Statesman, Nobel Prize Laureate, Former Prime Minister,
Ninth President (Elect) of the State of Israel
Born in Belorussia, Shimon Peres (originally Persky) settled in Eretz Yisrael with his parents in 1934. He studied at the Ben Shemen Agricultural School and was a founder of Kibbutz Alumot in the Jordan Valley. He was elected secretary of the labor-oriented youth movement HaNoar Ha'Oved in 1943.
A protege of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, Peres entered government service in the Ministry of Defense in 1948. During the War of Independence he was responsible for arms purchases and recruitment; in 1948 he became head of the Israel Navy; in 1953 he was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Defense, a position he held until 1959. During his tenure at the Defense Ministry in the 1950s and 1960s, he was instrumental in planning the Sinai Campaign (1956). He reorganized the ministry, strengthened relations with France and was also instrumental in the establishment of Israel Aircraft Industries, as well as the Dimona project leading to Israel's nuclear capability.
Shimon Peres originally entered the Knesset with David Ben Gurion's Mapai party, eventually switching, along with Ben Gurion, to the independent Rafi list. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1959 and was appointed deputy Minister of Defense, a position he held from 1959-1965. In 1967, he initiated the negotiations which led to the formation of the Israel Labor Party and became its deputy secretary-general.
In 1969, he joined the government as a Minister without Portfolio and was responsible for economic development in the administered territories after the Six Day War. He then became Minister of Immigrant Absorption and later, Minister of Transport and Communications, a position he held from 1970-1974. In 1974, Peres became Minister of Information and later, Minister of Defense (1974-1977) in the first government headed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In this position, he signed the Interim Agreement with Egypt in 1975, had ministerial responsibility for the Entebbe rescue operation (1976) and opened the Good Fence on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
When Rabin resigned from the government in 1977, Shimon Peres became head of the Labor Party, which went into opposition following the election of the first Likud government. In 1984, a national unity government was formed, following indecisive results in a subsequent general election. Peres shared the office of Prime Minister in rotation with the Likud bloc's Yitzhak Shamir: first, Peres was Prime Minister and Shamir was Foreign Minister, then they changed positions. During his term as Prime Minister (1984-1986), Israel withdrew from Lebanon to the Security Zone in the South.
Shimon Peres subsequently became Finance Minister in a Likud-led government, but left office in 1990, when the coalition collapsed, because of differences over peace talks with the Palestinians. In 1992, Shimon Peres was defeated by Yitzhak Rabin in the contest for the chairmanship of the Labor party. Labor won the general election that year and Shimon Peres became Rabin's Foreign Minister. As Foreign Minister in the second government headed by Yitzhak Rabin, he helped negotiate the Declaration of Principles between the PLO and Israel, signed in September 1993. In recognition of his efforts, Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, alongside Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat. He continued to be involved in the negotiations for peace, in successive agreements, including the Peace Treaty with Jordan in 1994.
When Prime Minster Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, a deeply shaken Shimon Peres took the lead. He formed a new government, in which he served as both Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, but was defeated in the general elections the following year by Yitzhak Shamir's Likud successor, Benjamin Netanyahu. In 1997, former IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak took over the helm of the Labor party from Shimon Peres, and won the 1999 General Election.
Labor proposed Peres as candidate for the Presidential election in 2000, but this was won for the first time by a Likud candidate, Moshe Katsav. Barak's government did not last, and this led to a unique Special Election for the Premiership in 2001, in which Barak lost to Likud leader Ariel Sharon. Shimon Peres returned to active political life as Foreign Minister in the Likud-led National Unity government from 2001-late 2002, when Labor left the government and a General Election was declared.
In disarray after its election defeat to the Likud in 2003, the Labor Party approached Shimon Peres to lead the party provisionally, in order to rebuild it. His leadership was repeatedly challenged - particularly during the Likud-Labor coalition that was built with Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon solely to implement the Disengagement Plan, during which Shimon Peres held the post of Vice Premier.
Peres lost the leadership of the Labor Party to Amir Peretz in late 2005 and the Likud government fell, in a series of domino effects that began the run-up to a General Election. Shortly after, Peres joined Ariel Sharon in the latter's newly formed Kadima Party (center), resigning his Knesset seat to enable him to play a different political role, but the Prime Minister suffered a major stroke and was hospitalized in critical condition. Shimon Peres became the No.2 persona in the Kadima Party, was elected to the 17th Knesset, where Kadima formed the government coalition, and continued to engage in diplomatic activity.
On 13th June 2007, Shimon Peres was elected the ninth President of the State of Israel.
Shimon Peres is an eminent international figure and has been active not only as a member of the Israel Labor Party, the Knesset, and the Israel government: he is a longstanding member the Socialist International, an international elder statesman, and is the founder of the Peres Peace Center (1997), which sponsors peaceful cooperative and development projects. He is also the author of numerous books.
Further References
English
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=104
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/State/Shimon+Peres.htm
http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1994/peres-bio.html
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/per0bio-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres
http://www.peres-center.org
Hebrew
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/heb/mk.asp?mk_individual_id_t=104
http://www.ynet.co.il/yaan/0,7340,L-19347,00.html
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/50/heads/peres.htm
http://elections.walla.co.il/?w=/8124/581/1/@entity
http://www.snunit.k12.il/seder/flux/peres.html
Russian
http://www.migzar.ru/articles/141.html
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/russian/people/StatesMen/Peres.html
Spanish
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFAES/Facts%20About%20Israel/Shimn%20Peres
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres