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90-528: The Conference was inaugurated in May 2008 by Israel's ninth President, Shimon Peres . The conference seeks to investigate the crises and solutions, trends and innovations, visions and ideals that are shaping our collective future. The aim of the Conference was the development of an annual event that not only "talks" but also drives action and encourages practical initiatives. Previous conferences had as speakers

180-511: A Palmach scout, a zoologist, and an archaeologist, had been funded by Ben-Gurion and planned by Palmach head Yitzhak Sadeh , as part of a plan for future Jewish settlement of the area so as to include it in the Jewish state. The group was arrested by a Bedouin camel patrol led by a British officer, taken to Beersheba (then a small Arab town) and incarcerated in the local jail. All of the participants were sentenced to two weeks in prison, and as

270-532: A Likud-led government with right-wing religious parties, establishing what was seen as the most conservative government coalition in the history of Israel up to that point. Peres led the opposition in the Knesset from 1990 until early 1992, when he was defeated by Yitzhak Rabin in the Israeli Labor Party leadership election , the first leadership election held since the party formally merged with

360-584: A child, I grew up in my grandfather's home. … I was educated by him. … My grandfather taught me Talmud . It was not as easy as it sounds. My home was not an observant one. My parents were not Orthodox but I was Haredi . At one point, I heard my parents listening to the radio on the Sabbath and I smashed it." When he was a child, Peres was taken by his father to Radun to receive a blessing from Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (known as "the Chofetz Chaim "). As

450-628: A child, Peres would later say, "I did not dream of becoming president of Israel. My dream as a boy was to be a shepherd or a poet of stars." He inherited his love of French literature from his maternal grandfather. In 1932, Peres's father immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv . The family followed him in 1934. He attended Balfour Elementary School and High School, and Geula Gymnasium (High School for Commerce) in Tel Aviv . At 15, he transferred to Ben Shemen agricultural school and lived on Kibbutz Geva for several years. Peres

540-633: A coalition that excluded the left. When the new Likud-led government was formed on 20 June 1977 Peres' time as the unofficial acting prime minister ended. Once the Likud-led government took power, Labor and the Alignment bloc entered the Knesset opposition for the first time in its history, and Peres assumed the unofficial role of Knesset opposition leader. In 1978, Peres was elected vice president of Socialist International . Through his role within

630-465: A foreign currency scandal involving his wife, he would be stepping down prior to the 1977 Knesset election. Peres made himself a candidate to replace him as the new Labor Party leader. Initially, Foreign Minister Yigal Allon also made himself a candidate. However, Allon and Peres reached an agreement that Peres would appoint Allon to any ministerial position that Allon preferred in exchange from his withdrawal of his candidacy. Following Allon's withdrawal,

720-492: A number of key questions and Rabin learned that the cabinet had also endorsed it. Shortly after the mission ended, Rabin recounted, "we called into my office seven of our top commanders...I told our friends in uniform that the honor of the Jewish people, their destinies, are challenged and what we are considering is not just a calculated risk in the military sense, but a comparative risk, which exists between surrender to terror and daring rescue stemming from independence." After

810-527: A prostitute in providing services for the great powers. What he deeply longed for was a partnership between equals and an explicit co-ordination of military plans, preferably at a face-to-face meeting with Eden.” On 22 October 1956 David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, gave the most detailed explanation ever to foreign dignitaries, of Israel’s overall strategy for the Middle East. Shlaim called this Ben-Gurion’s "grand design". His main objection to

900-437: A rescue operation should be planned. Peres organized a secret Israel Crisis Committee to come up with a rescue plan. When a plan had been made, he met with commander Netanyahu a number of times. During one of their final private meetings, they both examined maps and went over precise details. Peres later said of Netanyahu's explanation, "My impression was one of exactitude and imagination," saying that Netanyahu seemed confident

990-511: A secret intelligence organization tasked with obtaining military technology and science espionage. From 1954, as director general of the Ministry of Defense, Peres was involved in the planning of the 1956 Suez War , in partnership with France and Britain. Peres was sent by David Ben-Gurion to Paris, where he held secret meetings with the French government. Peres was instrumental in negotiating

