Shimon Peres - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/shimon-peres/","20170822001404","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1503360844"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Shimon Peres - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content=""When you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and resentful." For more than half a century, Shimon Peres served the State of Israel and the cause of peace with a courage and determination born of intimate familiarity with the horrors of war. He served in the defense forces at the founding of the State of Israel, heading the Navy at age 25; at 29 he was Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Over the course of a 48-year career in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, he held every major cabinet post and served as Prime Minister in some of Israel's darkest hours. He first served as Prime Minister in 1977, after the resignation of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1984, he headed a National Unity government that put an end to a ruinous inflation, and extricated Israel from a torturous military involvement in Lebanon. As Foreign Minister he initiated the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and completed a long-sought peace treaty with Jordan. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Price for Peace with Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Upon Rabin's assassination, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister once again, serving simultaneously as Minister of Defense. He later served yet again as Foreign Minister in a government of National Unity. For many years he endured criticism, even within his own Labor Party, for his zealous pursuit of peace, but his determination never wavered. He has always placed the welfare of the nation as a whole ahead of partisan interest. At the age of 82, after serving another term as Party Chairman, he left the Labor Party to support a new centrist formation committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. In June 2007, he was elected to serve as the ninth President of Israel, the country's official Head of State. He was the first former Prime Minister to attain the Presidency of Israel, but long before winning this honor, Shimon Peres had won a place in history as one of his country's greatest statesmen and one of the world's great champions of the cause of peace. "/> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Shimon Peres - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"When you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and resentful."</p> <p class="inputText">For more than half a century, Shimon Peres served the State of Israel and the cause of peace with a courage and determination born of intimate familiarity with the horrors of war. He served in the defense forces at the founding of the State of Israel, heading the Navy at age 25; at 29 he was Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Over the course of a 48-year career in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, he held every major cabinet post and served as Prime Minister in some of Israel's darkest hours.</p> <p class="inputText">He first served as Prime Minister in 1977, after the resignation of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1984, he headed a National Unity government that put an end to a ruinous inflation, and extricated Israel from a torturous military involvement in Lebanon. As Foreign Minister he initiated the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and completed a long-sought peace treaty with Jordan. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Price for Peace with Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Upon Rabin's assassination, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister once again, serving simultaneously as Minister of Defense. He later served yet again as Foreign Minister in a government of National Unity.</p> <p class="inputText">For many years he endured criticism, even within his own Labor Party, for his zealous pursuit of peace, but his determination never wavered. He has always placed the welfare of the nation as a whole ahead of partisan interest. At the age of 82, after serving another term as Party Chairman, he left the Labor Party to support a new centrist formation committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. In June 2007, he was elected to serve as the ninth President of Israel, the country's official Head of State. He was the first former Prime Minister to attain the Presidency of Israel, but long before winning this honor, Shimon Peres had won a place in history as one of his country's greatest statesmen and one of the world's great champions of the cause of peace.</p> <table class="rightHandPart cellBgNotActive" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="5" align="right"></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/peres-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"When you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and resentful."</p> <p class="inputText">For more than half a century, Shimon Peres served the State of Israel and the cause of peace with a courage and determination born of intimate familiarity with the horrors of war. He served in the defense forces at the founding of the State of Israel, heading the Navy at age 25; at 29 he was Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Over the course of a 48-year career in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, he held every major cabinet post and served as Prime Minister in some of Israel's darkest hours.</p> <p class="inputText">He first served as Prime Minister in 1977, after the resignation of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1984, he headed a National Unity government that put an end to a ruinous inflation, and extricated Israel from a torturous military involvement in Lebanon. As Foreign Minister he initiated the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and completed a long-sought peace treaty with Jordan. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Price for Peace with Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Upon Rabin's assassination, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister once again, serving simultaneously as Minister of Defense. He later served yet again as Foreign Minister in a government of National Unity.</p> <p class="inputText">For many years he endured criticism, even within his own Labor Party, for his zealous pursuit of peace, but his determination never wavered. He has always placed the welfare of the nation as a whole ahead of partisan interest. At the age of 82, after serving another term as Party Chairman, he left the Labor Party to support a new centrist formation committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. In June 2007, he was elected to serve as the ninth President of Israel, the country's official Head of State. He was the first former Prime Minister to attain the Presidency of Israel, but long before winning this honor, Shimon Peres had won a place in history as one of his country's greatest statesmen and one of the world's great champions of the cause of peace.</p> <table class="rightHandPart cellBgNotActive" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="5" align="right"></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Shimon Peres - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/peres-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/>  <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://s.w.org/"/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/web/20170822001404cs_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/dist/styles/main-2a51bc91cb.css"> </head> <body class="achiever-template-default single single-achiever postid-2964 shimon-peres sidebar-primary">  <header 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class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Shimon Peres</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Nobel Prize for Peace</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-2964 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-diplomat careers-government-official"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">If you want to serve the future, don't be afraid to belong to a minority.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Israel's Statesman of Peace</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 21, 1923 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 28, 2016 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p>Shimon Peres was born in the village of Vishneva in White Russia. Long a part of the Russian Empire, the district was ruled by Poland between the world wars, and now lies in an independent Belarus. Like many of their neighbors, the parents of Shimon Peres were already committed to Zionism, the movement to secure a Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.</p> <p>As anti-Semitic violence escalated in central Europe, the family resolved to make the long-awaited move to the Holy Land. In 1932, Peres’s father traveled to the new Jewish city of Tel Aviv in British-controlled Palestine, to prepare the way for the rest of the family. Young Shimon, along with the rest of the family, joined his father in 1934. In all, half of the residents of Vishneva emigrated to Palestine. Those who remained behind, including Shimon Peres’s grandparents and uncle, were massacred by the invading Germans and their local collaborators during the Second World War. The Jews of Vishneva were locked inside their synagogue and burned alive.</p> <figure id="attachment_20105" style="width: 2052px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20105 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20105 size-full lazyload" alt="1934: Berl Katznelson (1887-1944), founder of Israel's national labor federation, mentor of Shimon Peres. " width="2052" height="3066" data-sizes="(max-width: 2052px) 100vw, 2052px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934.jpg 2052w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934-254x380.jpg 254w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934-509x760.jpg 509w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1934: Berl Katznelson (1887-1944), was one of the intellectual founders of Labor Zionism, instrumental to the establishment to the modern state of Israel, and the editor of <em>Davar</em>, the first daily newspaper of the worker’s movement. Katznelson was known for “his desire for peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews in Israel.”</figcaption></figure><p>In the land of Israel, young Peres became active in the socialist youth group Hanoar Haoved (Working Youth). At 15, he chose to study in an agricultural school, Ben-Shemen, which operated as an autonomous community of young people. Shortly after his arrival, he joined the armed underground, the Haganah, to defend the youth village from the frequent sniper attacks by its Arab neighbors. His writing and debating skills soon caught the attention of the leaders of the Mapai labor party, Berl Katznelson and David Ben-Gurion.</p> <p>In 1947, the British resolved to leave Palestine, and the United Nations voted to partition the territory into an Arab state and a Jewish one. When the British withdrew the following year, and Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel in the land allotted it by the United Nations, seven Arab countries immediately declared war on the new republic. Although the United States and the Soviet Union both extended diplomatic recognition to Israel, they observed a complete embargo against providing arms to the new state, while the Arab states continued to receive arms from Britain.</p> <figure id="attachment_20104" style="width: 1582px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20104 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20104 size-full lazyload" alt="David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel." width="1582" height="1239" data-sizes="(max-width: 1582px) 100vw, 1582px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion.jpg 1582w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion-380x298.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion-760x595.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. On May 14, 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he helped write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces. He was known as “Israel’s founding father.”</figcaption></figure><p>Although young Shimon Peres was only a private in the new Israel Defense Force, he was assigned to the high command and given responsibility for areas including manpower, military intelligence and arms procurement, and was even tasked with directing the fledgling state’s tiny navy. Israel survived its first war, and settled into an uneasy truce with its Arab neighbors.</p> <p>Shimon Peres served as director of the Defense Ministry delegation in the United States in the early 1950s, and continued his education at the New School for Social Research in New York City, and at Harvard. In 1953, at age 29, he was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. He carefully nurtured a relationship with the French government, which discreetly supplied the new republic with the arms it needed for its defense. As Director General, he helped oversee the dazzling Sinai campaign of 1956, led by his close political ally Moshe Dayan. He established Israel’s electronics and aviation industries and built Israel’s first nuclear power station at Dimona with French assistance.</p> <figure id="attachment_20129" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20129 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20129 size-full lazyload" alt="August 1, 1967: Knesset Member Shimon Peres and Navy Commander Aluf Shlomo Harel chat during a luncheon held by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in Jerusalem." width="2280" height="1582" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel-380x264.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel-760x527.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">August 1967: Knesset member Shimon Peres and Navy Commander Aluf Shlomo Harel during a luncheon at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in Jerusalem. Peres served as cabinet minister in the government.</figcaption></figure><p>In 1959, he first won election to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, the beginning of a parliamentary career of over 40 years. Peres served as Deputy Defense Minister from 1959 until 1965, when a long-simmering conflict within the ruling labor party, the Mapai, led Prime Minister Ben-Gurion to break with the party and lead a separate faction, the Rafi, or Workers’ List, in the following election. Ben-Gurion’s closest followers, including Peres and Dayan, followed Ben-Gurion and served as minority members in the next session of the Knesset.</p> <p>Over the next few years, Peres succeeded in mediating between Ben-Gurion and the rest of the Labor leadership. Along with another estranged faction, they formed a larger reunited Labor Party, Avoda, in 1968. Over the next years, Peres served as a cabinet minister in governments headed by Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir.</p> <figure id="attachment_20127" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20127 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20127 size-full lazyload" alt="October 15, 1976: Israel's Defense Minister Shimon Peres stands next to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during a visit to the ruins of a synagogue in the West Bank City of Hebron. (Reuters)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">October 1976: Israel’s Defense Minister Peres stands with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during a visit to the ruins of a synagogue in the West Bank City of Hebron. Rabin was fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1974-77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Rabin was a legendary symbol of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.</figcaption></figure><p>In the Labor government headed by Yitzhak Rabin from 1974 to 1977, Peres served as Minister of Defense. He led the Israel Defense Force’s recovery from the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and oversaw the disengagement of forces on the Egyptian front, laying the groundwork for the eventual peace settlement between Egypt and Israel. He also advocated for the military option that led to the successful rescue of a planeful of airline passengers from terrorists who had landed a hijacked airplane at Entebbe, Uganda. In 1977, Rabin resigned as Prime Minister and designated Peres as his successor. In the next election, Labor suffered its first electoral defeat, and Peres faced the arduous task of rebuilding the shattered party.</p> <figure id="attachment_20118" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20118 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20118 size-full lazyload" alt="May 1984: In his office as Chairman of the Labor Party, Shimon Peres sits beneath a portrait of his mentor, founder of the modern state of Israel, David Ben-Gurion. (Bettmann/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="3372" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26-257x380.jpg 257w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26-514x760.jpg 514w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">May 1984: Chairman of the Labor Party, Shimon Peres, sits beneath a portrait of his mentor, David Ben-Gurion.</figcaption></figure><p>In the election of 1984, although Labor succeeded in winning the largest share of seats in the Knesset, it lacked the majority necessary to form a government on its own. Peres made the difficult decision to invite Labor’s principal rival, the Likud party, into a government of National Unity, in which Peres would serve as Prime Minister for two years, to be followed by the Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir for two years. Peres assumed power with inflation running at 400 percent annually. He mounted an all-out campaign against inflation, securing wage freezes from the labor unions, price controls from industry, and massive cuts from every department of government. In the first month after the plan was implemented, inflation dropped dramatically, and by year’s end had fallen to an acceptable level. As Prime Minister, Peres also effected the withdrawal of Israeli troops from most of Lebanon, and accomplished the airlift of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel when a revolutionary dictatorship threatened their security.</p> <p>At the end of his short term, he resisted the urging of his party comrades to break his agreement with the Likud party. He handed over the reins of power, as agreed, and served the National Unity government for the next two years as Foreign Minister. In this capacity, he negotiated secretly with King Hussein of Jordan, reaching an agreement he believes would have ended the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the end, Prime Minister Shamir rejected the agreement, handing Peres one of the most painful disappointments of his long career.</p> <figure id="attachment_20117" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20117 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20117 size-full lazyload" alt="September 13, 1993: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands after signing the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at the White House. President Bill Clinton stands behind them. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres looks on at left. (Richard T. Nowitz/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="1711" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289-380x285.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289-760x570.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">September 13, 1993: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands after signing the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at the White House. President Bill Clinton stands behind them. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres looks on at left. (Richard T. Nowitz/CORBIS)</figcaption></figure><p>The 1986 elections produced a coalition government led by the Likud. Peres agreed to serve as Finance Minister. In 1992, he lost a party leadership vote to his old comrade Yitzhak Rabin. The following election returned Labor to power, with Rabin as Prime Minister and Peres as Foreign Minister. This time, Peres achieved the two greatest diplomatic successes of his career, starting with the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993. Shimon Peres shared the Nobel Prize for Peace with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for negotiating this agreement. Despite the many setbacks the peace process has suffered since 1993, it still appears most likely that any future lasting peace in the region will be achieved through the framework of the Oslo Agreement. A peace treaty with Jordan followed shortly thereafter.</p> <figure id="attachment_20627" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20627 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO..jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20627 size-full lazyload" alt="December 10, 1994: The Nobel Peace Prize laureates for 1994 in Oslo. From left to right: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin שלושת חתני פרס נובל לשלום לשנת 1994 באוסלו שבנורבגיה. (מימין לשמאל): ראש הממשלה יצחק רבין, שר החוץ שמעון פרס ויו"ר אש"ף יאסר עראפת." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO..jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO.-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO.-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO..jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">December 10, 1994: The Nobel Peace Prize laureates for 1994 hold their Nobel Diploma and medal in Oslo. Left to Right: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.</figcaption></figure><p>In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist opposed to the peace process, and Shimon Peres was once again called on to serve as Prime Minister. He served simultaneously as Defense Minister. After a fresh outbreak of violence, Peres narrowly lost a reelection bid in 1996. He served for another year as Chairman of the Labor Party, and resigned in 1997 to found the Peres Center for Peace, a nonpartisan, non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of peace in the Middle East. Over the course of his career, he wrote close to a dozen books on history, literature and politics, including his 1993 autobiography, <em>Battling for Peace.</em></p> <figure id="attachment_28807" style="width: 1536px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-28807 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-28807 lazyload" alt="2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel" width="1536" height="1024" data-sizes="(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150.jpg 1536w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Elie Wiesel presents the Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award to Shimon Peres at 2003 International Achievement Summit ceremony in Washington, D.C.</figcaption></figure><p>In 2001 and 2002, Shimon Peres served again as Minister of Foreign Affairs in a National Unity government headed by the Likud. Labor withdrew from this coalition in November of 2002. After suffering another electoral defeat in 2003, the Labor Party again called on Shimon Peres, now 79, to serve as its Chairman. In 2005, Peres was unseated as Chairman of the Labor Party. Within weeks, he electrified the political world by announcing that he was leaving the party he helped found, and announced his support for the candidacy of an old political adversary, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had himself recently left the Likud to found a new, centrist party, Kadima. Peres maintained that the new party would have the best chance of achieving the long-sought peace settlement with the Palestinians.