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Remembering Shimon Peres (September 2016)

A light has gone out.  That's how President Obama described the death of Shimon Peres, and he is absolutely right.  He was a great statesman and leader, and he was, again in the President's words, "the essence of Israel itself-the courage of Israel's fight for independence, the optimism he shared with his wife Sonya as they helped make the desert bloom, and the perseverance that led him to serve his nation in virtually every position in government across the entire life of the State of Israel.   As Americans, we are in his debt because, having worked with every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy, no one did more over so many years as Shimon Peres to build the alliance between our two countries-an unbreakable alliance that today is closer and stronger than it has ever been."

Peres was, in the words of Tablet Magazine (written shortly before Peres' death, and published posthumously), the "last living link" to the generation of Israel's founders-people like Theodore Herzl, David ben Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir.  His list of accomplishments is vast, and his contribution to the creation and the security of Israel is immeasurable.  He lived an incredible and full life, and he will be missed.

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784