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1080-489: A variety of global leaders, international scholars and activists, poets and scientists, artists and clergy, entrepreneurs, economists and industrialists, including George W. Bush , Elie Wiesel , Robert De Niro , Rupert Murdoch , and Bernard-Henri Lévy . Each Conference consists of plenary sessions, panel discussions, roundtables, master classes and an exhibition. The 2008 Conference Steering Committee partnered with The Jewish Policy Planning Institute to develop and produce

1170-466: Is what Israel demands as her share in the fruits of victory. October 24 was the third and last day of the conference. Ben-Gurion finally made up his mind to commit the IDF to the battle. In his diary he summarized the main considerations that led to this fateful decision. He thought that the operation had to be undertaken if Israel’s skies could be effectively defended in the day or two that would elapse until

1260-548: The 15th government (led by Prime Minister Golda Meir ), and in 1970 (also in the 15th government), he became minister of transportation and communications . After this, he served as minister of information in the Meir-led 16th government . Peres was appointed minister of defense in the Yitzhak Rabin -led 17th government , after having been Rabin's chief rival for the post of Labor Party leader (and, in effect,

1350-525: The 1977 Knesset election . This was at moment when Labor was threatened with the prospect of losing its control of government after 28-consecutive years due to the rise of both the right-wing Likud bloc and the centrist Democratic Movement for Change , which were seen as collectively cutting into the Labor Party's support in the upcoming election. At the time, Rabin and Peres presented little policy difference, with Peres being seen as only slightly to

1440-452: The 1981 elections . In the 1984 elections (Peres' third election as Labor Party leader), the Alignment coalition won more seats than any other party, but the left-wing failed to win the majority of 61 seats needed to form a coalition on their own. Alignment and Likud agreed to an unusual “ rotation " arrangement to form a grand coalition unity government during which, for the first twenty-five months, Peres would serve as prime minister and

1530-603: The Lavon Affair . Owing to Peres's mediation, Israel acquired the advanced Dassault Mirage III French jet fighter, established the Dimona nuclear reactor and entered into a tri-national agreement with France and the United Kingdom, positioning Israel in what would become the 1956 Suez Crisis . Peres continued as a primary intermediary in the close French-Israeli alliance from the mid-1950s, although from 1958, he

1620-824: The Palestinian leadership . In 1996, he founded the Peres Center for Peace , which has the aim of "promot[ing] lasting peace and advancement in the Middle East by fostering tolerance, economic and technological development, cooperation and well-being." After suffering a stroke, Peres died in 2016 near Tel Aviv . Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski, on 2 August 1923, in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva , Belarus), to Yitzhak (1896–1962) and Sara (1905–1969, née Meltzer) Perski. The family spoke Hebrew , Yiddish and Russian at home, and Peres learned Polish at school. He then learned to speak English and French. His father

1710-479: The Tripartite Declaration , and supply more weapons to Israel. During the same visit, Peres informed the French that Israel had decided upon war with Egypt in 1956. Throughout the 1950s, an extraordinarily close relationship existed between France and Israel, characterised by unprecedented cooperation in the fields of defense and diplomacy. For his work as the architect of this relationship, Peres

1800-706: The UN Security Council calling for an end to the Israeli invasion. They then issued their own call for both Israel and Egypt to withdraw from within 16 km of the Suez Canal . When Egypt refused, the British and French launched their own invasion to secure the Canal zone under the guise of separating Egyptian and Israeli forces. In addition to the key role of this agreement in the overall Suez Crisis ,

1890-540: The "Operation Entebbe", which took place on 4 July 1976. The rescue boosted the Rabin government's approval rating with the public. The only Israeli soldier that was killed during the successful rescue operation was its commander, 30-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu , older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu . Before Rabin ultimately approved the rescue mission, he and Peres were at odds on how to proceed. Rabin

