Nobel prize winner Peres, giant of Israeli politics, dies aged 93

● Former PM and president lauded ● Mixed legacy of lionised leader

Israel yesterday mourned the death of Shimon Peres, a former president and prime minister whose life story mirrored that of the Jewish state.

Mr Peres, a Nobel Prize-winning visionary who pushed his country toward peace during a remarkable seven-decade career, died from complications from a stroke. He was 93.

“There are few people who we share this world with, who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people,” US president Barack Obama said. 0 Shimon Peres brokered talks with Palestinians

Mr Peres’s son, Chemi, confirmed his death yesterday morning.

“Our father’s legacy has always been to look to tomorrow,” he said. “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.”

While western leaders lionised Mr Peres, he had a mixed legacy with the Palestinians, who appreciated his stated commit- ment to peace but held him responsible for a deadly artillery strike that killed dozens of civilians in Lebanon while he was prime minister in 1996.

Mr Peres, like other Israeli leaders, also allowed settlement construction to take place during his years in leadership roles. In the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas militant group called Mr Peres “the last remaining Israeli official who founded the occupation”.

At home, Mr Peres was the elder statesman of Israeli politics, one of the country’s most admired leaders and the last surviving link to its founding fathers.

In a seven-decade political career, he filled nearly every position in Israeli public life and was credited with leading the country through some of its 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 in the 1980s, to guiding peace talks with the Palestinians in the 1990s.