</p> <figure id="attachment_20125" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20125 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20125 size-full lazyload" alt="June 26, 2014: President of Israel Shimon Peres is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, beside Speaker of the House Republican John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. (Michael Reynolds)" width="2280" height="1518" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">June 26, 2014: President of Israel Shimon Peres is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, beside Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, at U.S. Capitol in Washington.</figcaption></figure><p>When Ariel Sharon was felled by a stroke, Ehud Olmert assumed leadership of the Kadima party. In the 2006 election, Peres won re-election to the Knesset on the Kadima slate. Olmert formed a broad-based coalition government, with Peres serving as Vice Premier. In June 2007, the Knesset elected Shimon Peres to serve as President of Israel. On his election as President, Peres resigned his seat in the Knesset, bringing to an end the longest parliamentary career in his country’s history. As Head of State, the President’s role transcends the divisions of party politics. The election of Shimon Peres to the Presidency was the ultimate recognition of his lifelong service to his country. The Israeli constitution allows the President a single seven-year term. Shimon Peres completed his service as President in July 2014, a few weeks before his 91st birthday.</p> <figure id="attachment_23036" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-23036 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-23036 size-full lazyload" alt="September 30, 2016: US President Barack Obama delivers a speech during the funeral ceremony held for the Israel's former President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel on . Shimon Peres passed away on September 28, 2016, at the age of 93, two weeks after suffering a stroke. (Photo by Pool / Amos Ben Gershom / GPO /Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)" width="2280" height="1518" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">September 30, 2016: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a speech during the funeral ceremony held for Israel’s former President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel. Shimon Peres passed away on September 28, 2016, at the age of 93, two weeks after suffering a stroke. This was only the second time in nearly eight years in office that President Obama traveled overseas for the funeral of a foreign leader, after Nelson Mandela, and indeed, he compared Shimon Peres to the South African leader. President Obama tried to explain the unlikely friendship that developed between an African-American from Hawaii and a child of the shtetl who grew up to lead Israel. “We shared a love of words and books and history and, perhaps like most politicians, we shared, too, a great joy in hearing ourselves talk,” he said. “But beyond that, I think our friendship was rooted in the fact that I could somehow see myself in his story and maybe he could see himself in mine.” (Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1">Shimon Peres was the last survivor of the generation of leaders that founded the modern state of Israel. When he died following a stroke at the age of 93, his passing was noted as the end of an era.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>His funeral in Jerusalem was attended by representatives of more than 75 countries, including President Obama and former President Clinton from the United States, the Presidents of France and Mexico, the Chancellor of Germany, two former British Prime Ministers, the Prime Minister of Canada, the King of Spain, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. President Clinton in his eulogy, described Peres as a “champion of our common humanity. He started life as Israel’s brightest student, became its best teacher and ended up its biggest dreamer.” Clinton went on to say, “He lived 93 years in a state of constant wonder over the unbelievable potential of all the rest of us to rise above our wounds, our resentments, our fears to make the most of today and claim the promise of tomorrow.” Shimon Peres, a man who made a legacy of bridging divides, there was one final act of reconciliation: he was buried between two onetime rivals, Yitzhak Rabin and another former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2003 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.diplomat">Diplomat</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.government-official">Government Official</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 21, 1923 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 28, 2016 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">“When you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and resentful.”</p> <p class="inputText">For more than half a century, Shimon Peres served the State of Israel and the cause of peace with a courage and determination born of intimate familiarity with the horrors of war. He served in the defense forces at the founding of the State of Israel, heading the Navy at age 25; at 29 he was Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Over the course of a 48-year career in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, he held every major cabinet post and served as Prime Minister in some of Israel’s darkest hours.</p> <p class="inputText">He first served as Prime Minister in 1977, after the resignation of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1984, he headed a National Unity government that put an end to a ruinous inflation, and extricated Israel from a torturous military involvement in Lebanon. As Foreign Minister he initiated the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and completed a long-sought peace treaty with Jordan. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Price for Peace with Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Upon Rabin’s assassination, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister once again, serving simultaneously as Minister of Defense. He later served yet again as Foreign Minister in a government of National Unity.</p> <p class="inputText">For many years he endured criticism, even within his own Labor Party, for his zealous pursuit of peace, but his determination never wavered. He has always placed the welfare of the nation as a whole ahead of partisan interest. At the age of 82, after serving another term as Party Chairman, he left the Labor Party to support a new centrist formation committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. In June 2007, he was elected to serve as the ninth President of Israel, the country’s official Head of State. He was the first former Prime Minister to attain the Presidency of Israel, but long before winning this honor, Shimon Peres had won a place in history as one of his country’s greatest statesmen and one of the world’s great champions of the cause of peace.</p> <table class="rightHandPart cellBgNotActive" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="5" align="right"></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/uErHbzzORS4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=3937&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_19_06_25.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_19_06_25.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Israel's Statesman of Peace</h2> <div class="sans-2">Washington, D.C.</div> <div class="sans-2">May 2, 2003</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtextfirst"><b>Can you tell us how you approached the negotiations that ultimately led to the Oslo Accord with the Palestinians, and your winning the Nobel Peace Prize? It seems you were learning and listening where other people might not.</b></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/_RAjT9-UiWg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_07_42_28.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_07_42_28.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">Shimon Peres: At the beginning, I thought that we have to make peace with King Hussein. That would eventually represent both the Jordanians and the Palestinians. I think by geography, and the reason — we are a triangle: Jordan, Palestine and ourselves. So I went and negotiated with King Hussein secretly, and we reached an agreement. The rest of the negotiations took place in London, at a private home of a friend of the King and a friend of mine. I remember that the wife of this person, who is a lawyer, sent away all of our staff, and she cooked herself, and at the end of the dinner, I suggested to the King that we should go and wash the dishes — and the King was so happy to do so, but she wouldn’t let us, so we didn’t do it. Anyway, we sat for eight hours, and we worked out our agreement. I think this was the best agreement we ever had. But at that time, we had the National Unity Government, 50 percent Likud and 50 percent us, and the Likud Party did not agree, so we lost maybe our best opportunity for peace, to my deep regret.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_20120" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20120 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20120 size-full lazyload" alt="1985: Chief of Staff Moshe Levy, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Prime Minister Shimon Peres review a parade of the Israeli Air Force. (David Rubinger/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="1507" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780-760x502.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1985: Chief of Staff Moshe Levy, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Prime Minister Shimon Peres review a parade.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">Then I thought, “My God, we don’t have a choice but to negotiate with the Palestinians, with the PLO, with Arafat.” We had many contacts with the PLO people, but I noticed, like many people in exile, they have a tendency to make from every problem an ideology, and from non-ideology a solution. So you argue and argue and argue endlessly.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ymUySfIyeSA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=134&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_43_24_25.Still016-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_43_24_25.Still016-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I was looking for a person among the Palestinians who can come down to earth, because the arguments are well-known by both sides, and it’s almost a waste of time to begin and blame and accuse and demand. Then, among the many contacts, there was one person that — I asked him to do something which for me would be a test, and for him very difficult. You know, we have had two levels of negotiations, one directly with the Palestinians, and the other which is called the “multinational negotiations.” One was about the borders, and the other was about the relations, with the participation of many nations. Practically everybody participated. One of those groups was dealing with refugees, headed by a representative of Canada. We were supposed to nominate a person to represent our side, the Palestinians a person to represent their side. The Palestinians nominated somebody who was a member of the PNC, Palestinian National Council. According to law, we weren’t permitted to negotiate through the PLO. So I approached this person (Abu Alaa, also known as Ahmed Qurei) and said, “Look, do you want to negotiate, do you want to be serious? Replace your man.” And instead of him saying, as usually anybody would say, “It’s impossible. Forget it,” he said, “I shall try.” And it didn’t take much time. He replaced him. So I told myself, “That’s it. He’s the man.” Because you know, it’s one thing to win arguments, and another thing is to arrive at solutions.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputtext">The Prime Minister was Yitzhak Rabin. He was conducting the negotiations that took place in Washington. I told him from the outset that nothing would come out of it, because after every meeting, there was a press conference. You know, negotiations and lack of discretion is like trying to make love in the middle of the street. There are things that you have to keep in the dark. I told him about this man I knew, Abu Alaa. I said, “Let me try with him.” He wouldn’t believe it, but he says, “Okay, try it.” And while the negotiations in Washington deteriorated from day to day, our negotiations in Oslo went up from day to day. Finally, the negotiations in Washington fell down, and the negotiations in Oslo came to fruition.