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1980-450: The 12 members. Three years later, he took over the movement and won a majority. The head of Mapai, David Ben-Gurion , and Berl Katznelson began to take an interest in him, and appointed him to Mapai's secretariat. In 1944, Peres led an illicit expedition into the Negev , then a closed military zone requiring a permit to enter. The expedition, consisting of a group of teenagers, along with

2070-624: The Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Archives, omits the plan, code named "Fantastic" by Ben-Gurion, from his account of Sèvres, and instead offers as the Israeli motivation for the invasion of Egypt: "Conventional scholarship and the testimony of Israeli leaders, particularly Ben-Gurion, was that the large-scale Egyptian arms deal in September 1955 with the Soviet ally, Czechoslovakia, was the catalyst that confirmed that

2160-496: The Canal by Anglo-French forces. (signed) David Ben-Gurion Patrick Dean Christian Pineau Although reports of the pre-arrangement had leaked out within days, Sir Anthony Eden , the British Prime Minister later denied the existence of such an agreement. When the existence of signed copies of the secret protocol was leaked, Eden sent Dean back to France on 25 October to collect all copies and leave no trace of

2250-399: The Conference. The 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 Steering Committees partnered with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem to develop and produce the Conference. On 7 May 2013, physicist Stephen Hawking informed the organizers that he was cancelling his participation as keynote speaker. He indicated that this was in support of the academic boycott protesting Israel's treatment of Palestinians. It

2340-874: The Egyptian army in Sinai and pose a threat to the Suez Canal and this would provide Britain and France with the pretext to activate their military plans and occupy the Suez Canal Zone, ostensibly in order to separate the combatants and protect the canal." ”The only aspect of the Challe scenario that Eden did not like was the idea of Britain inviting Israel to move against Egypt. He preferred Israel to move of her own accord; he did not want Britain to be implicated in anything that might be construed as collusion in an alliance with Israel against an Arab country.... Ben-Gurion

2430-549: The Franco-Israeli agreement for a military offensive. In November 1954, Peres visited Paris, where he was received by the French Defense Minister Marie-Pierre Kœnig , who told him that France would sell Israel any weapons it wanted to buy. By early 1955, France was shipping large amounts of weapons to Israel. In April 1956, following another visit to Paris by Peres, France agreed to disregard

2520-564: The French Armed Forces General Maurice Challe , and British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd and his assistant Sir Patrick Dean . Together, they and their aides secretly planned a two-step invasion of Egypt, including the cover story . First Israel would attack Egypt in the Sinai , and then Britain and France would invade on the pretext of "separating the combatants" and protecting the canal, under

2610-513: The French and the British started bombing Egypt’s airfields. The aim of destroying Nasser had pervaded the entire conference and it was uppermost in Ben-Gurion’s mind. "This is a unique opportunity," he wrote, "that two not so small powers will try to topple Nasser, and we shall not stand alone against him while he becomes stronger and conquers all the Arab countries.... and maybe the whole situation in

2700-557: The IDF chief of staff, who served as the secretary of the Israeli delegation and took copious notes throughout. In 1957, at Dayan’s request, Bar-On, who had a degree in History, wrote a detailed account of the events that led to the Suez War with access to all the official documents”. On 14 October 1956, General Maurice Challe, the deputy chief of staff of the French armed forces, made the suggestion that "Israel would be invited to attack

2790-491: The Israeli historian, Avi Shlaim, “Rumours and accusations of collusion started flying around as soon as the Suez War broke out but no hard evidence was produced at the time, let alone a smoking gun.... A number of participants have written about the meeting in their memoirs.... But the principal, most prolific, and most reliable chronicler of the proceedings of the Sèvres conference is Colonel Mordechai Bar-On, chief of bureau of

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2880-604: The Israeli premiership) in the 1974 Israeli Labor Party leadership election that was held after Golda Meir resigned in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War . On 27 June 1976, Peres, as minister of defense, in collaboration with Prime Minister Rabin, handled Israel's response to a coordinated act of terrorism when 248 Paris-bound travelers on an Air France plane were taken hostage by pro-Palestinian hijackers and flown to Uganda , Africa, 2,000 miles away. Peres and Rabin were responsible for approving what became known as

