"When you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and resentful."

For more than half a century, Shimon Peres has served the State of Israel and the cause of peace with a courage and determination born of intimate familiarity with the horrors of war. He served in the defense forces at the founding of the State of Israel, and headed the Navy at age 25; at 29 he was Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Over the course of a 40-year career in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, he has held every major cabinet post and served as Prime Minister in some of Israel's darkest hours.

He first served as Prime Minister in 1977, after the resignation of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1984, he headed a National Unity government that put an end to a ruinous inflation, and extricated Israel from a tortuous military involvement in Lebanon. As Foreign Minister he initiated the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and completed a long-sought peace treaty with Jordan. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Price for Peace with Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Upon Rabin's assassination, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister once again, serving simultaneously as Minister of Defense. Most recently he served a National Unity government as Foreign Minister once again.

For many years he endured criticism, even within his own Labor Party, for his zealous pursuit of peace, but his determination never wavered. He has always placed the welfare of the nation as a whole ahead of partisan interest. At the age of 82, after serving another term as Party Chairman, he left the Labor Party to suport a new centrist formation committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. Although he has removed himself from political candidacy, he is expected to play a continuing role in government and the peace process. He has long since won a place of honor as one of the greatest statesmen in the history of Israel and one of the world's great crusaders for peace.