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Shimon Peres (born August 21, 1923), an Israeli politician, is the head of the Israeli Labour Party and served as 8th Prime Minister of Israel from 1984-1986 and 1995-1996 and Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2001-2002.
Shimon Peres (original last name was Persky) was born in Vishniev, Poland (now in Belarus). He moved to Tel Aviv, Israel with his family in 1934. He was educated in the Geula School in Tel Aviv and the agricultural school of Ben Shemen.
In 1947, he was conscripted into the Haganah (predecessor of the Israeli Defense Forces) and was appointed by David Ben-Gurion to be responsible for personnel and arms purchases. In 1952, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Defense and in 1953 he became the Director General of the Ministry of Defense. He was involved in acquiring weapons for the young state of Israel. Peres efforts went superbly well as he managed to acquire the advanced Dassault Mirage III French jet fighter and a nuclear reactor.
In 1959, he was elected to the Knesset, as a member of Mapai, the Israeli Labour Party. From 1959-1965 he served as Deputy Defense Minister. In 1969 Peres was appointed Minister of Absorption. In 1970, he became the Minister of Transportation and Communications. In 1974, after a period as Information Minister, he was appointed Minister of Defense in the Yitzhak Rabin government. Shimon Peres is one of Israel's most senior politicians.
Although he was never won an election, Peres served twice as Prime Minister: once between 1984-1986 as part of rotation agreement with Likud's Yitzhak Shamir, and once between 1995-1996 after the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
In 1994 Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, for the Oslo Accords.
Peres has remained an adamant supporter of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority since their inception despite the first Intifada and the Al-Aqsa Intifada. However, Peres supports Ariel Sharon's military policy of operating the Israeli Defence Forces to thwart suicide bombings and uproot the terror infrastructure.
Often, Peres acts as the informal "explainer" of Israel (even when he is in the opposition) since he earned high prestige and respect among the international public opinion and diplomatic circles. Peres advocates Israel's security policy (military counter terror operations and the Israeli West Bank barrier) against international criticism and de-legitimation efforts from pro-Palestinian circles.
Although he celebrated his 80th birthday not long ago (2003), there is a wide consensus within Israel that he is as vigorous and vital as ever.
Shimon Peres is married to Sonya (nee Gelman), and has a daughter, Tzvia (Tziki) Walden-Peres, a linguist, and two sons, Yoni (born 1952) and Chemi, chairman of Pitango Venture Capital, one of Israel’s largest venture capital funds.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin.
Shimon Peres is interested in nanoelectronics.
In 1997 he founded the Peres Center for Peace.
"If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time."
"Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable."
"You can kill a thousand; you can bring an end to life; you cannot kill an idea." —on the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
"With the religious you can hardly negotiate. They think they have supreme permission to kill people and go to war."
"The Arab began to understand that is not poverty creating terror, but terror creating poverty. They are the victims of their own errors."
"The court ignored the fact the right to live is a basic human right. The effectiveness of the tribunal is in its ability to rule against terror, and not only against those who fight it." —on the ICJ ruling regarding the Israeli West Bank barrier.
He is the author of several books, including:
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