2970-464: The Knesset, and led Alignment and Labor. Peres first succeeded Yitzhak Rabin as acting prime minister briefly during 1977, before becoming prime minister from 1984 to 1986. As foreign minister under Prime Minister Rabin, Peres engineered the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty , and won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the Oslo Accords peace talks with

3060-412: The Labor Party leadership announced on 10 April 1977 that he had chosen to endorse Peres as the party's new leader. On 11 April 1977 , the 815-member Central Committee of the party elected Peres by acclamation as the party's new leader. Rabin ended his active service as prime minister on 22 April 1977, and Peres became Israel's unofficial acting prime minister. The reason why Peres was not officially

3150-478: The Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir would be foreign minister, with the two swapping positions thereafter for the second half of the term. Peres was regarded to be a popular prime minister in his two years as premier under the rotation arrangement. During a portion of his premiership, he also held the position of minister of religious affairs . Among the most noteworthy moments of his first tenure as prime minister

3240-538: The Middle East will change according to my plan." "France and Britain have a vital interest in the Suez Canal," he said forcefully. ‘"The Straits of Tiran are the State of Israel’s Suez Canal.... We intend to capture the Straits of Tiran and we intend to stay there and thus ensure freedom of navigation to Eilat." The British officials then asked a number of questions about Israel’s operational plans, evidently inspired by

3330-616: The Palestinian refugees there and to make peace with Israel while the West Bank would be attached to Israel as a semi-autonomous region. Lebanon suffered from having a large Muslim population which was concentrated in the south. The problem could be solved by Israel’s expansion up to the Litani River, thereby helping to turn Lebanon into a more compact Christian state. The Suez Canal area should be given an international status while

3420-692: The Protocol includes the following: The results of the conversations which took place at Sèvres from 22–24 October 1956 between the representatives of the Governments of the United Kingdom, the State of Israel and of France are the following: In addition, the Israeli Government will be notified that the French and British Governments have demanded of the Egyptian Government to accept temporary occupation of key positions along

3510-536: The Protocol of Sèvres is said to be kept within the Ben-Gurion Archives in Sde Boker . A photocopy of the three pages of the Protocol in French was found in 2002 by the widow of Christian Pineau after his death, and images of the pages published in 2010. Four days after the Sèvres meeting, Israeli forces invaded Egyptian territory. The British and French vetoed an American-sponsored resolution in

3600-421: The Sinai. Britain and France would then intervene, purportedly to separate the warring Israeli and Egyptian forces, instructing both to withdraw to a distance of 16 kilometres from either side of the canal. The British and French would then argue, according to the plan, that Egypt's control of such an important route was too tenuous, and that it needed be placed under Anglo-French management. The agreement at Sèvres

3690-542: The Straits of Tiran in the Gulf of Aqaba should come under Israeli control to ensure freedom of navigation. A prior condition for realizing this plan was the elimination of Nasser and the replacement of his regime with a pro-Western government which would also be prepared to make peace with Israel. Ben-Gurion argued that his plan would serve the interests of all the Western powers as well as those of Israel by destroying Nasser and

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3780-740: The Suez Canal on 26 July. The planning for and the agreements contained in the protocol began the Suez Crisis on 29 October 1956. On 22 October 1956, Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion , Director General of the Ministry of Defense Shimon Peres and Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Moshe Dayan secretly travelled from Israel to an isolated house in Sèvres to meet the French Minister of Defence Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury , Minister of Foreign Affairs Christian Pineau and Chief of Staff of

3870-480: The Suez Canal. Peres was first elected to the Knesset in the 1959 elections as a member of the Mapai party. He was given the role of deputy minister of defense, which he filled until 1965 (holding this position in the 9th , 10th , 11th , and 12th governments of Israel under Prime Ministers David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol ). In this position, he held negotiations with John F. Kennedy , which concluded with

3960-457: The agreements. Christian Pineau at the Quai d'Orsay refused to comply, since the Israeli diplomats had already left France. "For Eden, the existence of the Protocol was a catastrophe – a smoking gun that exposed the full extent of collusion between Britain, France and Israel." He was concerned that revelation of the agreement would be a threat to all three governments. The original Israeli copy of