</p> <figure id="attachment_20115" style="width: 1666px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20115 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20115 size-full lazyload" alt="April 24, 1999: Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel and longtime leader of Israel's Labor Party, photographed in Rome. (PIZZOLI ALBERTO/CORBIS SYGMA)" width="1666" height="2500" data-sizes="(max-width: 1666px) 100vw, 1666px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002.jpg 1666w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002-253x380.jpg 253w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002-506x760.jpg 506w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 24, 1999, Rome: Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel and longtime leader of Israel’s Labor Party.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">We did it, half-legally, because there was a decision by our parliament that we should not negotiate with the PLO. I wanted to go to negotiate directly with them, but Yitzhak Rabin told me, “Look, it would be very strange if the Minister of the Cabinet is breaking the law.” So I sent my Director General of the Foreign Ministry, Uri Savir, who is a brilliant chap. He went together with an Israeli lawyer, who is also a brilliant lawyer. They met with the man I was mentioning, Abu Alaa, who is now the Speaker of the Palestinian Assembly, who I believe is probably the most intelligent man that I can think of among the Palestinians.</p> <p class="inputtext">The two of them established a chemistry immediately, Abu Alaa and Uri Savir. What they were telling each other, nobody knows. It’s really like a romantic experience. You have to seduce, you have to impress, and very often to close a little bit your eyes, because if you see everything too naked, you may lose your taste.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/cQUk-QdRz0E?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=77&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_04_31_04.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_04_31_04.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">The last night before the (Oslo) agreement, which was August 1993, also happened to be my birthday, so I was a little bit emotional. They reached a breakdown. And then, we negotiated through the telephone with Arafat and myself, eight hours. They were in Sweden, he was in Tunisia. And there was Mr. Larson from the Norwegian side and the late Foreign Minister of Norway, Holst. The telephone was so good, I could hear their cries, I could hear their suffering. I shall never forget this experience. Shall I say it’s like a lady giving birth to a child? The pains, the hopes. And early in the morning, we reached an agreement by phone.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputtext">Then the Norwegians organized a secret meeting for signatures, because still the Cabinet didn’t approve. I was there, and the room was filled by the Secret Service of Norway. We wouldn’t let anybody else enter it. The day before the signing, there was a clash with the Hezbollah in Lebanon, and nine soldiers of our army lost their lives. The contrast was so great. We had prepared champagne and an environment of happiness — and nine boys were killed. So I called up Rabin, and I said, “Look, I know exactly how you feel. We lost nine boys. Maybe the best thing will be to postpone it. We cannot celebrate this agreement tonight.” Rabin thought for a while, and with his very deep voice, he said, “No. We shall sign.” But we removed the champagne and all the other niceties and made it a dry meeting.</p> <figure id="attachment_20116" style="width: 1603px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20116 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20116 size-full lazyload" alt="January 11, 1999: Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres sits next to the Speaker of the Palestinian Assembly Abu Alaa (Ahmed Qorei) in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Peres was the first Israeli to address the Palestinian Assembly, where he urged the next Israeli government to negotiate recognition of a Palestinian state. (Jamal Aruri /AFP/CORBIS)" width="1603" height="1700" data-sizes="(max-width: 1603px) 100vw, 1603px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088.jpg 1603w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088-358x380.jpg 358w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088-717x760.jpg 717w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">January 11, 1999: Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres sits next to the Speaker of the Palestinian Assembly Abu Alaa (Ahmed Qorei) in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Peres was the first Israeli to address the Palestinian Assembly, where he urged the next Israeli government to negotiate recognition of a Palestinian state. (CORBIS)</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">At the end of the signatures, Abu Alaa asked to see me privately. Before he said a word, he burst into tears like a child. There was so much emotion in these negotiations. I was taken by that, I was surprised. Then he said nice things about the fate of his people and about the way we ran it and behaved.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/2zuKeCqLIC8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=88&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_01_45_17.Still003-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_01_45_17.Still003-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I know many people criticize Arafat for good reasons. He was an impressive leader of the Palestinian revolt, and a failure of the Palestinian state. I for one will never forget the courageous steps he took, and there is no occasion whenever they attack Arafat that I wouldn’t come on his side and say, “Don’t forget the courageous decisions he has taken.” And I would like to mention just one. With all Arab states, the basis of our negotiation was the United Nations Resolution about the 1947 borders. Would we make it a basis for our negotiations with the Palestinians? Fifty-five percent of the land was to go to the Palestinians, 45 to us. So it wouldn’t fly. Arafat agreed to the 1967 borders, which gives the Palestinians only 22 percent and Israel 78 percent. I don’t know of any other Palestinian leader that would do it, that was able to do it and ready to do it.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputtext">You must be fair in your life. I criticize Arafat very much. I think, later on, he spoiled what he has achieved, but still, I remember what should be remembered as well. On the other hand, we on our side went a very long way, because the West Bank was under Arab rule. They never gave it to the Palestinians. Gaza was under Arab rule. They never gave it to the Palestinians. We did it. We helped them to build the Palestinian personality and eventually the Palestinian state. As I remember the role of Arafat, I don’t regret the choice we made at that time.</p> <figure id="attachment_20110" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20110 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20110 size-full lazyload" alt="January 30, 2013: Israel's President Shimon Peres sits with party leaders Aryeh Deri, Eli Yishai and Ariel Attias during their meeting at the President's residence in Jerusalem, Israel. Israel kicked off its post-election process of forming a new government, as President Peres began hosting the heads of the major political parties at his residence for consultations before deciding whom to choose as Prime Minister-designate to form a new coalition. (EPA/SEBASTIAN SCHEINER / POOL)" width="2280" height="1523" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446-380x254.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446-760x508.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">January 30, 2013: Israel’s President Shimon Peres sits with party leaders Aryeh Deri, Eli Yishai and Ariel Attias during their meeting at the President’s residence in Jerusalem, Israel. Israel kicked off its post-election process of forming a new government, as President Shimon Peres began hosting the heads of major political parties at his residence for consultations before deciding whom to choose as Prime Minister-designate to form a new coalition.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext"><b>The Nobel Prize was given also some years later to those who tried to forge peace in Northern Ireland. Do you see a parallel in the sense that you are still striving for a complete resolution?</b></p> <p class="inputtext">Shimon Peres: I don’t think so. When you make a breakthrough, things don’t happen automatically and instantly. But without a breakthrough, it would be just a wish in the air.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/n-kuBTk0PkA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=95&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_08_28_23.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-2003-MasterEdit.00_08_28_23.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">Now, every important decision has to go through a long avenue of disappointments, of setbacks, of troubles. I am totally unimpressed. I would be surprised if it would go smoothly. Somebody said, “You are as great as your crawl.” If you want to achieve something important, you have to fight and crawl for it under very uncomfortable conditions and circumstances. And then again, when you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and resentful. To negotiate peace is to negotiate with your own people, not with your opponent, and your own people say, “My God, why did you give up so much? Why were you in a hurry? Why didn’t you think this and that?” Well, if you think this and that, and you won’t be in a hurry, still you have to pay the price, because peace has a price as war has a price. The difference is that the price of war is unavoidably accepted. The price of the cost of peace cannot be measured.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_20370" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-20370 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-20370 size-full lazyload" alt="President Barack Obama welcomes Israeli President Shimon Peres in the Oval Office Tuesday, May 5, 2009. At right is Vice President Joe Biden. (Pete Souza)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office.jpg 2280w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170822001404/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">President Barack Obama welcomes Israeli President Shimon Peres in the Oval Office on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Do you think the present war on terrorism is the correct way to go?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: We don’t have a choice. It’s either them making our lives miserable and impossible, or us enabling even the people who harbor terror to join in the new age and the great promise.</p> <p><strong>You started in politics when you were very young. What inspired you to get involved at such a young age?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: I don’t think I made a major choice to become a politician. When I was a young man in Israel, our major goal ideologically and otherwise was to become farmers, members of a kibbutz. So I joined in a youth movement that sent me to an agricultural school where I got my main education. There, we organized a small nucleus of boys and girls to go and build a kibbutz, and we went to build a kibbutz, but while doing all this, at school and later on at the kibbutz, there was a great debate taking place in Israel on two major issues. One, who represents the world of tomorrow? The Socialists? The Communists? The Soviet Union, or the democracy, the free world? And what actually does stem from our ideology?