SHIMON PERES DIES AT 93
World leaders mourn Nobel prize-winning visionary, praise him as a man of peace
JERUSALEM—Shimon Peres, a former Israeli president and prime minister, whose life story mirrored that of the Jewish state and who was celebrated around the world as a Nobel prize-winning visionary who pushed his country toward peace, died early on Wednesday. He was 93.
His son, Chemi, confirmed his death on Wednesday morning to reporters gathered at the hospital where Peres had been treated for the past two weeks.
Peres’ condition worsened following a major stroke two weeks ago that led to bleeding in his brain.
He was sedated and on a respirator during most of his hospitalization.
“Today with deep sorrow we bid farewell to our beloved father, the ninth president of Israel,” Chemi Peres said.
“Our father’s legacy has always been to look to tomorrow. We were privileged to be part of his private family, but today we sense that the entire nation of Israel and the global community share this great loss. We share this pain together.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement mourning the passing of Peres.
He said he will convene his Cabinet for a special session later in the day.
After that, a special committee is due to prepare arrangements for a funeral that many international dignitaries and world leaders are expected to attend.
Officials said that Peres’ body would lie in state at the Knesset, or parliament, on Thursday to allow the public to pay final respects. His funeral was set for Friday at Mount Herzl.
Current and former world leaders mourned the passing of Peres early Wednesday, praising him as a patriot, visionary statesman and man of principle who was deeply committed to pursuing peace in a region that has mostly eluded it.
President Barack Obama eulogized him as a man who represented “the essence of Israel itself.”
“A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever.”
Former president Bill Clinton and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said they “lost a true and treasured friend” with the death of Peres.
President Barack Obama called Peres “the essence of Israel itself,” saying he had fought for Israel’s independence, worked its land and served Israel in virtually every gov- ernment position, including three stints as prime minister.
Peres was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize after he secretly brokered the historic Oslo interim peace accords with the Palestinians a year earlier.
He shared the prize with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
“I’ll never forget how happy he was 23 years ago when he signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn,” former president Clinton said.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, who also worked as a Mideast peace envoy, said Peres’ “commitment to peace and his belief that it was in the interests of the country he adored marked him out as a visionary whose vision was never dimmed or displaced.”
Former president George H. W. Bush saidd Peres’ “innate humanity, his decency,” while his son, former president George W. Bush, said that his family “will miss Shimon Peres and his grace, dignity, and optimism.”
In an unprecedented seven-decade political career, Peres filled nearly every position in Israeli public life and was credited with leading the country through some of its most defining moments, from creating what is believed to be a nuclear arsenal in the 1950s, to disentangling its troops from Lebanon and rescuing its economy from triple-digit inflation in the 1980s.