4050-431: The anticipated 'second round' of war with Egypt was inevitable and probably in the offing. Israel, fearing that the balance of power with the Arab states would turn against her, began to prepare for conflict, including the possibility of a preemptive strike. Nasser’s decision to limit the rights of passage through the Straits of Tiran and continuing border problems provided justification for action." An English translation of

4140-511: The assistance of the government of the United States, Peres assembled a board of American economist to advise him on the situation. Conditional on him implementing reforms, Peres secured emergency economic assistance from the United States of $ 750 million (equivalent to 3.5% of the nation's GDP at the time) annually over a two-year period. Peres was initially hesitant to take the drastic measures that he ultimately would pursue, as they had

4230-410: The course of the Israeli economy. By the end of the year, inflation immensely decreased. Additionally, the shekel stabilized and the government balanced its budget. While Israel would subsequently slide into a recession , the stabilization has been regarded as an important and greatly successful model for addressing economies in crisis, and has been credited with saving the nation's economy. As per

4320-476: The eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of Israel from 2007 to 2014. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and except for three months out of office in early 2006, served as a member of the Knesset continuously until he

4410-480: The entire area east of the El Arish-Abu Ageila, Nakhl-Sharm el-Sheikh, in order to maintain for the long term the freedom of navigation in the Straits of Eilat and in order to free herself from the scourge of the infiltrators and from the danger posed by the Egyptian army bases in Sinai. Britain and France are required to support or at least to commit themselves not to show opposition to these plans. This

4500-448: The fear that the Israeli operation would not amount to a real act of war and that, consequently, Britain would not have a credible casus belli for military intervention. Will Israel issue a formal declaration of war? Ben-Gurion replied that Egypt’s repeated violations of the armistice agreement made a declaration of war superfluous. Dayan retorted more bluntly: "We will not declare – we will simply strike!" In his diary Ben-Gurion recorded

4590-410: The first peace talks between the two sides. Peres' longtime intra-party rival, Yizhak Rabin, had opposed to overthrowing the Likud-led coalition government. Peres succeeded in ending the government twenty-third government with a vote of no confidence . However, Peres was subsequently unable to assemble enough Knesset partners to form a pro-peace talk government. After two months, Shamir managed to form

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4680-534: The forces of Arab nationalism that he had unleashed. The Suez Canal would revert to being an international waterway. Britain would restore her hegemony in Iraq and Jordan and secure her access to the oil of the Middle East. France would consolidate her influence in the Middle East through Lebanon and Israel while her problems in Algeria would come to an end with the fall of Nasser. Even America might be persuaded to support

4770-409: The government in 1990, after " the dirty trick " – a failed bid by Peres to form a narrow government based on a coalition of the Alignment, small leftist factions and ultra-orthodox parties. Peres' hope had been to create a Labor-led government that would be focused on peace talks with Palestine. Likud had declined proposals by the United States for Israel and Palestine to initiate what would have been

4860-538: The historic negotiations on the Protocol of Sèvres , which was described by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden as the "highest form of statesmanship". In 1963, he held negotiations with U.S. President John F. Kennedy , which resulted in the sale of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, the first sale of U.S. military equipment to Israel. Peres represented Mapai , Rafi , the Alignment , Labor and Kadima in

4950-410: The holder of this office was that Rabin could not, under Israeli law, resign from his position as prime minister because the government was, at the time, a caretaker government . In his first election as party leader, Peres led Labor Party and the Alignment coalition to its first ever electoral defeat, and the result afforded the first-place Likud party (led by Menachem Begin ) the ability to form

5040-527: The leader, Peres was also heavily fined. The expedition came across a nest of bearded vultures , called peres in Hebrew, and from this Peres took his Hebrew name. All of Peres's relatives who remained in Wiszniew in 1941 were murdered during the Holocaust , many of them (including Rabbi Meltzer) burned alive in the town's synagogue. In 1945, Peres married Sonya Gelman , who preferred to remain outside

