Shimon Peres (born August 21, 1923) is an Israeli politician, who was the head of the Israeli Labour Party for many years and served as 8th Prime Minister of Israel for several years, also serving as Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2002.

Shimon Peres was born in Poland. He moved to Tel Aviv, Israel with his family in 1934.

Political Career

Shimon Peres is one of Israel's most senior politicians. Celebrated his 80th birthday not long ago, there is a wide concensus with Israel that is vigorous and vital as ever.

On the 1950s and the 1960s Peres was a dimplomat in the ministry of defence and was involved in aquiering weapons for the young state of Israel. Peres efforts went superbly well as he managed to aquire the advance Dassult Mirage III French jet fighter and a nuclear reactor.

Although he was never won an election, Peres served twice as Prime Minister: once between 1984-1986 as part of rotation agreement with Likud's Itzhak Shamir, and once between 1995-1996 after the assination in prime minister Itzhak Rabin.

Awards and interests

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 together with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin.

Shimon Peres is interested in nanoelectronics.

In 1997 he founded the Peres Center for Peace.

Quotes

"If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time."

"Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable."

"You can kill a thousand; you can bring an end to life; you cannot kill an idea." —on the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

"With the religious you can hardly negotiate. They think they have supreme permission to kill people and go to war."

"The Arab began to understand that is not poverty creating terror, but terror creating poverty. The are the victims of their own errors."

Books

He is the author of several books, including The New Middle East and For the Future of Israel (ISBN 080185928X).

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