He never gave up on peace... world pays tribute to Peres, dead at 93
BARACK OBAMA led the world in paying tribute to Shimon Peres for “never giving up on the possibility of peace” as Israel mourned the death of its former president yesterday.
The 93-year-old Israeli statesman died early in the morning, two weeks after suffering a stroke.
News of his death prompted an outpouring of tributes from across the world to the leader who never gave up on the dream of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. A host of dignitaries including the Prince of Wales, Bill Clinton and François Hollande are expected at his funeral in Jerusalem tomorrow.
Mr Peres’s political career stretched across seven decades and he was a constant presence in Israeli public life from before the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 until well into the 21st century.
Although he was twice prime minister, he was best known for his work as foreign minister during the negotiation of the Oslo Accords, the 1993 IsraeliPalestinian agreement that many hoped would bring an end to decades of conflict.
For his work on the Oslo Accords, Mr Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister, and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.
Mr Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995 but Mr Peres lived to see the hopes of Oslo give way to the violence of the Second Intifada and the continuation of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Yet he remained an optimist until the end of his life, even as others abandoned the prospect of a two-state solution, and retained an unshakeable confidence that the two sides would eventually find a way to peace.
“Perhaps because he had seen Israel surmount overwhelming odds, Shimon never gave up on the possibility of peace between Israelis, Palestinians and Israel’s neighbours,” Mr Obama said. “I can think of no greater tribute to his life than to renew our commitment to the peace that we know is possible.”
The Queen sent her “heartfelt condolences to his family and the people of Israel at this sad time”. She made Mr Peres an honorary knight in 2008.
Theresa May called him “a visionary and courageous statesman, who worked relentlessly for peace and never lost hope that this would one day be achievable”.
Mr Peres and Mr Clinton worked closely in the Nineties and the former US president called him “a lucid eloquent dreamer until the very end”.
His death brought Israeli politics to a halt and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister and a former political rival, said “few people contributed as much to our people and to our state”.
The Prince of Wales’s trip to Israel for the funeral will be a very rare appearance by a member of the Royal family in the Holy Land.
The Government is deeply involved in royal travel and the Foreign Office decided years ago that Israel and the West Bank were too politically fraught for such trips. The only exceptions ap- pear to be for funerals. The Prince attended Mr Rabin’s funeral in 1995 and there have been no royal visits since.
Mr Peres’s son-in-law and personal physician, Dr Rafi Waldan, told The Daily Telegraph that the former president died peacefully with his family around him.
“For us it is a double grief because he was really a family man as well as a public figure,” he said. “We have the grief of losing a very beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather but as citizens we also have the grief of losing one of the leading figures in the history of Israel and one of the country’s greatest statesmen.”
Born in Poland, Mr Peres was married to his wife Sonya for 66 years until her death in 2011. They had three children.