Shimon Peres ‘did not stop dreaming’
Trudeau, former prime ministers join Obama, world leaders to mourn Israeli icon
JERUSALEM— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Liberal and Conservative predecessors and political luminaries from around the world gathered Friday to mourn Shimon Peres — the Israeli statesman hailed by many as a dreamer and visionary who personified the hope for peace in the Middle East.
Trudeau, joined by former prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper, led a Canadian delegation to Jerusalem to attend the funeral for Peres, who died Wednesday after suffering a stroke at 93.
Peres was devoted to serving his country and the people who elected him, Chrétien said in an interview after the funeral.
“People dump on people who serve in public life. He did it all his life with no regret, always looking forward. It is a tough life to be a politician.”
Mount Herzl national cemetery was brimming with political giants, including Prince Charles, U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who sat in the front row alongside members of the Peres family.
Trudeau sat beside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the second row of mourners while Harper, Chrétien, interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose and Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion sat together in the next row.
“Shimon never saw his dream of peace fulfilled,” Obama said in a eulogy. “And yet he did not stop dreaming, and he did not stop working.”
No one in the Canadian delegation was among the speakers at the solemn outdoor ceremony, which took place in sweltering early-autumn heat under a sprawling white tent.
“It reminds me as a Canadian how special the relationship between Canada and Israel has been for decades,” Ambrose said afterward.
Former cabinet minister Stockwell Day attended the ceremony and said he hoped for a day when Israel would realize Peres’s hope for peace.
Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion tweeted his own tribute: “Canada has lost a friend, Israel a father. Rest in peace, Shimon.”
Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, held every major office in Israel, including president and prime minister. He came to be seen by many as a visionary and symbol of hopes of Mideast peace.
When the Jerusalem Post asked Peres two years ago about his greatest achievement as president, the paper reported this week, Peres cited what he described as his personal intervention to prevent an Israeli airstrike on Iran.