Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres ʃiːˌmoʊn ˈpɛrɛs ɛz Hebrew שמעון פרס ʃiˌmon ˈpeʁes born Szymon Perski 2 August 1923 28 September 2016 was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of Israel from 2007 to 2014 He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and except for a threemonthlong interregnum in early 2006 served as a member of the Knesset continuously until he was elected president in 2007 Serving in the Knesset for 48 years with the first uninterrupted stretch lasting more than 46 years Peres is the longest serving member in the Knessets history At the time of his retirement from politics in 2014 he was the worlds oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israels founding generation From a young age he was renowned for his oratorical brilliance and was chosen as a protégé by David BenGurion Israels founding father He began his political career in the late 1940s holding several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after the 1948 ArabIsraeli War His first highlevel government position was as deputy director general of defense in 1952 which he attained at the age of 28 and director general from 1953 until 1959 In 1956 he took part in the historic negotiations on the Protocol of Sèvres described by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden as the highest form of statesmanship In 1963 he held negotiations with US President John F Kennedy which resulted in the sale of Hawk antiaircraft missiles to Israel the first sale of US military equipment to Israel Peres represented Mapai Rafi the Alignment Labor and Kadima in the Knesset and led Alignment and Labor Peres first succeeded Yitzhak Rabin as acting prime minister briefly during 1977 before becoming prime minister from 1984 to 1986 As foreign minister under Prime Minister Rabin Peres engineered the 1994 IsraelJordan peace treaty and won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the Oslo Accords peace talks with the Palestinian leadership In 1996 he founded the Peres Center for Peace which has the aim of promoting lasting peace and advancement in the Middle East by fostering tolerance economic and technological development cooperation and wellbeing After suffering a stroke Peres died in 2016 near Tel Aviv Source Article Shimon Peres from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30