Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat
"Peace is costly," Peres once said. "Only thing is, war costs more"
Tel Aviv, IsraelCNN
—
Shimon Peres, the Israeli elder statesman who shared a Nobel Prize for forging a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, has died. He served as a constant force for generations in Israeli politics.
The 93-year-old died after suffering a massive stroke two weeks ago. He was reported to be making progress but doctors said he took a turn for the worse Tuesday.
In top leadership roles over the decades – including Prime Minister and President – the Labor Party veteran became a face of the Jewish State, instantly recognized and well-respected in Israel and across the globe.
“There’s no corner of this country that he hasn’t touched,” Zionist Union Chairman Isaac Herzog once said. “Everywhere he goes around the world, people listen to him.”
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (L), Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (C) and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin display their Nobel Peace Prizes.
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Over 50 years in politics
Peres retired from public office in 2014 after the end of his seven-year term as President. In Israeli politics for more than half a century, he held virtually every position in Cabinet, from minister of defense to Prime Minister, a position he held three times.
He battled Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for Labor Party leadership in the 1980s and 1990s, eventually becoming Rabin’s foreign minister.
In that role, Peres concluded the Oslo Peace Accords, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
“I am very grateful to him for a lifetime of thinking big thoughts and dreaming big dreams and figuring out practical ways to achieve them,” President Bill Clinton once said of a man he considered a friend.
After Rabin was assassinated in 1995, Peres became Prime Minister, calling early elections so the government would have a mandate to pursue a two-state solution. But a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks left Peres struggling to defend the peace process, ultimately costing him the next election.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Former Israel Prime Minister and Nobel laureate Shimon Peres' career in politics spanned several generations. He's seen here during a meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout on May 5, 2010.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Shimon Peres was born on August 2, 1923 in Wisniew, Poland, where he lived before his family migrated to British-mandate Palestine in 1932. He is pictured here, center, with his mother, Sarah, and younger brother Gershon.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Peres is seen here with his wife Sonia Peres and daughter, Ziviah, in 1946. The couple also had two other children, sons Chemi Peres and Yoni Peres.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Peres is seen here at left with Moshe Dayan, center, an Israeli military leader and politician, at the Taj Mahal in India, circa 1950. Peres entered politics in 1959 as a member of the left-wing Mapai party, a precursor to the modern Labor party. His political career lasted more than half a century, and he held virtually every position in Israel's Cabinet.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Peres retired from public office in 2014 after a seven-year term as President. By then, he had been in Israeli politics for more than half a century, holding virtually every position in the Cabinet and emerging as a staunch advocate for peace in the Middle East. Here, Peres sits in his office in Tel Aviv, Israel, in November 1969.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Peres, left, with then-Israel Defense Minister Ariel Sharon on January 2, 1974 in Ras Sudar in Egypt's Sinai Desert. The two were visiting one of the sites of the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Peres, then Israel's Minister of Defense, pointing over Israel's northern border towards Lebanon during a tour of Lebanese border defenses on January 22, 1976.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Defense Minister and acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres speaks with Israeli Arabs before Israelis go to the polls in Umm al-Fahm, Israel, on May 17, 1977 in the country's national elections.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Shimon Peres speaking in the Druze village of Daliyat al-Karmel in Israel on May 10, 1977.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli Labor Party leader Shimon Peres in Paris in 1981. He chaired the left-leaning party until 1992.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, right, consults with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 26, 1986, during a vote in the Israeli parliament, Knesset, about shipments of arms to Iran.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Right-wing Israeli Premier Yitzhak Shamir, center, walks past Labor party leaders Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Shimon Peres during a special Knesset summer session meeting on May 7, 1990, in Jerusalem.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, with an unidentified aide, signs a peace agreement on September 13, 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Oslo, Norway. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, President Bill Clinton and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat look on from behind.
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, left, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin display their Nobel Peace Prizes on December 10, 1994 in Oslo, Norway.