5130-477: The leadership of this organization, Peres befriended foreign politicians including Willy Brandt , Bruno Kreisky , members of the British Labour Party , and politicians from parts of Africa and Asia. After handily winning reelection as Labor Party leader in 1980 (defeating a challenge from Rabin, who was attempting a comeback to the leadership), Peres led his party to another, narrower, loss in

5220-412: The most popular politician in the nation. Peres agreed to renew the grand coalition with the Likud, this time conceding the premiership to Shamir for the entire term. In the grand coalition unity government of 1988–90 (the twenty-third government of Israel ), Peres served as minister of finance and also continued to be the designated acting prime minister of Israel. Peres and the Alignment finally left

5310-536: The next day: "I told him about the discovery of oil in southern and western Sinai, and that it would be good to tear this peninsula from Egypt because it did not belong to her, rather it was the English who stole it from the Turks when they believed that Egypt was in their pocket. I suggested laying down a pipeline from Sinai to Haifa to refine the oil and Mollet showed interest in this suggestion." Ilan Troen, director of

5400-417: The objections after reviewing the written details: "Shimon," he said, "this is a plan that I support not one hundred percent but one hundred and fifty percent! There has to be a military operation." Peres later got the approval from Gur, who became fully supportive. Peres then took the plan to Rabin, who had been lukewarm and still didn't like the risks, but he reluctantly approved the plan after Peres answered

5490-477: The operation would succeed with almost no losses. Netanyahu left the meeting understanding that Peres would do everything in his power to see that the operation went smoothly. Peres then went unannounced to Moshe Dayan , the former minister of Defense, interrupting his dinner with friends in a restaurant, to show him the latest plan to get his opinion. Peres told Dayan of the objections that had been raised by Rabin and Chief of Staff, Mordechai Gur . Dayan dismissed

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5580-586: The other parties of Alignment, and the first leadership election open to participation by the party's entire membership. Peres remained active in politics, however. After the Labor Party was successful in the 1992 Knesset election and Rabin became prime minister again, Peres became foreign minister in the Rabin-led twenty-fifth government of Israel . Peres had previously served as foreign minister from 1986 through 1988. Protocol of S%C3%A8vres The Protocol of Sèvres (French, Protocole de Sèvres )

5670-408: The plan for it would promote stable, pro-Western regimes and help to check Soviet advances in the Middle East.” Particularly noteworthy is the last point for it was included at Ben-Gurion’s specific request, and it defined Israel’s territorial aims, which were only tenuously related to the Suez Canal crisis: ”Israel declares its intention to keep her forces for the purpose of permanent annexation of

5760-728: The public eye. They had three children. In 1946, Peres and Moshe Dayan were chosen as the two youth delegates in the Mapai delegation to the Zionist Congress in Basel . In 1947, Peres joined the Haganah , the predecessor of the Israel Defense Forces . David Ben-Gurion made him responsible for personnel and arms purchases; he was appointed to head the naval service when Israel received independence in 1948. Peres

5850-401: The right of Rabin on domestic matters. Instead of positioning himself in contrast to the incumbent Rabin on policy, Peres instead capitalized off of the political atmosphere and staked his candidacy largely on an argument that the Labor Party needed to satisfy the nation's desire for change by choosing a new leader for itself. On 7 April 1977, Prime Minister Rabin announced that, in the wake of

5940-415: The rotation arrangement, after Peres' two years as prime minister he and Shamir traded places in 1986. Shamir became prime minister of the new twenty-second government of Israel and Peres became foreign minister as well as the designated acting prime minister of Israel . In 1988 the Alignment, led by Peres, suffered another narrow defeat . This came despite the fact that polling in 1988 showed Peres to be

6030-455: The sale of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, the first sale of US military equipment to Israel. Peres expressed great appreciation and praise for the American decision to sell Hawk missiles in a speech to the Knesset on 25 June 1963. Peres resigned from the 12th government in late May 1965, citing the growing rift between Prime Minister Eshkol and former prime minister Ben-Gurion (Peres

