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Israel: Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres Dies at 93

HeadlineSep 28, 2016

In international news, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres has died at the age of 93. Born in Poland, Peres was one of the most influential political figures throughout Israel’s history. He served twice as prime minister, once as president, and as the minister of defense, finance, transportation and foreign affairs. While serving as defense minister in the 1950s, he was a key figure in securing nuclear weapons for the new state of Israel through secret negotiations with France. He once offered to sell nuclear weapons to the apartheid government of South Africa—a fact revealed after a secret memo was uncovered and published in The Nonproliferation Review. Peres was also a leading advocate for the building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. His slogan was “Settlements everywhere.” In 1994, Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, for helping negotiate the Oslo Accords.

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