Shimon Peres is an Israeli politician and statesman whose career spanned more than seven decades. During this time, he was a deputy, held ministerial positions, served as president for 7 years and was at the same time the oldest acting head of state. In addition to political activities, Peres became famous for books, publications and articles on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Family
The politician was born on August 2, 1923 in the Polish Republic (now this territory belongs to Belarus). The boy's name was Senya Persky. His father was a lumber merchant, and his mother was a librarian and Russian teacher. In addition, he had a famous distant relative, Lauren Bacall, recognized as one of the greatest stars in Hollywood.
However, in numerous interviews, Shimon Peres said that his maternal grandfather, who had the academic title of rabbi and was a descendant of the famous founder of the Volozhin Yeshiva, had the greatest influence on his life.
Grandfather remained in the memory of Perez the wisest man. He introduced his grandson to history,religious laws, instilled a love for Russian classics and Jewish poetry. As a result, at an early age, the future politician wrote his first poems, which later received flattering reviews from the national poet Chaim Bialik.
Children's passion remained with Perez for life. Some literary creations were published, the most famous of them in the form of reports with the title "From the Diary of a Woman". Perez released it under a female pseudonym. In addition, he translated literary works into Hebrew and was fond of philosophy, opera and theater.
Moving to Israel
Shimon Peres was 8 years old when his father went to Palestine to trade grain. Three years later, he was followed by his wife and children. Grandfather did not go with them, and after 7 years, along with the rest of his relatives, he was burned in the synagogue by the Germans.
Shimon went to the gymnasium in Tel Aviv. After graduating, he entered the Kibbutz labor school. There he met Sonya Gelman and married her in 1945. After receiving his first education, Perez began working as a farmer and joined the movement advocating the unification and revival of the Jewish people.
At the age of 18, he served as the secretary of the youth socialist organization, then joined the Mapai party, and at the age of 24 he worked in the administration of the Haganah military underground organization.
First steps up the career ladder
Dedication to his work helped Shimon Peres become Assistant Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. During the Arab-Israeli war, he boughtweapons and equipment, recruited military personnel. In 1948, he became the head of the naval department, and a year later - the head of the delegation of the Ministry of Defense, bound for America.
He successfully combined his work with studies at New York and Harvard universities. At the age of 28, he became deputy general director, and a year later he already held his position.
Although Peres was the youngest general director in the history of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, he successfully fulfilled his duties, improved relations with France, took control of the country's budget and industrial enterprises, and transferred the latter to a military footing. The politician understood the importance of the development of science and technology, he supported research work in the military sphere, made a contribution to the creation of nuclear research centers.
Strategic alliance with France
Shimon Peres did not just establish military relations with France - she began to help Israel in armaments and supply tanks. It soon replaced Britain as the main source of ammunition supplies, and after a secret visit by Peres to the French air commander, Israel had two state-of-the-art fighters, an aircraft, additional tanks, radars and guns.
Rapprochement with France was not easy. Peres had to work hard to overcome the hostility of some of the dignitaries, to adapt to the frequent change of government. But the results exceeded all expectations, Israel was able to purchase military equipment worth millions of dollars, and a strategic alliance was established.
Sinai Campaign
France not only helped Israel to arm itself. Representatives of the director of the French Ministry of Defense offered active assistance in the attack on Egypt. This was interesting to the top management, and soon a meeting of delegations from Israel, France and Britain took place. They coordinated the actions of their troops, developed a plan of operation. The ensuing Suez Crisis ended with Egypt's military defeat, and Peres was awarded the Legion of Honor.
At the end of the Sinai campaign, Shimon Peres took up the strengthening of the army and the preparation of new scientific research. He began to improve relations with Germany. Continuing to make purchases of foreign equipment, Peres decided to develop military production in Israel itself, and soon the first training aircraft was produced there.
His next goal was to obtain nuclear weapons. The construction of reactors and production for the isolation of radioactive metals was carried out with the support of France. All information regarding the design of the bombs was classified.
First ups and downs
The political take-off in the biography of Shimon Peres began in 1959, when he became a deputy, and a month and a half later, deputy minister of defense. In his new post, he continued to work in the direction he had taken: he did not give up his intention to create a military industry in Israel and develop a nuclear program, he increased the supply of French weapons and technologies.
