Presidents Obama and Clinton to attend funeral Friday
Israel’s ninth President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres died two weeks after a massive stroke at age 93. He will lie in state in the Israeli Knesset on Thursday before a state funeral on Friday. US President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton will attend the funeral along with dozens of world leaders.
“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,” President Obama said in a statement. “Tonight, Michelle and I join people across Israel, the United States and around the world in honoring the extraordinary life of our dear friend Shimon Peres—a Founding Father of the State of Israel and a statesman whose commitment to Israel’s security and pursuit of peace was rooted in his own unshakeable moral foundation and unflagging optimism. I will always be grateful that I was able to call Shimon my friend.”
President Obama continued on a personal note.
“I first visited him in Jerusalem when I was a senator, and when I asked for his advice, he told me that while people often say that the future belongs to the young, it’s the present that really belongs to the young. “Leave the future to me,” he said, “I have time.” And he was right. Whether it was during our conversations in the Oval Office, walking together through Yad Vashem, or when I presented him with America’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, Shimon always looked to the future.
“He was guided by a vision of the human dignity and progress that he knew people of goodwill could advance together. He brought young people from around the world together because he knew they could carry us closer to our ideals of justice and equality.”
Peres’ son and son-in-law announced his death early Wednesday morning, after his condition deteriorated on Tuesday.
“Today, with deep sorrow, we bid farewell to our beloved father, the Ninth President of Israel, Shimon Peres,” his son Chemi told reporters at Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv. “He was one of the founding fathers of the State of Israel, and served our people before we even had a country of our own. He worked tirelessly for Israel from the very first day of the state to the last day of his life.”
Peres, the last of Israel’s founding fathers, was a hawk who was almost singlehandedly responsible for creating Israel’s nuclear program. He then became one of Israel’s staunchest peace advocates, and was behind the 1993 Oslo peace accords, that were supposed to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Former US President Bill Clinton and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton praised Peres as a “leader who championed its security, prosperity, and limitless possibilities from its birth to his last day on earth,” adding that the Middle East had lost “a fervent advocate for peace and reconciliation and for a future where all the children of Abraham build a better tomorrow together. And Hillary and I have lost a true and treasured friend.”
Clinton recalled the days of the Oslo Accords—which were signed when Peres served as foreign minister under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin—describing the Israeli statesman’s elation as peace appeared to be on the horizon.
“I’ll never forget how happy he was 23 years ago when he signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn, heralding a more hopeful era in Israeli-Palestinian relations. 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, and a nation, a region, and a world enhanced by caring and sharing, not torn asunder by the illusions of permanent dominance and perfect truth. His critics called him a dreamer. That he was—a lucid, eloquent dreamer until the very end. Thank goodness. Let those of us who loved him and love his nation keep his dream alive.”
Ironically, Peres, who was a force behind the 1993 Oslo Accords, the most impacting attempt to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians and the mechanism for the creation of the Palestinian Authority, experienced the brain hemorrhage on the 23rd anniversary of the historic signing of the treaty on the White House lawn.
Few politicians in any country live to serve in the number of senior government positions that Peres held during his nearly seven decades of public service. Prior to his final position as President of the State of Israel, he had served at different times as prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, defense, transportation, regional cooperation, immigrant absorption and finance. Peres had also represented five political parties during his career, in 2005 leaving the Labor Party which he had headed to join longtime political rival, the late Ariel Sharon, when he rearranged the government by creating the Kadima Party.
Among achievements during his career spanning almost seventy years, Peres’ legacy lies most notably in his peace, economic, and nuclear initiatives. “His devotion to the state of Israel is not doubted by anybody,” Ephraim Imbar, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center told The Media Line.
“He has had a very unique perspective on the transformation that Israel’s cabinet and society has undergone since the 1950s until now,” Yoram Meital, Professor of Middle Eastern studies at Ben Gurion University said.
“He is noted for being a politician and a factor for Israel in every second of its existence,” David Rubinger, the celebrated photojournalist for Time Life, told The Media Line. “Very few people can say they worked with [Israel’s founding prime minister] David Ben Gurion, who are still alive today.” Ben Gurion was known to be Peres’ mentor.
The elder statesman is best known for supporting peace initiatives in the Middle East, getting Israel out of an economic slump in the 1980s, for making Israel a nuclear superpower in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and as President of Israel. Peres, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role in developing the Oslo Accords, was known for his efforts to create and sustain peace in the Middle East. His visions for peace came from his idea of a “new Middle East,” which was an economic and peace plan for the region, according to Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a professor of political science at Hebrew University.
Aside from the Oslo Accords, the ex-president is acknowledged for his efforts in creating a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. His efforts at maintaining peace in the region materialized in the creation of the Peres Center for Peace, which is a Non-Governmental Organization established to promote a lasting peace.
Through budget restraints, subsidy cuts, and tough fiscal decisions while serving as finance minister, Peres was able to lift Israel out of the economic crisis in the mid-1980s, navigating the economy out of a major catastrophic situation, Meital said.
Peres was also instrumental in enlarging the Israeli military industry and ushering Israel onto the nuclear power stage, while promoting security in the region. “He was the man who, against all advice pushed Israel into the nuclear age. We all know that Israel is a nuclear power and it is only thanks to Peres,” Rubinger noted.
Yet to many, Peres’ most successful job was that of president, a typically ceremonial position in Israeli politics. “He was quite popular in that position,” Rahat said.
While Peres achieved some success in his political endeavors, he was not a successful politician if judged by his penchant for losing almost all of the electoral races he vied in.
“His intentions were great and always very honorable and positive and optimistic but he failed to get the backing of the masses who didn’t trust him,” Rubinger said.
At the same time, Peres remained a symbol of Israel, and even those who didn’t always agree with him mourned his passing.
Katie Beiter, a student journalist at The Media Line, contributed reporting