</p> <p>My mentor was Ben-Gurion, the founder of the state, and he said, “I am not for an imported socialism. We don’t need Marx, and we don’t need Lenin, and we don’t need even Léon Blum. Our ideologues come from the Bible. Basically two: Prophet Amos, with a social temperament and Isaiah, with a political temperament.” I identified with Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion was very anti-Stalin, very anti-Communist. He called them the most terrible names. He thought, “They are dictators. They are killers.” And that was at a time when the world had still many intellectuals who looked upon Russia as a promise.</p> <p><strong>That was before we knew all that Stalin was doing?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Yes. That was, say, in ’38, ’37, ’39. And the second issue: What should be the future of Israel? Is the land the most important choice, and for that reason to keep the whole of the land at any cost, or to have a partition and build the Jewish state on part of the land? And the other part? “Leave it. Let’s leave it to the Palestinians.” Here again, I felt that I am with Ben-Gurion.</p> <p>I joined in this youth movement, and I was elected to the secretariat of the movement. There were 12 members of the secretariat. I was the only one among the 12 who was on the side of Ben-Gurion; all the others were Marxist-oriented and were for the wholeness of Israel. Before I knew it, I found myself in a fight, and it took a little bit of time, but finally I won a majority in the youth movement. So before I knew it, I was in politics.</p> <p><strong>How old were you?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: I was 15 or 16 years old. Then I went to the kibbutz, and worked on the land, but I continued my fight. I was very much engaged in it. It concerned me. After this very surprising victory in the youth movement — nobody believed in Israel that this can happen – -all of a sudden, I found myself a very demanded person in the political life, and that’s how it started.</p> <p><strong>Let’s go back to your childhood, before you emigrated to Israel. What do you remember of your European childhood? Where were you born?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: I was born in a small Jewish <em>shtetl</em> that — during the two wars, the first and the second it was under Polish control — but otherwise it was Belarus. Russians. And they hated the Poles. They wouldn’t speak the language. The place I was born was a very small place, totally Jewish, and we were living neither in Poland nor in Russia. We were living in Israel from the day I was born, even before emigrating.</p> <p><strong>It was the dream of Israel?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: It was the dream. I went to a Hebrew school. At our home, we spoke three languages: Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian. In my family, we have had members of the Likud and members of the left. There was a very vivid argument going on all the time. I remember myself as a totally independent boy.</p> <p><strong>Did you have brothers and sisters?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Yes. I have a brother younger than me. My mother was a librarian, so from her, I got the taste to read. You wouldn’t believe it, but by the age of nine, I had already read Dostoyevsky’s <em>Crime and Punishment</em>. I couldn’t sleep at night; it bothered me tremendously. I think I was living in my imagination much more than I was living in my realities. I was a reader. I was a dreamer.</p> <p><strong>What other books do you remember from that era?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Probably the most known is Sholem Aleichem, but there were others. There were many Hebrew books. There was one that Avraham Mapu wrote about the future of Israel. There were good boys and bad boys. The good boys were clearly Zionist. I was on his side, he was on my side. We had a total agreement. My grandfather educated me, basically. He studied in a <em>yeshiva</em>. You know what a <em>yeshiva</em> is? A <em>yeshiva</em> is sort of a rabbinical seminary, but not with all the formalities. They study the Talmud and the Mishnah and the Bible. My grandfather and my father were born in Volozhin, home of the most famous Yeshiva in Jewish life.</p> <p>My grandfather studied together with our greatest poet, by the name of Chaim Nachman Bialik, who is considered our national poet to this very day. And from him, I learned the Talmud, the Bible. As a young boy, he taught me every day a page of the Talmud. I was under his spell. He was a rabbi. I was extremely religious when I was a young boy. It’s only when I emigrated to Israel that I divorced my orthodox behavior and concept and changed my dress. I changed my eyes, I changed my outlooks, I changed my behavior. It was like moving from one world to another world, except for one thing, for the love of Israel, for the knowledge of the Hebrew language. That was my world.</p> <p><strong>Your town, your <em>shtetl</em>, what was it like?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Our <em>shtetl</em> was 100 kilometers south of Minsk, which is the capital of Belarus. There were, I think, a thousand Jewish families, no non-Jewish persons there. There were two synagogues, built of wood. There was a Hebrew school that we attended. There were Israeli political parties with branches there. Like it’s common among the Jewish people, we were deeply divided, and we loved the division. Highly polemic and argumentative.</p> <p>I came to Israel when I was 11 years old. I thought I was a prepared Israeli, but Israel was a total surprise. First of all, the place I came from had gray skies. I never saw a blue sky really in Belarus. It was half-wintery all year round. It had a river that I took for granted. The trees were high and powerful. We were surrounded by a forest. We never knew what was behind the forest. We know that behind the forest, there were non-Jewish people that don’t like us.</p> <p><strong>Were there pogroms?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: No, but there was one occasion when I was very young — eight years or seven years old — that Jewish businessmen went through the forest, and they were assassinated. And that was for the first time I saw in our paper where there were assassinations in our place. I saw the story of assassination. It bothered me greatly. We have had a happy childhood. My family was well-to-do. We didn’t have electricity. We had a radio operated on batteries which I destroyed, because my parents used it on <em>shabbat</em>, on Saturday, and I was so religious that I would not permit it to happen.</p> <p><strong>You were more religious than your parents?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Oh, by far, by far. I was as religious as my grandfather, and they were already more secular, as were many of the others.</p> <p><strong>You mentioned your mother being a librarian. What about your father?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: My father was a businessman, a very active and dynamic person. In the Second World War he joined the British Army. He became a prisoner of the Germans. He escaped. He was condemned to death. He was saved by a priest at the last moment. Then he ran away again, and again he was caught and arrested, but one day he appeared alive, to our really happy surprise.</p> <p><strong>Did your parents live to see your rise in political life?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Partly, because I became in charge of the Ministry of Defense when I was 29 years old, and my parents were still alive, both my father and my mother.</p> <p><strong>What was their reaction to your enthusiasm for politics at a young age?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: They were very nice with me. They never dared tell me what to do. They thought that I was a man with reasonable judgment, so I was never under pressure from my parents; I could do whatever I wanted. I never had a negative word from them, nothing whatsoever. They enabled me to grow up as an independent man. I told my wife, “Let’s our children go the same way. Let them go their way. The only thing we can provide them is with a personal example.” If you want them to read books, have a good library at home. If you want them to love music, listen to music. If you want their manners to be nice, have nice manners at home. So the best that we can offer to our children is a personal example.</p> <p><strong>What was it like when you emigrated to Israel before statehood?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Half of the <em>shtetl</em> I was born in emigrated to Israel; the other half were killed by the Nazis. Half and half. When I came to Israel, my first sensation was the blue sky. I never saw a sky as blue as that. Then, I didn’t see many rivers, which surprised me again. I didn’t see many forests. But on the other hand, all the writings, whether in the streets or in the paper, was in the Hebrew language. That was like entering — again — a new world. I saw Israeli policemen. And we came. My father, who emigrated before us a couple of years to prepare our coming, was living in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was totally white and summery and lovely. They called at that time, “Tel Aviv is a small Paris.” I have never been to Paris, so I was sure that Paris is even smaller than Tel Aviv. And when I got bar mitzvah’d — 13 years old — my parents bought me a bicycle, and I would — touring the streets of Tel Aviv to see if they were building a building, if they planted a new tree. I felt as though it would be my estate, as though it would be my life.</p> <p>Then I went to school. I think I was a good student, because I jumped over a school. My main interest was basically history and literature. Sports were basically basketball and swimming at a pool. I was so happy. We had family in Rehovot, where the Weizmann Institute is, and that was the center of citrus growing. When they have the flowers of the citrus, it’s like Chanel Number 5. You are almost intoxicated by this unbelievable smell. Everything looked so beautiful, so optimistic, so happy.</p> <p>Later on at school, because of my views, I decided to go to Ben Shemen, which is an agricultural school. So I left my studies in Tel Aviv, and I went over to an entirely new life again, living in the fields, among trees, among flowers, milking the cows, riding a horse. Again, it was a different world, but this was really not only a school, but a village of youngsters. So we were running our lives there too, and that’s where I believe I got my first taste for social life. And we had different groups, for literature, for ideology, for culture, and as I told you, we made a small nucleus to go to the kibbutz. It was an intimate group. All of us were supposed to tell the truth. We ran a collective dairy. We were 15 or 16, young boys and girls, and the kibbutz was our ideal, it was our destination. But the school, the village, is surrounded by Arabs, and they were shooting at us. So at that same age, I swore into the Haganah, and they are an underground organization. Having the Bible on the table, having a pistol, having a candle. It was a clandestine organization at the time. During the day, we would study, and during the night we were on guard in perimeter positions.</p> <p><strong>Where did you get the pistol?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: The pistol belonged to the Haganah; so did the rifle. It was illegal. That was my first experience of the military. I reached a very high rank, because we were two in our position, so I was the commander, and the other was my deputy. This was the force I was commanding at the time, but we exchanged fire during the night. My position was near one of the teachers of the school. Early in the morning, I fell in love with the girl that later on became my wife. At that time, we were so naive. I wanted to charm her, so I read her <em>Capital</em> by Marx. I thought somehow she would be convinced by the strength of his criticism about capital.</p> <p><strong>It’s not exactly love poetry.</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: No, but she was very patient with me. And then also, poetry. We had a group that was concerned with poetry, and I myself wrote a little bit of poetry. So again, we worked half a day, we studied half a day, and we watched half a night. The rest, we were just happy.</p> <p><strong>Not too long after that, you became involved in a real military position.</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Yes, yes. After the so-called “victory,” I had in the movement, I was noticed by the leadership of our party, headed by Ben-Gurion, and another person who is not so known, Berl Katznelson, who was the teacher of our movement. He taught me literature, and he actually taught me how to read. He was my personal mentor. He was the editor of our paper. He created the publishing house in Hebrew. He was — I wouldn’t say the “guru” — but really he was our teacher and a most respected man. I wrote for the paper of the youth movement. He read it and apparently was impressed, so he invited me every Sunday night to his home. Mostly it was about literature. He told me which books he was going to publish, he told me what to read for the next time, examined me if I did read, if I did understand. I got my education from him.</p> <p>After my activities in the youth movement I returned to the kibbutz, but at that time, the party was already split between young and old. There was a Zionist Congress immediately after the World War in 1946 in Basel, and the party sent two young Turks, so to speak, to represent the more extreme views of the party. One of them was Moshe Dayan — who later on became General Dayan — and myself. We developed a friendship that lasted to his very last day.</p> <p><strong>Talk a little bit about Ben-Gurion. What he was like?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Let me tell you how I met him. I admired him before I met him. Once day, I was informed that Ben-Gurion would give me a ride from Tel Aviv to Haifa. At that time, it took two hours to do it. Imagine how excited I was! Here was my hero, my legendary man, and here was an unknown boy from nowhere. I thought, “My God, I’m going to have two hours with this man.” It was a wintery day. I went to the car, and to my unpleasant surprise, he put on his coat, turned his back to me, and forgot about me.</p> <p>I was sitting, so disappointed, up to the point we reached Haifa, very close to the place, and all of a sudden, he turned to me and he said, “You know, Trotsky was not a statesman.” How did Trotsky arrive in the car at the last moment? I didn’t know, but me being so much interested in having conversation, I said, “Why?” He said, “What do you mean why? What sort of a policy is that? No peace and no war? Either peace and pay the price, or war and take the risk. Otherwise it’s a Jewish invention. It’s not a political decision.” And he said Lenin, who was intellectually inferior to Trotsky, became the leader of Russia because he made up his mind.</p> <p>That was my first lesson from Ben-Gurion. Then I saw him making peace, and I saw him making war. He mobilized me before the war. The man was a very rare combination between a real intellectual and a born leader. There is a contradiction between the two.</p> <p>Intellectuals are very slow to make up their minds, and even when they do it, they leave some room for skepticism and question. Not Ben-Gurion. He was never an intellectual bachelor. The minute he knew something, he has had an opinion. He was <em>married</em> with an opinion! But his talents were outstanding. I never saw a man with such a powerful memory like him. I can tell you stories upon stories to the depth and outstanding quality of him. He was a person that was always curious, learning, reading. There wasn’t a day without him reading. He learned new languages, including ancient Greek. He was curious, for example, about Buddhism. I’m not so sure that they could understand him, because of this tendency to decide. Buddhism is not necessarily a religion made of decisions. On the other hand, he was a leader. Namely, he was decisive, had a strong will. Fearless, honest, and he all the time thought that the greatest degree of wisdom is the moral code. “Never be cynical. Never forget that every war is being fought twice — once in the battlefield and then in the books of history.” Don’t forget the books of history. Don’t do things that history will never forgive you. History means posterity, and it’s the young generation.</p> <p>He was very organized. For example, one day he told me that he started to learn Hebrew when he was three or so. I told him, “Ben-Gurion, why were you waiting so much? You wasted three years. You should have started from the first day.” He took it very seriously. He wouldn’t waste time on small talk. He wouldn’t waste time on jokes. He wouldn’t waste time, for example, on eating properly. All those things were unimportant. So either he wouldn’t refer to them, or minimized them. What was important is to think, to read, to decide, and to be courageous.</p> <p>All told, in my judgment, he was a genius, because a genius, more than is just a matter of having outstanding talents, it’s a matter of having an outstanding character. He was never afraid to be alone. He was never satisfied with a known answer. His priority was to put the right question, and he questioned everything he knew, fearlessly.</p> <p>One day, he came to the conclusion that the story of Exodus is misinterpreted. The problem is “How many Jews left Egypt, 150 families? 150,000?” Because in Hebrew, <em>eleph</em> is both “thousand” and “family.” And he came to the conclusion that it’s 150 families. So he made a press conference. Television from the whole world attended, and he made a very lengthy expose to explain it. No other person would do it.</p> <p>There was also another thing that I liked very much about him in the way of behavior. He never referred to the rank of a person, but only to his position. He would argue as seriously with a policeman as with a head of state. The other thing I liked is when he said “I” and when he said “we.” Winning was “we,” losing was “I.” Taking responsibility. He was not an easy person. He wasn’t a man of pleasantries. He was always organized, tough, serious. But for me, I worked with him 18 years, every day was a holiday, and I learned from him as much as one can from another person.</p> <p>One of the things he (Ben-Gurion) said — and I liked very much — he said, “All experts are for things that happened. You don’t have experts for things that <em>may</em> happen” — which means, as he said, “If you really want to learn something, it’s not enough to be up-to-date; you have to be up-to-tomorrow.” That would be my first lesson, to look for the tomorrow. And eventually, I lost partly my interest in history, and I devoted most of my intellectual energies to the future. To this very day, I believe to imagine is more important than to remember. I don’t believe in memories anyway, because memories in a way is to remember what to forget. You hardly remember the things that were not easy or were not right, and yet people think it is more important to remember than to think. That was my first lesson. My second lesson is, “Your best friends are not only human beings, but books.” To read books is like going to swim in a sea of wisdom, endlessly fascinating. And there are so many wise people all over the world, throughout history, and you can have it free, for nothing. And reading must become a daily habit. It’s not that you can read once a week. I read day in and day out, and you make acquaintances with books. After a few pages, you know with whom you are dealing. Serious, unserious, far-sighted, repetitive. That was my second lesson. My third lesson was, “Never forget there is nothing wiser than a moral choice.” And the fourth point: “Don’t be afraid to be alone.” Future is always in a minority. So, if you want to be popular, go and praise the past. If you want to serve the future, don’t be afraid to belong to a minority.</p> <p><strong>Could you tell us about the War of Independence and your role in it?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: I joined the army as a private. I was offered a rank at that time, but I refused. I preferred to remain a private. First of all, I wasn’t taken by ranks, and before I knew it, they put me in the most sensitive positions anyway. I thought if I should be a colonel or a general, there would always be somebody above me, but if I should be a soldier, nobody will command me. I shall be totally independent, and that’s what happened. I was a private, but sitting in the heart of the Haganah, later in the army.</p> <p>Israel was shocked to discover that once the United Nations has decided to enable the establishment of a Jewish state, and before we have had a state, we had a war, and all of a sudden, we are alone. We are outnumbered, outgunned. We saw then end of everything with our eyes. We knew the truth, that we don’t have arms, we don’t have people, and we may lose the war, which would be like losing the Jewish history. It would be the end of Jewish history. We couldn’t understand it, even when we came to the United States. Truman ã President Truman ã recognized the State of Israel, yet refused to give us arms, rifles, for our self-defense. There was an embargo. And then, Ben-Gurion said, “Look, without rifles, we can do nothing.” And he put me in charge to break the embargo and see what can be done. Later on, there were some problems with our navy, so he made me the head of the navy — all things that I hardly knew anything about. I was basically an ignorant young man.</p> <p><strong>When we look at your biography, you are suddenly the head of the Navy, and there is no information preceding that about a naval career.</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: No, no, nothing whatsoever. It was like a fire brigade. I think what probably Ben-Gurion found in me was <em>chutzpah</em>, you know. I was a daring young man, and I wasn’t afraid of conventions, and I thought that we don’t have a chance for conventions or precedents, so I worked day and night. I believe I was a hard-working man. I could have worked almost day and night, uninterruptedly. And then, he nominated me also to be the head of the Ministry of Defense, as I have said, at a very young age of 29. He was Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, so he actually handed over to my hands the running of the Ministry of Defense. And again and again, I mean, I didn’t have any experience, but I have had views, and I was ready to fight for them.</p> <p><strong>You had a passion for Israel too, didn’t you?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Oh, yes, but not only me. Everybody had. Everybody at that time almost totally identified with the country, with the war, with the need to win, and that went on after the War of Independence. When the war was over, I found out that I’m so ignorant. I didn’t know a single word of English. Literally, nothing whatsoever. And I hardly have had any formal education. So I came to Ben-Gurion, who was my mentor, and I told him, “Look, I can’t go on like this. I have to learn something.” I thought I wanted to go to the United States for study. So then, he nominated me to be the head of the Defense Ministry mission in America, in New York, and I worked during the day. I studied, in the evening, at night, at a wonderful school, the New School for Social Research.</p> <p>I spent a very formative two years, and then I went also for a course to Harvard University. A wonderful location again, where the students are people with experience already, people from the army, from industry. You can learn from the students as much as you can learn from the professors.</p> <p><strong>In your early years as Deputy Minister of Defense, you were very involved in establishing the military and aviation foundation of this new state.</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: We were living under an embargo. I thought we didn’t have a choice but to build our own industries. And people say a small country like Israel cannot built an aeronautic industry, cannot build an electronics industry, cannot build nuclear reactors. And again, I thought we can do it, so I was charged with doing it. In the beginning it raised a great deal of skepticism and criticism, but later on people appreciate it very much. So actually we laid, at that time, the foundation for the high-tech of Israel which exists to this very day.</p> <p><strong>That included the nuclear program as well, didn’t it?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: Nuclear programs as well, yes. I was in charge of the nuclear programs.</p> <p><strong>It would take about a year to go over your entire career in detail. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the work that you did on the economy of Israel during your first term as Prime Minister in the 1980s. That was a very turbulent time.</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: I learned two things in my life. One is no matter what you are, what matters is what you do. And when you are in power, don’t judge yourself by the length of your term but by the record of your doings. I knew Prime Ministers who were in office years and years and years, and they did nothing. I knew Prime Ministers who were a month and did a lot. Maybe the most outstanding example would be Mendes-France of France. He did in three or four months what other Prime Ministers wouldn’t do in ten years.</p> <p>So that was my temperament. Once I was elected, I said to myself: “Let’s decide what will be your priorities and how long will it take, because if you don’t decide on target dates, you may get mixed up with so many other pressures or distractions.” I put in four priorities, and I mentioned the dates. I said, “In six months, we shall leave Lebanon.” We left in six months. “In nine months, we should go out of inflation.” People were skeptical. “In a year’s time, we should restore our relations with Egypt; and then, we shall begin to make peace with the Jordanians.” When I came in, although I had studied economy in the New School for Social Research, I was very far from being an economist.</p> <p>The only economy I learned, again, was from Ben-Gurion. His economy was very simple. He would call me up and say, “Shimon, let’s do this and that.” I would say, “Okay,” and then he would say, “How much does it cost?” I would say, “A million dollars.” He would say, “My God, where are we going to get that money?” The next day, he came in with another idea. “Let’s do this and that.” He would ask me, “How much does it cost?” and I would say “A hundred million dollars.” He would say, “Oh, that’s nothing.” So leaders should decide on the value of things, not on the cost of it. If it’s important, it’s economic; if it’s unimportant, it’s a waste of money.</p> <p>I came in, and most of my friends told me, “Don’t do it. You know very little about economy.” The inflation was 500 percent. “You cannot do it except by military means or by having a strike. You’ll break your neck.” I listened to them, but I’m not sure I was impressed. I thought if you can make inflation, you probably can unmake it as well. And I always thought, “Never think about alternatives; always think about creativity.” When you have two alternatives, the first thing you have to do is to look for the third that you didn’t think about, that doesn’t exist.</p> <p>I started to work day and night, listening to all walks of life in our economy, and there were three or four things that I learned immediately, that in a democracy, you have two groups of decision making: the political parties — they are good for politics — and the economic partnership, which is detached from politics. The economy is not being run by parties, but by three factors in the society: government, employees, and employers. So leave the parties aside and try to see if you can reach an agreement among the three. Don’t be in a haste to declare a plan, and then discover that one or two are against it. It will be extremely difficult to do so, particularly if the demands are very, very heavy.</p> <p>We asked the workers to give up 25 percent of their salaries. Imagine! We asked the industrialists to freeze all costs, no matter what the inflation is. We asked people to save money as much as they can, but also asked the government to cut the budget. Now, I learned soon enough, that among the three, two don’t trust the third one — the third one is the government. Both industry and unions feel the government is a talking organization and a spending organization. In a meeting among the three, the government demands the others to cut, to freeze, to give up. And they feel, “My God, what the hell are they talking about? We shall cut, we shall freeze, we shall suffer, and they will spend again!”</p> <p>I learned again that if I wanted to do something, I have to show that the government is serious. Not by declaring, and not by preaching, but by cutting. And I knew that unless we should cut very deeply our budget, we don’t stand a chance to have the other two parties. Now, cutting is easier said than done. Every minister, when you cut him, thinks that you have something against him. They took it very personally — the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Education and the Minister of Social Welfare. And they were my friends, and I have to become, all of a sudden, very cruel. So finally, we had the Cabinet session that lasted for 36 hours, uninterrupted, and they took a knife and sit personally and cut their budgets from $100,000 and up. If the poor minister would close his eyes, I would take my knife. But anyway, by the end of the session, it was cut, and people were fired. I thought the whole nation would be against me, but strangely enough, the reaction of the people was unbelievable. My popularity jumped to 90 percent or whatever it was.</p> <p><strong>Did the inflation subside?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: No, not yet. By firing people, by cutting budgets — education, social welfare, health — it affects every person. Then, I was all the time in consultation with the unions and the industrialists. I called them, and I said, “Gentlemen, now it’s your turn,” and they agreed. They agreed voluntarily to cut salaries and wages, to freeze prices, to reduce consumption.</p> <p>I was also very lucky to be helped by the United States administration. The Secretary of State was George Schultz, and his economic advisors were Herb Stein and Stanley Fischer, two very, very serious economists. They advised me, too, and they told me, “If you do it, we shall provide you with a security net.” We were afraid the money may run away from the country, and we could have faced a situation like in Argentina. So they said, “If you will be true to what you told us, we shall provide you with the necessary guarantee,” and they did. They gave me a billion and a half dollars without any conditions. We stopped printing money, and all of a sudden, the people started to trust the economy. And in a short time, inflation went down from 500 percent to 16 percent. It became a classic turnaround. I think they study it in universities to this very day.</p> <p>I was learning, as I did in the Ministry of Defense. I never <em>knew</em>, but I always learned. It is worthwhile, when you do a thing like that, to listen carefully, both to the theoretic side and the pragmatic one. Not everything that a professor of economy will tell you is realistic; on the other hand, it is serious. But if you listen to the people who are doers, they will tell you, “Maybe it’s right, but it’s undoable.” Listen to them as well.</p> <p>So I constantly listened to the two sides. And also, I knew that I have to make choices of my own. I worked with a group of people who argued day and night — professors, officials, the Minister of Finance — but there were decisions that I had to make. For example, the economists said, “Unless we have a deflation of 25 percent, we shall not save the economy.” I asked them, “Twenty-five percent? What will be the size of unemployment?” They gave me a staggering figure. I said, “I’m not going for it. I disagree.” And we got only 16 percent, not 25 percent.</p> <p>On the other hand, they wanted to tax the windfalls or profits of the stock exchange. This time, I took the position of the rightists against it. If you do it, capital may run away from the country, and you cannot produce employment if you don’t have the capital. Secondly, part of the investment in the stock exchange was public companies, pension companies, government. If I tax them, in fact, I’m not taxing the capitalists, I am taxing the people who have saved, trusted. It was very controversial, those sorts of things. But finally, it worked out.</p> <p><strong>Prime Minister, what are you most proud of accomplishing in your very rich career?</strong></p> <p>Shimon Peres: I don’t know if I’m proud really, but if I have to compliment myself, I would just do it on those occasions where I have had a chance to save a life of a person or a child. This is in my eyes a real achievement. The rest? You try, but the ultimate test is saving life.</p> <p><strong>Thank you.</strong></p> <p>Thank you very much.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Shimon Peres Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>28 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.78289473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion.jpg" data-image-caption="David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel." data-image-copyright="12_BenGurion" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion-380x298.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12_BenGurion-760x595.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4931237721022" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934.jpg" data-image-caption="1934: Berl Katznelson (1887-1944), founder of Israel's national labor federation, mentor of Shimon Peres. " data-image-copyright="Berl_Katznelson_1934" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934-254x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Berl_Katznelson_1934-509x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0077_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="The former Prime Minister of Israel and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace, Shimon Peres, addressed issues raised by the struggle against terrorism during the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago.(© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="chicago_0077_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0077_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0077_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0258_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="Shimon Peres with the King of the Blues, B.B. King, at the House of Blues during the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement) " data-image-copyright="chicago_0258_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0258_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0258_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0260_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="Singer Bonnie Raitt and Academy of Achievement Awards Council member Shimon Peres at the House of Blues at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement) " data-image-copyright="chicago_0260_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0260_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0260_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0626_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="His Excellency Shimon Peres, the former Prime Minister of Israel, joined in a discussion, "Keeping the Peace," with two former NATO commanders, Wesley Clark and Joseph Ralston, and Vaira Víke-Freiberga, the President of Latvia, at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement) " data-image-copyright="chicago_0626_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0626_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chicago_0626_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66842105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446.jpg" data-image-caption="January 30, 2013: Israel's President Shimon Peres sits with party leaders Aryeh Deri, Eli Yishai and Ariel Attias during their meeting at the President's residence in Jerusalem, Israel. Israel kicked off its post-election process of forming a new government, as President Peres began hosting the heads of the major political parties at his residence for consultations before deciding whom to choose as Prime Minister-designate to form a new coalition. (EPA/SEBASTIAN SCHEINER / POOL)" data-image-copyright="Israel's President Shimon Peres meets with party leaders" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/h_50689446-760x508.