6120-457: The same family... but I'm not exactly sure what our relation is... It was she who later said that she was my cousin; I didn't say that". Peres told Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson that he had been born as a result of a blessing his parents had received from a chassidic rebbe and that he was proud of it. Peres's grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, a grandson of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin , had a great impact on his life. In an interview, Peres said: "As

6210-527: The seven-point agreement was signed by Ben-Gurion, Pineau and Dean. At the insistence of the Israeli diplomats, wanting to prevent being abandoned in the middle of the invasion, each group left Sèvres with a signed copy, written in French. Although not part of the protocol, the occasion allowed Israel to secure French commitment to constructing the Negev Nuclear Research Center and the supply of natural uranium for it. According to

6300-399: The strong potential of proving unpopular and came with a risk of potentially creating a drastic increase in unemployment. Peres ultimately was convinced to push through the 1985 Israel Economic Stabilization Plan. Once convinced, he was assertive in pushing for the passage of the program, which was quickly after approved by his cabinet on 1 July 1985. This program had quick success in improving

6390-407: The success of the operation, Peres angled to receive some of the credit and adulation, somewhat competing with Rabin for credit. In February 1977, Peres challenged Prime Minister Rabin for the leadership of Labor Party, but lost to Rabin in a narrow 50.72% to 49.28% result in the vote by the party's Central Committee. The leadership election was expected to determine who would lead the party into

6480-520: The terms of the 1954 Anglo-Egyptian agreement to withdraw all British forces from Egypt. One of the most painstaking aspects was formulating a plan both Britain and Israel could agree on. The Israelis distrusted the British but, as the French were not prepared to act without their British allies, they were forced to deal with them. The British maintained strong links with a number of Arab countries and did not want any involvement with Israel that might damage them. After 48 hours of negotiations and compromise,

6570-442: The very few spaces left where Israelis and Palestinians actually do come together." Shimon Peres Shimon Peres ( / ʃ iː ˌ m oʊ n ˈ p ɛr ɛ s , - ɛ z / shee- MOHN PERR -ess, -⁠ez ; Hebrew : שמעון פרס [ʃiˌmon ˈpeʁes] ; born Szymon Perski , Polish: [ˈʂɨmɔn ˈpɛrskʲi] ; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as

6660-460: The ‘English plan’ was that Israel would be branded as the aggressor while Britain and France would pose as peace-makers. ”Instead he presented a comprehensive plan, which he himself called ‘fantastic’, for the reorganization of the Middle East. Jordan, he observed, was not viable as an independent state and should therefore be divided. Iraq would get the East Bank in return for a promise to settle

6750-674: Was Operation Wooden Leg (a long-range Israeli airstrike against the PLO headquarters in Tunisia) and a trip to Morocco to confer with King Hassan II . In 1985, Peres publicly supported the quick pursuit of a military pullback from Beirut to Israel's south Lebanon security belt. A partial Israeli pullback had earlier been approved in 1983 by the Begin-headed Likud-led government that had been in power at that time. A major domestic policy decision of Peres' first premiership

6840-470: Was a secret agreement reached between the governments of Israel , France and the United Kingdom during discussions held between 22 and 24 October 1956 at Sèvres , France. The protocol concerns their joint political and military collusion to topple the Egyptian leader Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser , by invading and occupying the Suez Canal zone in response to President Nasser's nationalization of

6930-477: Was a wealthy timber merchant, later branching out into other commodities; his mother was a librarian. Peres had a younger brother, Gershon. He was related to the American film star Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske), and they were described as first cousins, but Peres said, "In 1952 or 1953, I came to New York... Lauren Bacall called me, said that she wanted to meet, and we did. We sat and talked about where our families came from, and discovered that we were from

7020-548: Was aligned with Ben Gurion). In 1965, Peres and Moshe Dayan were among those that left Mapai with David Ben-Gurion when Ben-Gurion formed a new party, Rafi . Peres was a co-founder of the Rafi party. The party reconciled with Mapai in 1968, merging to form the Israeli Labor Party . The Labor Party then joined the Alignment (a left-wing alliance). In 1969, Peres was appointed minister of immigrant absorption in

