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World Leaders Pay Tribute to Shimon Peres

by TheTower.org Staff |

World leaders across the globe continue to pay tribute to former Israeli prime minister and president Shimon Peres, who passed away early Wednesday at the age of 93.

President Barack Obama described “my friend Shimon” as one of the “few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history.” Obama’s statement concluded:

A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever. Shimon Peres was a soldier for Israel, for the 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. For the gift of his friendship and the example of his leadership, todah rabah, Shimon.

Referring to Peres as “part of that exceptional generation of founders—the men and women who recognized the necessity for a Jewish State of Israel and then willed it into existence, despite overwhelming odds,” Vice President Joe Biden recalled:

It was my great privilege over the past 40 years to benefit from his friendship and his counsel.  And each time I met with him, I was struck anew by his incredible compassion, his boundless energy, and his ceaseless curiosity.  Even at 93, Shimon was still looking for the next big idea—the next dream to bring to life.

National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s tribute provided an overview of Peres’s career.

Over the course of a political career that spanned more than six decades, a dozen cabinets, and ten American presidents, President Peres inspired generations with his profound commitment to his country.  He was dreamer and a doer, working to make the desert bloom and build the state of Israel brick by brick.  He was a warrior who helped secure Israel against its adversaries and a peacemaker who knew, as he liked to say, that there are no hopeless situations, only hopeless people—falling ill 23 years to the day that he joined President Clinton, Prime Minister Rabin, and Yasir Arafat for that historic handshake on the White House lawn.  He was also, as he would happily remind you, an excellent cow-milker and shepherd in his kibbutznik days.

Former president Bill Clinton and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton recalled Peres as “a true and treasured friend” who “championed its security, prosperity and limitless possibilities from its birth to his last day on earth.” The Clintons remembered the former Israeli president as “a genius with a big heart who used his gifts to imagine a future of reconciliation, not conflict.”

Former President George H. W. Bush recalled Peres’s “innate humanity [and] his decency”; his son, former President George W. Bush, said that he and his family “will miss Shimon Peres and his grace, dignity, and optimism.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences in a statement:

When Shimon, as a youth, went to the Ben Shemen agricultural school, he wrote: ‘The goal of my life is to serve my people.’ He realized this goal. He believed with all his heart in the goals of Zionism and was a man of inspiring vision. Shimon accompanied the state since before its birth, stood by the cradle, and made sure that it could stand on strong legs. He was at the side of David Ben-Gurion during fateful decisions, at a time when the young Israel was fragile and its military strength had yet to be realized. Shimon greatly contributed to the building up of our strength. He made a unique contribution to the strengthening of our security both openly and in areas that are best left unspoken.

One of the summits of his life was the successful operation to free those of our people who had been hijacked to Entebbe. As Defense Minister in the government of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon played a crucial role in the decision to dispatch our planes and commandos into the heart of Africa. But alongside this, alongside all of his work on behalf of the security of Israel, Shimon Peres never stopped striving for peace and believing in peace. His hand was always extended toward historic reconciliation with our neighbors. Even if this reconciliation tarried, he taught us not to give in to despair but to cling to the hope and to continue working.

Shimon Peres was an MK for almost 50 years. He served as a minister in various governments in many and varied portfolios. He twice led our country as Prime Minister. He opened our international links, contributed to stabilizing the economy and worked greatly on behalf of immigration from the USSR and Ethiopia.

“There is not a chapter in the history of the State of Israel in which Shimon did not write or play a part,” said Reuven Rivlin, Peres’s successor as president. “As one man he carried a whole nation on the wings of imagination, on the wings of vision. A man who was a symbol for the great spirit of this people. Shimon made us look far into the future, and we loved him. We loved him because he made us dare to imagine not what was once here, nor what is now, but what could be.”

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, a successor to Peres as leader of the Labor Party, described the Nobel winner as “a teacher, a friend and a great leader,” and “one of our nation’s fathers….For 70 years Peres was at the forefront of the work in the State of Israel. As someone who used to be state founder Ben-Gurion’s right hand man, to his final day, he was there.”

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot spoke of the impact Peres had on Israel’s military: “Israel was Shimon’s life mission, and the security of this country stood at the forefront of everything that he did. His legacy of action, of turning vision into reality and of unrelenting forward thinking and development will guide the IDF for many years to come.”

Other heads of state from around the world also shared their thoughts. “With the death of Shimon Peres, Israel loses one of its most illustrious statesmen, one of the most ardent defenders of peace and a faithful friend of France,” said French Prime Minister François Hollande.

 

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hailed Peres as “a great man of our time, a man of peace.”

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who also served as the Quartet’s Middle East peace envoy, hailed Peres’s “commitment to peace and his belief that it was in the interests of the country he adored marked him out as a visionary whose vision was never dimmed or displaced.”

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she was “heartbroken” at the news of Peres’s death and called him a “man of peace [and] immense source of inspiration.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a letter that “Peres was a partner in making the brave peace with the martyr Yasser Arafat and prime minister (Yitzhak) Rabin, and made unremitting efforts to reach a lasting peace from the Oslo agreement until the final moments of his life.”

Other famous figures have also expressed their sadness over Peres’ s death, including Barbara Streisand, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and veteran TV journalists Dan Rather and Larry King.

Among the world leaders scheduled to attend Peres’s funeral are Obama, former President Clinton, Secretary of State John Kerry, Britain’s Prince Charles, Hollande, Trudeau, Turnbull, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

[Photo: Pete Souza / White House ]

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