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.25" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hayyim_Nahman_Bialik_1923.jpg" data-image-caption="May 2, 1923: Hebrew poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik." data-image-copyright="May 2, 1923: Hebrew poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hayyim_Nahman_Bialik_1923-304x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hayyim_Nahman_Bialik_1923-608x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.63421052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Part-WAS-Was8764353-1-1-0.jpg" data-image-caption="June 25, 2014: Outgoing Israeli President Shimon Peres received the Congressional Gold Medal in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, as he bid farewell to Washington after decades of working with American leaders. (AFP)" data-image-copyright="Part-WAS-Was8764353-1-1-0" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Part-WAS-Was8764353-1-1-0-380x241.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Part-WAS-Was8764353-1-1-0-760x482.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-Corbis-UT0105796.jpg" data-image-caption="January 23, 2002: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres addresses the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. (Reuters NewMedia Inc./CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Peres Shimon Corbis UT0105796" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-Corbis-UT0105796-380x287.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres-Shimon-Corbis-UT0105796-760x574.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4700193423598" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_-Corbis-205399-003.jpg" data-image-caption="November 1, 1984: Prime Minister Shimon Peres visits Israeli troops in Lebanon. (MILNER MOSHE/CORBIS SYGMA)" data-image-copyright="Peres_ Corbis 205399-003" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_-Corbis-205399-003-258x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_-Corbis-205399-003-517x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.501976284585" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002.jpg" data-image-caption="April 24, 1999: Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel and longtime leader of Israel's Labor Party, photographed in Rome. (PIZZOLI ALBERTO/CORBIS SYGMA)" data-image-copyright="Peres_Corbis 353752-002" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-353752-002-506x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel presents the Golden Plate Award to Shimon Peres at the 2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.0599721059972" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088.jpg" data-image-caption="January 11, 1999: Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres sits next to the Speaker of the Palestinian Assembly Abu Alaa (Ahmed Qorei) in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Peres was the first Israeli to address the Palestinian Assembly, where he urged the next Israeli government to negotiate recognition of a Palestinian state. (Jamal Aruri /AFP/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Peres_Corbis FT0004088" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088-358x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-FT0004088-717x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289.jpg" data-image-caption="September 13, 1993: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands after signing the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at the White House. President Bill Clinton stands behind them. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres looks on at left. (Richard T. Nowitz/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Peres_Corbis IH045289" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-IH045289-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4785992217899" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26.jpg" data-image-caption="May 1984: In his office as Chairman of the Labor Party, Shimon Peres sits beneath a portrait of his mentor, founder of the modern state of Israel, David Ben-Gurion. (Bettmann/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Peres_Corbis U840312-26" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26-257x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U840312-26-514x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.447619047619" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U85346067.jpg" data-image-caption="October 17, 1985: Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres makes a statement after emerging from talks with President Reagan at the White House. (Larry Rubenstein/Bettmann/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Peres_Corbis U85346067" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U85346067-263x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-U85346067-525x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66052631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780.jpg" data-image-caption="1985: Chief of Staff Moshe Levy, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Prime Minister Shimon Peres review a parade of the Israeli Air Force. (David Rubinger/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Peres_Corbis UR001780" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Corbis-UR001780-760x502.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1151.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel presents the Golden Plate Award to Shimon Peres at the 2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1151-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1151-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Getty-JD7621.jpg" data-image-caption="January 22, 1976: Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres on a fact-finding tour of Lebanon. Shortly thereafter, Lebanon was invaded by Syria. (Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Peres_Getty JD7621" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Getty-JD7621-380x269.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Peres_Getty-JD7621-760x539.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres2.jpg" data-image-caption="November 2, 2015: Former Israeli President Shimon Peres. (Dan Balilty/AP)" data-image-copyright="November 2, 2015: Former Israeli President Shimon Peres. (Dan Balilty/AP)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres2-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres2-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.78552631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres20121105-203351-pic-825962112.jpg" data-image-caption="November 5, 2012: Shimon Peres" data-image-copyright="November 5, 2012: Shimon Peres" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres20121105-203351-pic-825962112-380x298.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres20121105-203351-pic-825962112-760x597.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal.jpg" data-image-caption="June 26, 2014: President of Israel Shimon Peres is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, beside Speaker of the House Republican John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. (Michael Reynolds)" data-image-copyright="President of Israel Shimon Peres is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/peres-cong-gold-medal-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young.jpg" data-image-caption="October 15, 1976: Israel's Defense Minister Shimon Peres stands next to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during a visit to the ruins of a synagogue in the West Bank City of Hebron. (Reuters)" data-image-copyright="Israel's Defence Minter Shimon Peres stands next to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Hebron" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Reu_Rabin_young-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel.jpg" data-image-caption="August 1, 1967: Knesset Member Shimon Peres and Navy Commander Aluf Shlomo Harel chat during a luncheon held by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in Jerusalem." data-image-copyright="Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_MK_Shimon_Peres_and_Aluf_Shlomo_Harel-760x527.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office.jpg" data-image-caption="President Barack Obama welcomes Israeli President Shimon Peres in the Oval Office Tuesday, May 5, 2009. At right is Vice President Joe Biden. (Pete Souza)" data-image-copyright="Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Barack_Obama_welcomes_Shimon_Peres_in_the_Oval_Office-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO..jpg" data-image-caption="December 10, 1994: The Nobel Peace Prize laureates for 1994 in Oslo. From left to right: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin שלושת חתני פרס נובל לשלום לשנת 1994 באוסלו שבנורבגיה. (מימין לשמאל): ראש הממשלה יצחק רבין, שר החוץ שמעון פרס ויו"ר אש"ף יאסר עראפת." data-image-copyright="flickr_-_government_press_office_gpo_-_the_nobel_peace_prize_laureates_for_1994_in_oslo" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO.-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_GPO_-_THE_NOBEL_PEACE_PRIZE_LAUREATES_FOR_1994_IN_OSLO.-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081.jpg" data-image-caption="September 30, 2016: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a speech during the funeral ceremony held for Israel's former President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel. Shimon Peres passed away on September 28, 2016, at the age of 93, two weeks after suffering a stroke. This was only the second time in nearly eight years in office that President Obama traveled overseas for the funeral of a foreign leader, after Nelson Mandela, and indeed, he compared Shimon Peres to the South African leader. President Obama tried to explain the unlikely friendship that developed between an African-American from Hawaii and a child of the shtetl who grew up to lead Israel. "We shared a love of words and books and history and, perhaps like most politicians, we shared, too, a great joy in hearing ourselves talk," he said. "But beyond that, I think our friendship was rooted in the fact that I could somehow see myself in his story and maybe he could see himself in mine." (Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Ex-Israeli PM Shimon Peres' funeral in Jerusalem" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-peres-GettyImages-6115361081-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" 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</article> <div class="modal image-modal fade" id="imageModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="imageModal" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="close-container"> <div class="close icon-icon_x" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"></div> </div> <div class="modal-dialog" role="document"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-body"> <figure class="image-modal__container"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <img class="image-modal__image" src="/web/20170822001404im_/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/" alt=""/>  <figcaption class="p-t-2 container"> <div class="image-modal__caption sans-2 text-white"></div>  </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> </div> </div> <footer class="content-info main-footer bg-black"> <div class="container"> <div class="find-achiever" id="find-achiever-list"> <div class="form-group"> <input id="find-achiever-input" class="search js-focus" placeholder="Search for an 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Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170822001404/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. 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