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Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and PLO Leader Yasser Arafat, from left, pose at their one-day Summit of Peacemakers in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on March 13, 1996.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres makes a passionate plea for the Labor party to join a national unity government with the Likud party during a meeting of the party's central committee in Tel Aviv February 26, 2001. Peres' leadership spans decades, and generations. He retired from public office in 2014 after the end of his seven-year term as President.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon attend the 32nd annual memorial ceremony for the late Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Sde Boker on December 7, 2005.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israel's Vice Premier and presidential candidate Shimon Peres casts his ballot during voting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on June 13, 2007, in Jerusalem. Peres' two rivals withdrew from the race after Peres won the first round of voting, clearing the way for him to become Israeli's ninth president.
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Israeli President Shimon Peres, center, joins hands with Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah Khatib, left, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit during their meeting in Jerusalem on July 25, 2007.The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan made a historic visit to Israel to formally present an Arab peace plan, saying they were extending "a hand of peace."
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, congratulates President Shimon Peres of Israel after Peres addressed Turkey's Parliament in Ankara on November 13, 2007, becoming the first Israeli President to speak to a Muslim country's legislature.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres welcomes US President George W. Bush upon his arrival at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 9, 2008.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaches to shake hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres prior to their meeting in Jerusalem on July 22, 2008. Abbas had threatened to withdraw his forces from West Bank cities unless Israel's military halted its raids into the areas.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, then a US Senator from Illinois, walks with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on July 23, 2008.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres stands inside a shelter as a rocket warning siren blares in the southern Israel city of Ashkelon on December 31, 2008. Israel at the time had rejected mounting international pressure to suspend its devastating air offensive against Palestinian militants.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres beside the empty seat of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after Erdogan stormed out of a debate with Peres about the three-week Gaza War at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 29, 2009.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres shakes hands with Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu during their press conference in Jerusalem on February 20, 2009. Peres gave the hawkish Netanyahu, who became Prime Minister the following month, formal permission to put together the country's next government.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres delivers a speech during a rally on October 30, 2010, to mark the 15th anniversary of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the Tel Aviv plaza where he was shot.
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President Barack Obama awards Israeli President Shimon Peres the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at the White House on June 13, 2012.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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NBA star Amare Stoudemire stands with Israeli President Shimon Peres during their meeting at the president's residence in Jerusalem on July 18, 2013. Peres invited Stoudemire to play for Israel's national basketball team because of his ties to Judaism.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres kicks the ball to FC Barcelona's striker Lionel Messi during a soccer clinic in Broomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv on August 4, 2013.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres with Chinese children during a welcome ceremony held by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 8, 2014.
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Pope Francis looks on as Israeli President Shimon Peres, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas greet each other during an evening of peace prayers at the Vatican on June 8, 2014.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Israeli President Shimon Peres speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his residence in Jerusalem on July 15, 2014.
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Newly sworn-in Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, left, and Parliament Speaker Yuli Edelstein applaud outgoing President Shimon Peres during a ceremony at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem on July 24, 2014. Rivlin succeeded Peres, who had promoted peace throughout his long career but whose term ended as Israel was fighting Hamas in Gaza.
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Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, left, former Israeli President Shimon Peres, center, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wear virtual-reality goggles during a presentation at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa on July 21, 2016.
Photos: Peace warrior: The life of Israel's Shimon Peres
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Former President of Israel Shimon Peres attends the Ambrosetti International Forum on September 2, 2016, in Cernobbio, Italy. "There's no corner of this country that he hasn't touched," Zionist Union Chairman Isaac Herzog said of the elderly statesman. "The greatness of Shimon Peres is that he is beyond age. Everywhere he goes around the world, people listen to him."
Making history
As Israel’s ninth President, he addressed the Turkish parliament in 2007, becoming the first Israeli President to speak to a Muslim country’s legislature. He called for peace talks in 2011 with the Palestinians and warned the United Nations against recognizing Palestine as an independent state outside a peace plan. He received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 from President Barack Obama.
After leaving office in 2014 he remained in the public eye, continuing his work for peace in the Middle East.
Peres was 93.
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Story of modern-day Israel
Born in Wisniew, Poland, in 1923, Peres moved to British-mandate Palestine in 1932, where his story became the story of modern day Israel.
During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, he was in charge of purchasing weapons for the Israeli military. He was briefly head of the navy and helped establish the country’s aircraft industry. In the 1950s, he founded the country’s nuclear program, which remains shrouded in secrecy to this day. He would often refer to it as Israel’s “textile industry.”
Peres held many cabinet positions, including transportation secretary.
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Peres entered politics in 1959 as a member of the left-wing Mapai party, a precursor to the modern Labor party. His political career lasted more than half a century, and he held virtually every position in Israel’s Cabinet.
He was Prime Minister three times, but never won an election. He became acting Prime Minister in 1977 when Yitzhak Rabin resigned following a foreign bank account scandal. He became Prime Minister again in a unity government with Yitzhak Shamir in 1984. His final term as Prime Minister came when he stepped into the premiership following the assassination of Rabin in 1995.
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‘He never got the public love’
Many Israelis considered him aloof – an intellectual who wore a suit, not a uniform.
“He never got the public love that he was yearning for,” said Ethan Dor Shav, an Associate Fellow at Jerusalem’s Shalem Center. “He was never hugged by the populace of Israel as our leader.”
When Rabin was assassinated, Peres became Prime Minister for the third and final time, calling early elections so that the government would have a mandate to pursue a two-state solution.
But a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks tarnished his peace process.
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“I know we are moving on a road full of dangers but we know also this is the right road, the best road, the only road upon which we have to move,” Peres said in 1996.
Ultimately, the violence cost Peres the ensuing elections, but he never stopped believing in peace, carrying on the work of rival-turned-colleague Rabin.
“Peace is costly,” Peres said in 2015 on the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination. “Only thing is, war costs more.”
Retired, sort of
In 2007, Peres became Israel’s ninth President, serving in the role until his retirement from politics in 2014 at the age of 91. He wasn’t done yet. After his retirement, he devoted his time to the Peres Center for Peace, an organization that works to build better ties between Israelis and Palestinians.
“The greatness of Shimon Peres is that he is beyond age,” Herzog said.
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Of all the Palestinians, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erakat may have known Peres the best.
“When I met him 25 years ago, I was a young professor,” Erakat said in 2002. “I was angry about something, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Saeb, negotiation in pain and frustration for five years is cheaper than exchanging bullets for five minutes.’”
Hope for children
When asked how he wanted to be remembered, Peres didn’t mention a life of civil service.
“I would like that somebody would write about me that I saved the life of one single child,” Peres said in 2004. “This will satisfy more than anything else.”
Perhaps a better answer came a decade earlier.
“I feel like a person that has served this country rightly and properly,” he said. “And that is, in my judgment, the highest degree a person can feel.”
On this day, there are few Israelis who would disagree.
Tributes from home and abroad
“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,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement from the White House. “Shimon was the essence of Israel itself.”
Peres’ contemporary, former US President Bill Clinton, said that “Israel has lost a leader who championed its security, prosperity, and limitless possibilities from its birth to his last day on earth.”
“He was a genius with a big heart who used his gifts to imagine a future of reconciliation not conflict, economic and social empowerment not anger and frustration,” Clinton added.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu released a statement expressing his sadness for the country’s ninth leader.
“(Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara express deep personal sorrow for the passing of a man cherished by the nation, the (Former) President of Israel Shimon Peres,” the statement read.
It added that the Prime Minister will deliver a special statement Wednesday morning, and will convene his cabinet for a special session of mourning.
Earlier Tuesday, a visibly shaken minister Aryeh Deri, Israel’s defense minister, told reporters that he had been praying for Peres at his bedside.
Canadian Prime Minister added his voice to the tributes, calling Peres “above all, a man of peace.”
CNN’s Joe Sterling and John Vause contributed to this report.
