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Shimon Peres was born in 1923 in Vishniev, Belarus, and immigrated to Israel in
1934. He attended the Geula High School in Tel-Aviv, and continued his studies
at the Ben Shemen Agricultural Youth Village. He then went for a training period
to Kibbutz Geva and later joined Kibbutz Alumot in Lower Galilee.
Politically active from the age of 16, Shimon Peres was elected Secretary of the
Labour Youth Movement in 1943. In 1944, he returned to Kibbutz Alumot, where he
worked as farmer and shepherd.
In 1947, after having been conscripted by David Ben Gurion and Levi Eshkol to
the Hagana Defense Forces, Shimon Peres was assigned responsibility for manpower
and arms, an activity which he continued during the early part of Israel’s War
of Independence. A year later, in 1948, Shimon Peres was appointed head of
Israel’s navy and at war’s end, assumed the position of Director of the Defense
Ministry’s delegation in the United States. While in the United States, he
studied at the New-York School for Social Research and at Harvard.
In 1953, at age 29, Shimon Peres was appointed by Prime Minister and Minister of
Defense David Ben Gurion to the post of Director General of the Ministry of
Defense, a position he held until 1959. During that period, he shaped the
special relations between Israel and France, and established Israel’s electronic
aircraft industries, as well as its nuclear program.
In 1956, Shimon Peres masterminded the Sinai Campaign.
In 1959, Shimon Peres was elected to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, of which
he is still a member, and became Deputy-Minister of Defense. In 1965, he left
the Mapai Labour Party together with David Ben Gurion, and was elected Secretary
General of Rafi (the Israel Workers’ List). In 1967, he was instrumental in
forming a union between Rafi and Mapai, giving birth to the Israel Labour Party.
In 1969, Shimon Peres became Minister of Immigrant Absorption, as well as
undertaking the responsibility for the development of the occupied territories.
From 1970 to 1974, he served as Minister of Transport and Communications. In
1974, after acting for a period of time as Minister of Information under Golda
Meir’s government, Shimon Peres was appointed Minister of Defense, replacing
Moshe Dayan, a position he held until 1977. While Minister of Defense, he
revitalized and strengthened the Israel Defense Forces, and participated in the
negotiations of the second interim agreement with Egypt.
During his term in office, he also masterminded the Entebbe hostage-rescue
operation in 1976 and created the “Good Fence” on Israel’s border with Lebanon.
Following the resignation of Yitzhak Rabin in 1977, Shimon Peres became acting
Prime Minister. After the 1977 elections, which placed the Labour Party in
opposition, he was elected Chairman of the Labour Party, a post he held until
1992. He also became Vice-President of the Socialist International.
In the 1984 elections the Labour Party, headed by Shimon Peres, was the largest
party but coalition necessities obliged it to form a national unity government.. Rotating with Mr. Yitzhak Shamir,
he became Vice Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs two years later. From
December 1988, until the dissolution of the National Unity Government in 1990,
he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
On July 13, 1992, Shimon Peres became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new
Labour Government. During his term in office, he initiated the negotiations with
Jordan and conducted the Oslo negotiations between the Palestinians and the
Israelis, and on December 12, 1994, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his
efforts in advancing peace in the Middle East.
Following the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November
5, 1995, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister and Minister of Defense (November
1995), continuing to serve in this capacity until the May 1996 elections.
From the June 1996 elections, which placed the Labour Party in opposition,
Shimon Peres served as Chairman of the Labour Party and head of the opposition.
In June 1997 he resigned from this post.
In October 1997 Shimon Peres created the Peres Center for Peace with the aim of
advancing Arab-Israeli joint ventures.
In July 1999, when Ehud Barak became Prime Minister in the wake of the
elections, Shimon Peres was appointed Minister for Regional Cooperation in his
government.
Also in 1999, he was made Honorary President of the Socialist International.
In March 2001 Shimon Peres was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Foreign Affairs in Ariel Sharon’s newly formed National Unity Government.
Following the 2003 elections, he again served as a member of the 16th Knesset
and in June 2003, Shimon Peres was once again elected to the position of
chairman of the Labour Party, and in this capacity, headed the opposition.
In January 2005, as head of the Labour Party, Shimon Peres again joined Ariel
Sharon's government as Vice Prime Minister. In the framework of his
responsibilities he was active in the disengagement process from the Gaza Strip,
and focused his attention on the promotion of economic cooperation with the
Palestinians and the development of the Negev and the Galilee.
In the November 2005 Labour party primaries, Shimon Peres lost his chairmanship
of the party, and together with the party, quit the government. He later
resigned from the Labor Party, which had been his political home for decades. In
readiness for the 2006 elections, Peres joined Ariel Sharon's new Kadima party.
Kadima won the March 2006 elections, and Shimon Peres was again appointed Vice
Prime Minister in Ehud Olmert's government.
On June 13, 2007, the Knesset elected Shimon Peres to serve as the Ninth
President of Israel.
Shimon Peres is married to Sonia (born Gelman) and has a daughter (Zvia), two
sons (Yonathan and Nehemia) and seven grandchildren.
Shimon Peres has authored the following books:
“In Between Hatred and Neighborhood”(Hebrew - 1961)
“The Next Phase” (1965)
“David’s Sling” (1970)
“Tomorrow Is Now” (1978)
“Go With The Men - 7 Portraits” (1979)
“La Force De Vaincre” (French - 1981)
“Entebbe Diary” (1991)
“The New Middle East” (1993)
“Reading Diary - Letter to Authors” (1994)
“Battling For Peace” (1995)
"For the Future of Israel” (1997)
“New Genesis” (1998)
“Le Voyage Imaginaire” (1998)
"A Time for War, A Time for Peace"
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