However, when there was a conflict in the Mapai political party, Shimon had to leave it. After leaving his post as deputy, hebecame one of the founders of the movement called the List of Workers of Israel. So he ended up in opposition to the government.
Shimon Peres' quote about this time reflects well the cardinality of the changes that have taken place in his life. He recalled how he sat in a small stuffy room, mired in petty worries and affairs and collecting funds for the functioning of his movement, while only six months ago he was in charge of the apparatus of the Ministry of Defense and incredible money passed through his hands.
Ministerial posts
Differences in Mapai were resolved, and soon she, along with the "List of Workers of Israel" and another Jewish political party, united, creating Labor. Another name for the new formation was the "Party of Labor", Perez took the place of one of the two secretaries in it.
When Labor won the election, Perez became the minister of absorption, then transport, and then communications. The politician actively took on new responsibilities, implemented the connection of Israel to satellite communications and improved telephone lines.
Engaging with the Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin, who became the new leader of the party, nominated Peres for the post of Minister of Defense. But he soon regretted this decision, as politicians became intra-party rivals. Their enmity interfered with the work, they could not get rid of disagreements on the establishment of diplomatic relations with Jordan. But when a plane with Israeli citizens on board was hijacked by terrorists, Peres was able to persuade Rabin to abandon the negotiations, as originally planned, andcarry out a military operation to free the hostages. The raid was completed successfully.
The conflict with Rabin ended when the shadow of financial scandals fell on the current prime minister. Perez took the place of an opponent and began to actively prepare for the next election, but was defeated. Then he had to become the leader of the parliamentary opposition and deputy chairman of the non-governmental organization Socialist International.
Failure in Labor
Perez was not going to retreat, and again participated in the elections at the head of Labor. However, he failed this time as well. The third election also did not end with the victory of Peres and his Labor Party, and he took the post of prime minister in the government of national unity, the post of minister of the interior and, at the same time, of religious affairs. Here he achieved some success: troops were withdrawn from Lebanon, and the internal political situation in the country stabilized. Then he took the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
In his new post, he decided to intrigue against the center-right Likud party, which disrupted negotiations with the Palestinians. The ultra-religious parties were supposed to help him in this, but they violated the agreement after the fall of the government, and the new leadership was formed without the participation of the Labor Party.
Within the party, there were many dissatisfied with this situation and, without detracting from the merits of Peres as an outstanding politician, they believed that he was not suitable for the role of their leader. Rabin returned to leadership. Then Shimon took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Improving relations with the Middle East andthe conclusion of agreements with the UN and Jordan was largely the merit of Shimon Peres, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1994.
The politician made his last attempt to become the leader of the Labor Party in 1996, a year after the assassination of Rabin by ill-wishers. He was nominated as Labor's candidate for prime minister, but was defeated and left the party.
Forever second
The series of failures in the biography of Shimon Peres, which began with his first election to the position of Labor leader, did not end with his withdrawal from the party. After working as the Minister of Regional Cooperation, he again led the Labor Party, but a year later he lost it to another. While he was deputy prime minister, the leadership changed in the party and, after the resignation of its next leader, his position again passed to Shimon. But this did not last long: after a while, the politician again lost the elections and moved to the Kadima party, where he took only second place. Having missed the opportunity to take a leading position in any party many times, he still always remained in big politics.
The position of the President
The talented politician was predicted for a long time to be president, but in 2000 he lost the election to Moshe Katsav. However, after 6 years, Katsav became the object of scandalous accusations. Many wanted to see Peres succeed him, which happened in 2007.
Perez won less than half of the vote in the first round of elections, but two other candidates withdrew their candidacies in the second round. The post of head of state passed to Peres for lack ofother candidates. On July 15, 2007, he laid a wreath at the memorial to fallen soldiers and was inaugurated. After taking the oath, he announced that he intended to make the state a peacemaker and with a kind word remembered the people who played a big role in his political career - the first Prime Minister of Israel Ben-Gurion and his rival Rabin.
The political credo of the new president was well reflected by Shimon Peres's quote about his dreams of a renewed Middle East, where there would be no enmity between peoples. At the same time, he claimed that he did not care about the rumors that spread about him, and he was going to persevere in achieving his goal.
