Shimon Peres, left, walking with David Ben-Gurion, center, in Kibbutz Sde Boker, Israel, Jan. 3, 1969 (Israeli Government Press Office)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Peres headed the Alignment \u2014 the precursor to today\u2019s Labor Party \u2014 for the next 15 years, contesting three more close elections with Likud. The two parties formed a unity government following the 1984 elections \u2014 Peres was prime minister from 1984 to 1986, then foreign minister under Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir from 1986 to 1988.<\/p>\n
As foreign minister in 1987, Peres conducted secret negotiations with King Hussein of Jordan for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank as part of an Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty. But Shamir rejected the proposed agreement, and the following year Jordan unilaterally relinquished its claim to\u00a0the West Bank.<\/p>\n
After the Alignment\u00a0lost the 1988 elections, Peres again joined a Likud-led government as finance\u00a0minister, but tried to overthrow the government two years later. In what became known as the Dirty Trick, Peres assembled an Alignment-led coalition with leftist and haredi Orthodox parties, only to see it fall apart\u00a0after he received a mandate to form a governing coalition. He lost his\u00a0party\u2019s\u00a0chairmanship to Rabin in 1992, and again became\u00a0foreign minister when the party, now renamed Labor, won elections that year.<\/p>\n
Under Rabin, Peres was the architect of the Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinians autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. He shared the Nobel Peace<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael\u2019s role in the Middle East should be to contribute to a great, sustained regional revival,\u201d Peres said upon accepting the prize. \u201cA Middle East without wars, without enemies, without ballistic missiles, without nuclear warheads.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Rabin was assassinated in 1995, Peres became acting prime minister, but lost the post again in a close race with Likud\u2019s Benjamin Netanyahu. Following his defeat in \u201996, he founded the Peres Center for Peace, which runs programs aimed at regional reconciliation.<\/p>\n
Shimon Peres speaks at Jewish Media Summit in June, 2014. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Peres remained in the Labor Party through 2005, twice regaining the chairmanship and serving another stint as foreign minister under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In 2006, following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Peres joined Sharon\u2019s new centrist Kadima party.<\/p>\n
The next year he won a race for Israel\u2019s largely ceremonial presidency. As president, Peres stayed largely above the political fray, though he conducted secret negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2011, culminating in a peace deal that Netanyahu\u2019s government rejected. After leaving the presidency, Peres remained largely silent on politics.<\/p>\n
Peres frequently traveled internationally as president, focusing his speeches and activism on encouraging Middle East peace and touting Israel\u2019s technological achievements. His annual Presidential Conference brought together leaders in politics, science and culture. He finished his presidential term in 2014.<\/p>\n
He is survived by three children, Tsvia Walden, Yoni Peres and Chemi Peres, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
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