Shimon Peres, a former Israeli president and prime minister, whose life story mirrored that of the Jewish state and who was celebrated around the world as a Nobel prize-winning visionary who pushed his country toward peace, has died at 93.
The Israeli news website YNet reported the death early Wednesday, and two hours later his son Chemi confirmed it with "deep sorrow," as Peres's condition worsened following a major stroke two weeks ago.
"Our father's legacy has always been to look to tomorrow. We were privileged to be part of his private family, but today we sense that the entire nation of Israel and the global community share this great loss. We share this pain together."
In an unprecedented seven-decade political career, Peres filled nearly every position in Israeli public life and was credited with leading the country through some of its most defining moments, from creating its nuclear arsenal in the 1950s, to disentangling its troops from Lebanon and rescuing its economy from triple-digit inflation in the 1980s, to guiding a skeptical nation into peace talks with the Palestinians in the 1990s.
One of the country's most admired leaders, Peres first became a member of Israel's parliament in 1959. He held virtually every senior political office in Israel over his seven-decade career, including three terms as prime minister, as well as stints as foreign minister and finance minister.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement mourning the passing of Peres. He said he will convene his Cabinet for a special session later in the day.
As word of Peres's death spread, reaction started pouring in from around the globe.
President Barack Obama recalled a relationship that began when he was a U.S. senator, and included a poignant visit to Israel's official memorial to victims of the Holocaust.
"Whether it was during our conversations in the Oval Office, walking together through Yad Vashem, or when I presented him with America's highest civilian honour, the Medal of Freedom, Shimon always looked to the future," said Obama. "He was guided by a vision of the human dignity and progress that he knew people of goodwill could advance together."
Nobel Peace Prize winner
The Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs, a Canadian advocacy group, hailed Peres as a leader who "embodied the timeless aspiration of the Israeli people for a future in which their children will live in peace and security."
"President Shimon Peres was a visionary, statesman, philanthropist and a giant of Israeli life whose private and professional accomplishments over seven decades read like the history of the modern state of Israel," said David J. Cape, CIJA Chair.
Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reaching an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians, claiming it alongside late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel's former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultra-nationalist who opposed the interim accords. Peres who took over as prime minister after Rabin's death, but after a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings and Peres's own election loss to the more conservative Benjamin Netanyahu, the prospects for peace began to evaporate.
Until the end, Peres remained hopeful.
"I'm sure I shall see peace in my lifetime. Even if I should have to extend my life for a year or two, I won't hesitate," he said in a 2013 interview marking his 90th birthday.
As president, a largely ceremonial office he won in 2007, he cultivated an image as the country's elder statesman and became a popular fixture at international conferences like the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Peres remained active since completing his seven-year term as president in 2014 and was one of the country's most popular public figures.
He often hosted public events at his peace centre, bringing together Arabs and Jews in efforts to promote peace and coexistence.
Despite his accomplishments, for much of his political career he could not parlay his international prestige into success in Israeli politics, where he was branded by many as both a utopian dreamer and political schemer. His well-tailored, neck-tied appearance and swept-back gray hair seemed to separate him from his more informal countrymen. He suffered a string of electoral defeats: competing in five general elections seeking the prime minister's spot, he lost four and tied one.
Peres was celebrated by doves and vilified by hawks for advocating far-reaching Israeli compromises for peace even before he negotiated the first interim accord with the Palestinians in 1993 that set into motion a partition plan that gave them limited self-rule. That was followed by a peace accord with neighbouring Jordan.
He finally secured the public adoration that had long eluded him when he has chosen by parliament to a seven-year term as Israel's ceremonial president in 2007, taking the role of elder statesman.
Shimon Perski was born on Aug. 2, 1923, in Vishneva, then part of Poland. He moved to pre-state Palestine in 1934 with his immediate family. Her grandfather and other relatives stayed behind and perished in the Holocaust. Rising quickly through Labor Party ranks, he became a top aide to Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister and a man Peres once called "the greatest Jew of our time."
Credited with military build-up
At 29, he was the youngest person to serve as director of Israel's Defense Ministry, and is credited with arming Israel's military almost from scratch. Yet throughout his political career, he suffered from the fact that he never wore an army uniform or fought in a war.
Of his 10 books, several amplified his vision of a "new Middle East" where there was peaceful economic and cultural cooperation among all the nations of the region.
Despite continued waves of violence that pushed the Israeli political map to the right, the concept of a Palestinian state next to Israel became mainstream Israeli policy many years after Peres advocated it.
Shunted aside during the 1999 election campaign, won by party colleague Ehud Barak, Peres rejected advice to retire, assuming the newly created and loosely defined Cabinet post of Minister for Regional Cooperation.
In 2000, Peres absorbed another resounding political slap, losing an election in the parliament for the largely ceremonial post of president to Likud Party backbencher Moshe Katsav, who was later convicted and imprisoned for rape.
Even so, Peres refused to quit. In 2001, at age 77, he took the post of foreign minister in the government of national unity set up by Ariel Sharon, serving for 20 months before Labor withdrew from the coalition.
Then he followed Sharon into a new party, Kadima, serving as vice-premier under Sharon and his successor, Ehud Olmert, before assuming the presidency.
Peres wed his wife Sonya in 1945. The couple were married until her death in 2011, and were parents to two sons and a daughter.
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