More than half of Israel's citizens were satisfied with his policies and wanted to see him as president for a second term. However, Pérez abandoned this prospect and in 2014 handed over the position to a successor. He himself took care of his fund and founded the center of modern technologies.
Opinion on politics in Russia
Of course, an experienced politician has a certain opinion about the internal and external affairs of different countries. The words of Shimon Peres about Putin and Russian politics are interesting. He believed that Vladimir Vladimirovich was guided by outdated rules in his activities. Peres was led to this conclusion by the history of the company of Leonid Nevzlin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The politician opined that Putin selected the company to control revenues, and thus prevented the transformation of Russia's culture. As a result, Khodorkovsky was exiled to Siberia, and Nevzlin emigrated to Israel. He also responded in an unflattering way aboutthe annexation of Crimea to Russia, the situation in the eastern part of Ukraine and the bombing of Syria from Iran.
About Putin and America Shimon Peres said that victory will never be on the side of Russia, regardless of the actions of its president. He argued this by the fact that the Russian people are dying out, and this is the president's fault, which he will not be forgiven for. America has nothing to worry about, since its territory borders on friendly Mexico and Canada, while Japan, China and Afghanistan, next to Russia, are unhappy that the huge country does not share land and fresh water.
Death
The former president's decline began in 2016 when he suffered a myocardial infarction. Perez was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent an arterial catheterization. After the operation, there was an improvement, but in September the politician had a stroke, after which his condition was assessed by doctors as serious. Perez had to be put into an artificial coma and connected to a life support machine.
This procedure did not give the expected effect, new problems began to appear in the form of kidney failure and other pathologies. The doctors could not do anything, and the politician died on September 28, 2016.
His wife passed away 5 years before him. For the past 20 years, the couple did not live together, although they did not get divorced. They are survived by two sons, a daughter and six grandchildren. None of them followed in the footsteps of their father: the daughter became a professor of philology, the eldest son became an agronomist and veterinarian, and the youngest became a pilot, andthen a businessman.
Biography hoaxes
The official biography of the politician raised questions from some people. Thus, correspondent David Bedane considered Peres's assertions about serving in the army and leadership in the navy based on Israeli military documents, which indicated that the future president performed only clerical work in the Ministry of Defense, and therefore could not take part in activities of the Haganah and other groups. Moreover, the fact that the politician did not serve in military units was the subject of ridicule at the beginning of his career.
The information that Peres was nothing more than a political clerk was confirmed by the university teacher Yitzhaki, who is a major specialist in the personnel of the Israel Defense Forces. Perez's press secretary and his biographer were not so categorical. They agreed that Shimon did not serve in the army, but claimed that he still led the country's naval forces, however, they voiced different dates for this event. Answering questions, the spokeswoman reminded reporters of how much Perez did for the country, regardless of how truthful his military biography was. The politician himself claimed that he was a private in the army and refused higher ranks until he was made head of the navy.
Awards and memory
Of course, the politician has made a huge contribution to the development of the state, and the Israelis are well aware of this. During his life, he received 7 major awards, the photo of Shimon Peres was placed on the Gold Medal of the US Congress awarded to him. He also had a presidential medal, was an honorary professor and a citizen. In 2008, the Queen of England made him a Knight of the Grand Cross. Shimon Peres became the Nobel laureate together with Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
Descendants cherish the memory of the great politician. The aphorisms of Shimon Peres are often quoted by his followers. In the village of Vishnevo, where the future president was born, a museum is dedicated to him in the local House of Culture. There you can find many photos of Shimon Peres and his family.
A documentary film was made for the 90th anniversary of the politician. It talked about the history of the Middle East region and the role played in it by Shimon Peres, "a man from the future." Many famous people express their opinion in the film: presidents, prime ministers and state secretaries of different countries, writers, film directors and many others. The film about Shimon Peres "Man from the Future" is not very long, its duration is about 70 minutes, but anyone interested in politics will be interested to see it.
The charm of Peres as an interlocutor, his education, broad outlook and political talent will forever remain in the memory of posterity. He was a strong-willed person who not only knew how to set promising tasks, but also knew what measures to take in order to fulfill them.