7110-512: Was awarded the highest order of the French, the Legion of Honor , as Commander. At Sèvres , Peres took part in planning alongside Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury , Christian Pineau and Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces General Maurice Challe , and British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd and his assistant Sir Patrick Dean . Britain and France enlisted Israeli support for an alliance against Egypt. The parties agreed that Israel would invade

7200-427: Was chosen as a protégé by David Ben-Gurion , Israel's founding father. He began his political career in the late 1940s, holding several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . His first high-level government position was as deputy director general of defense in 1952 which he attained at the age of 28, and director general from 1953 until 1959. In 1956, he took part in

7290-526: Was director of the Defense Ministry's delegation in the United States in the early 1950s. While in the U.S. he studied English , economics , and philosophy at The New School and New York University , and completed a four-month advanced management course at Harvard University . In 1952, Peres was appointed deputy director general of the Ministry of Defense , and the following year, he

7380-428: Was elected president in 2007. Serving in the Knesset for 48 years (with the first uninterrupted stretch lasting more than 46 years), Peres is the longest serving member in the Knesset's history. At the time of his retirement from politics in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation. From a young age, he was renowned for his oratorical brilliance, and

7470-399: Was greatly excited by the prospect of a military partnership with the great powers against Egypt but extremely suspicious of the British in general and of Sir Anthony Eden in particular.... Although he knew that the plan to attack Egypt originated with General Challe, he repeatedly referred to it as ‘the English plan’.... Moreover, he greatly resented the suggestion that Israel should be used as

7560-485: Was initially described by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden as the "highest form of statesmanship". The three allies, especially Israel, were mainly successful in attaining their immediate military objectives. However, the extremely hostile reaction to the Suez Crisis from both the United States and the USSR forced them to withdraw, resulting in a failure of Britain and France's political and strategic aims of controlling

7650-493: Was later found that among the 20 academics who lobbied Hawking to boycott were Noam Chomsky and Malcolm Levitt who advocated boycott as the proper method for scientist to respond to the "explicit policy" of "systemic discrimination" against the non-Jewish and Palestinian population. Hawkings decision was heavily criticized by several academics, including former Harvard University president Larry Summers and David Newman , who warned that "an academic boycott just destroys one of

7740-576: Was often involved in tense negotiations with Charles de Gaulle over the Dimona project. Peres is considered to have been the architect of Israel's secret nuclear weapons program in the 1960s, and he stated that, in the 1960s, he recruited Arnon Milchan , an Israeli-American Hollywood film producer, billionaire businessman, and secret arms dealer and intelligence operative, to work for the Israeli Bureau of Scientific Relations (LEKEM or LAKAM),

7830-475: Was one of the founders of Kibbutz Alumot . In 1941, he was elected Secretary of HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed , a Labor Zionist youth movement, and in 1944 returned to Alumot, where he had an agricultural training and worked as a farmer and a shepherd. At age 20, he was elected to the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed national secretariat, where he was only one of two Mapai party supporters, out of

7920-415: Was open to acquiescing to the terrorists' demands to release forty Palestinian militants if no military option presented itself. Peres, however, felt acquiescing to be a nonstarter, believing it would encourage further terrorism. Rabin initially took steps to begin negotiations with the terrorists, seeing no other option. Peres felt that negotiating with terrorists would, in effect, be a surrender, and thought

8010-479: Was promoted to director general . At age 29, he was the youngest person to hold this position. He was involved in arms purchases and establishing strategic alliances that were important for the State of Israel. He was instrumental in establishing close relations with France , securing massive amounts of quality arms that, in turn, helped to tip the balance of power in the region. In 1955, he testified against Minister of Defense Pinhas Lavon in what became known as

8100-433: Was the implementation of the 1985 Israel Economic Stabilization Plan. By 1985, Israel's economic fortunes were looking dire, with immense and quickly rising inflation (Israel was experiencing hyperinflation), a government budget deficit equal to between twelve and fifteen percent of the nation's GDP and national debt equal to 220% of the nation's GDP, and Israel's foreign currency reserves were quickly dissipating. With

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