Shimon Peres, the Israeli elder statesman who shared a Nobel Prize about forging a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, has died after he suffered from a massive stroke. He was 93.
Reports that have surfaced wrote that Peres had shown progress with his health but doctors revealed that it took a turn for the worse on Thursday.
Leader by Heart
Peres had topped leadership roles over the decades, including becoming Prime Minister and President. The Labor Party veteran became a face of the Jewish State instantly and was recognized and well-respected in Israel and all throughout the world.
The late Peres battled Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for the Labor Party leadership in the 1980s and 1990s. In that role, Peres had bagged the Oslo Peace Accords wherein he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
It was known that Rabin was assassinated in 1995. Peres then became the Prime Minister. He called for the early elections for the government to have a mandate in order to pursue two-state solution. Amidst all this, Palestinian suicide attacks made Peres struggling to defend the peace process, which saw him suffer ahead of the next election.
History maker
Peres is the Israel's ninth President. He made his address to the Turkish parliament in 2007. As the first Israeli President to speak to a Muslim country's legislature, he consistently called for peace talks in 2011. This is behind the fact that he did it with the Palestinians and was already warned by the United Nations against recognizing Palestine as an independent state. According to UN, it was outside of a peace plan. Peres was recognized and received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 with President Barack Obama as the grantor.
In Israeli politics for more than half a century, Peres was held accountable and reliable with every position in the Cabinet. Be it from minister of defense to being Prime Minister which is a position he held three times, he served at his best. Even he left the office on the year 2014, he remained in the public eye and continue serving, still highlighting his advocacy for peace in the Middle East.
"I am very grateful to him for a lifetime of thinking big thoughts and dreaming big dreams and figuring out practical ways to achieve them," President Bill Clinton said in a statement.
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