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Israel
mourns
as
preparations
begin
for
Peres'
funeral
By ARON
HELLER
ap.org
JERUSALEM
- Israel
on
Wednesday
mourned
the
death of
Shimon
Peres, a
former
president
and
prime
minister
whose
life
story
mirrored
that of
the
Jewish
state,
as the
government
began
preparations
for a
funeral
that is
expected
to bring
together
an array
of world
leaders
and
international
dignitaries.
Peres,
celebrated
around
the
world as
a Nobel
Prize-winning
visionary
who
pushed
his
country
toward
peace
during a
remarkable
seven-decade
career,
died
early
Wednesday
from
complications
from a
stroke.
He was
93.
News of
Peres'
death
was met
with an
outpouring
of
tributes
from
around
the
world.
"There
are few
people
who we
share
this
world
with,
who
change
the
course
of human
history,
not just
through
their
role in
human
events,
but
because
they
expand
our
moral
imagination
and
force us
to
expect
more of
ourselves.
My
friend
Shimon
was one
of those
people,"
said
President
Barack
Obama.
Obama
will
headline
the list
of
leaders
expected
at
Peres'
funeral
in
Jerusalem
on
Friday.
Israel's
Foreign
Ministry
said
Bill and
Hillary
Clinton,
Britain's
Prince
Charles,
French
President
Francois
Hollande
and
Canadian
Prime
Minister
Justin
Trudeau,
along
with
senior
officials
from
Germany,
Mexico,
Australia
and
elsewhere,
would
also
attend.
It will
be the
biggest
gathering
of
international
leaders
to
converge
on
Israel
since
the
funeral
of
Yitzhak
Rabin,
who was
assassinated
by a
Jewish
ultranationalist
in 1995.
Officials
said
that
Peres'
body
would
lie in
state at
the
Knesset,
or
parliament,
on
Thursday
to allow
the
public
to pay
final
respects.
His
funeral
will
take
place at
Mount
Herzl,
the
country's
national
cemetery
in
Jerusalem.
Yona
Bartal,
a former
personal
aide to
Peres,
said the
arrangements
were in
line
with his
wishes.
Peres'
son,
Chemi,
confirmed
his
death
Wednesday
morning
to
reporters
gathered
at the
hospital
where
Peres
had been
treated
since
suffering
a
debilitating
stroke
on Sept.
13.
"Our
father's
legacy
has
always
been to
look to
tomorrow,"
he said.
"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."
Prime
Minister
Benjamin
Netanyahu
convened
his
Cabinet
for a
special
meeting,
where he
praised
Peres
despite
their
deep
ideological
differences.
"Shimon
devoted
his life
to our
nation
and to
the
pursuit
of
peace,"
he said.
"As
Israel's
President,
Shimon
did so
much to
unite
the
nation.
And the
nation
loved
him for
it."
Bill
Clinton
and
Democratic
presidential
nominee
Hillary
Clinton
said
they
"lost a
true and
treasured
friend."
Clinton
was
president
when
Peres
negotiated
a
historic
interim
peace
agreement
with the
Palestinians
in 1993.
Former
Presidents
George
H.W.
Bush and
George
W. Bush
also
issued
statements
of
mourning.
While
Western
leaders
eulogized
Peres,
the
Western-backed
Palestinian
Authority
in the
West
Bank
remained
conspicuously
silent.
On one
hand,
the
Palestinians
appreciated
Peres'
commitment
to
peace.
But he
was also
controversial
for
overseeing
a war in
Lebanon
while he
was
prime
minister
in 1996
in which
dozens
of
civilians
were
killed
in an
Israeli
artillery
strike.
Peres,
like
other
Israeli
leaders,
also
allowed
settlement
construction
to take
place
during
his
years in
leadership
positions.
In the
Gaza
Strip,
the
ruling
Hamas
militant
group
expressed
happiness.
"Shimon
Peres
was the
last
remaining
Israeli
officials
who
founded
the
occupation,"
said
Sami Abu
Zuhri, a
spokesman
for the
Islamic
group.
"His
death is
the end
of a
phase in
the
history
of this
occupation
and the
beginning
of a new
phase of
weakness."
At home,
Peres
was the
elder
statesman
of
Israeli
politics,
one of
the
country's
most
admired
leaders
and the
last
surviving
link to
its
founding
fathers.
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
what is
believed
to be a
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.
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.
His
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."
As
protege
of
Ben-Gurion,
Peres
led the
Defense
Ministry
in his
20s and
spearheaded
the
development
of
Israel's
nuclear
program.
He was
first
elected
to
parliament
in 1959
and
later
held
every
major
Cabinet
post -
including
defense,
finance
and
foreign
affairs
- and
served
three
brief
stints
as prime
minister.
His key
role in
the
first
Israeli-Palestinian
peace
accord
earned
him a
Nobel
Peace
Prize
and
revered
status
as
Israel's
then
most
recognizable
figure
abroad.
And yet,
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.
He
suffered
a string
of
electoral
defeats:
competing
in five
general
elections
seeking
the
prime
minister's
spot, he
lost
four and
tied
one.
He
finally
secured
the
public
adoration
that had
long
eluded
him when
he was
chosen
by
parliament
to a
seven-year
term as
Israel's
ceremonial
president
in 2007,
taking
the role
of elder
statesman.
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
neighboring
Jordan.
But
after a
fateful
six-month
period
in
1995-96
that
included
Prime
Minister
Yitzhak
Rabin's
assassination,
a spate
of
Palestinian
suicide
bombings
and
Peres'
own
election
loss to
the more
conservative
Benjamin
Netanyahu,
the
prospects
for
peace
began to
evaporate.
Relegated
to the
political
wilderness,
he
created
his
non-governmental
Peres
Center
for
Peace
that
raised
funds
for
cooperation
and
development
projects
involving
Israel,
the
Palestinians
and Arab
nations.
He
returned
to it at
age 91
when he
completed
his term
as
president.
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. |
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