Imagine bumping into Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin on the street. Not actors, but the real Jefferson and Franklin. It would be like bumping into Shimon Peres. To fully grasp his place in Israeli history, you would need to envisage that.
Peres, though only 25, was there when the state of Israel was established in 1948. He stood beside his mentor, David Ben Gurion, the founding father of modern Israel — witness to a grand moment in Jewish history.
In fact, at almost all the formative moments in Israel’s 66-year-old history, Peres was present — in the background or center stage.
In eulogizing him, it’s hard to avoid platitudes so often ascribed to a statesmen of his experience and caliber. But for as towering a figure in Israeli politics as Peres was — to both diehard loyalists and bitter detractors and adversaries — those platitudes are warranted.
He was president (a largely ceremonial and titular title in Israel), twice prime minister, twice defense minister, Nobel laureate, twice foreign minister, finance minister, transportation minister, deputy defense minister and director general of the Defense Ministry under Ben Gurion. He was everywhere and saw it all.
He was an architect of Israel’s deterrent-power strategy, relations with France and industrial development. As defense minister, he pushed for the Entebbe raid to free hostages in far-away Uganda in 1976.
He saw Israel as a “start-up” nation before anyone even knew the term. He spoke of water desalination as national policy when it was but a scientific theory.
As prime minister and foreign minister, he dreamed of peace and had detailed geopolitical and economic plans for the day when it would come — even as everyone saw thought those dreams as unrealistic. If you don’t dream, Peres would say to his detractors, you have nightmares.
He complained incessantly about “experts” who could be counted on to pooh-poohed plans “unfeasible.”
Peres was a life-long Francophile, but grew to admire America as well. He viewed this land as he viewed his own. Two countries born in defiance and against the odds and currents of history. Two immigrant societies believing they have a purpose greater than merely existing: to set an example for the world, to be a better society than what history had to offer — a light onto the nations and a shining city on the hill.
On Wednesday morning, Nov. 4, 1992, I stepped into his office at the Foreign Ministry. At the time, I was Peres’ policy adviser. “Bill Clinton won the election in the US,” I said. “An hour ago he secured the required 270 electoral votes.”
Peres looked at me, puzzled. “I’m sure you’re here to explain to me how and why this Clinton guy won, right?” Yes, I replied.
“Listen carefully,” he impatiently blurted. “I met them all. I met Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. I don’t need you to tell me how he won, but what he intends to do in the Middle East.”
Three years later, to the day, Peres was standing next to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just minutes before he was assassinated. It all reminds me of his omni-presence in Israel’s history — and his omni-present focus on the future.
(A few months ago, I reminded Peres of our conversation. I’m adding Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama to the list, I said. Name the one you felt the most affinity with — the one you fundamentally liked and respected most. You know the answer, Peres would reply. He left it at that.)
At 10:45 a.m. on 9/11 — minutes after the North Tower of the World Trade Center had collapsed — New York’s cellphone service was almost nonexistent. Yet, as I walked up Third Avenue, my phone rang. Peres was on the line.
“You OK?” he asked. “You know where Don Rumsfeld is? Talk to me.”
“Shimon,” I answered, “I’m the consul general in New York. Rumsfeld runs the Pentagon. How the hell do I know where he is?”
Fine, Peres said. “These sh-ts hit New York! New York! Do you get that? I’m coming over.”
A week later, he did. Would you have gone to any other country that underwent something like this, I asked. No, he said.
Anyone who worked with Peres or knew him well can quote at least 20 or 30 noteworthy, smart, amusing or perplexing things he said throughout the years. But for everyone, there is always that one unique thing that you’ll always remember.
For me, it might be this: In the end, Peres said, “you are as big as the fight you pick,” so pick one that really matters, one that is worth living for.
His eye was always on the future of the country he loved.
Alon Pinkas was Shimon Peres’ foreign policy adviser and consul general in New York from 2000-2004.