twice a Labour prime minister.
He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with the late former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for reaching an interim peace deal in 1993, which never turned into a lasting treaty.
Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultra-nationalist who opposed the interim accords, and Peres took over as prime minister.
Peres was widely seen as having gained nuclear capabilities for Israel by procuring the secret Dimona reactor from France while defence ministry director-general in the 1950s. As defence minister, he oversaw the 1976 Israeli rescue of hijacked Israelis at Entebbe airport in Uganda.
Peres held the largely ceremonial post of president from 2007 to 2014 and used it to continue to advocate peace.
Earlier in September, after a series of health scares, including a mild heart attack, he received an artificial pacemaker.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and wife Sara ‘‘express deep personal sorrow over the passing of the nation’s beloved former president’’, and said he would convene the cabinet for a mourning session.
United States President Barack Obama praised Peres as a statesman whose commitment to Israel’s security and the pursuit of peace ‘‘was rooted in his own unshakeable moral foundation and unflagging optimism’’.
Obama said Peres looked to the future, ‘‘guided by a vision of the human dignity and progress that he knew people of goodwill could advance together’’. He noted that Peres had fought for Israel’s independence, worked its land and served Israel in virtually every government position.
Former US president George H W Bush said Peres inspired the world and helped to pave a path to peace.