TELL Magazine

Shimon Peres

World leaders continue to pour eulogies on the departed former president of Isreal, Shimon Peres, who died Wednesday at the age of 93.
He won the Nobel peace award in 1994 along with Yitzhak Rabin, one politician who had been a major competitor and Yasser Arafat, now late but then the leader of Palestinian Liberation Organization, PLO. That was in recognition of efforts made to broker peace in the region. He was later to become the president , an appointment that saw him resigning his membership of Knesset, as the longest serving member of the legislative assembly. He stepped down as president in 2014, again then as world’s oldest head of state.
U S President Barack Obama said, “Shimon was a soldier for Israel, for Jewish people, for justice , for peace and for the belief that we can be true to our best selves- to the very end of our time on Earth, and in the legacy that we leave to others.”
Former president Bill Clinton called him “a genius with a big heart.” Clinton sure knows Peres. He was who mediated in what brought about the Oslo peace accord between him and Arafat in 1993 in the United States.
For British Prime Minister Theresa May, Peres was a “visionary and courageous statesman , who worked relentlessly for peace and never lost hope this would one day be achievable.”
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ” As a man of peace, he worked until his final days towards reconciling with our neighbours for a better future for our children.”
Little wonder that even for the short notice notable world leaders attended his funeral. They include Pope Francis, Obama , Chancellor Angela Markel of Germany , French President Francois Hollande, Bill Clinton, UN scribe Bank Ki Moon, Prince Charles and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.