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Shimon Peres: The Biography

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Shimon Peres is today the world's senior statesman. He has been in the center of Israel politics for close to sixty years. As a young assistant of Ben- Gurion he made critical contributions to Israel's early struggles for independence and survival. It was Peres more than anyone else who formed the Franco-Israeli alliance key to the 56' Sinai Campaign. It was Peres who initiated the program of cooperation with France which led to the Dimona nuclear reactor project.
Peres in his early years was Mr. Security, and contributed greatly to the building of Israel's Army and power of deterrence.
Peres has always been a person of vision and ideas. In fact the writer Amos Oz is quoted by Bar- Zohar as saying that Peres had more 'vision' than any other Israeli leader including Ben- Gurion.
This capacity for dreaming great dreams has however often gotten Peres in trouble with the Israeli public. The most conspicuous example of this is the Oslo Peace process which he is considered to be a principal architect of. There was great hope in 1993 when Peres and Rabin signed a peace treaty on the White House lawn with Arafat. But since then the whole process has unraveled , and is considered now to have been a major mistake in Israeli policy.
Bar-Zohar tells of the paradoxical qualities of Peres who has time and again lost critical elections which appeared at first to be in the bag. This is the Peres who twice was an excellent Prime Minister of Israel and also served throughout his long career as Defense Minister, Transport Minister, Information Minister, and more.
This biography opens with a dramatic scene at Ichilov hospital after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. Peres the long-time rival and at this point ally of Rabin is called upon again in the critical moment to serve Israel. He does it with responsibility, and decisiveness of a kind which often makes him enemies.
This detailed story of one person really tells the history of modern Israel . Peres after all has been involved in so many crucial decisions whether for right, in his urging the Entebbe rescue operation, or for wrong in his opposing Begin's bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq.
In his ninth decade and still going strong as Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Peres is candidate for the largely ceremonial role of the Israeli Presidency.
This is the story of a devoted, courageous responsible visionary Israeli and human being, who has made many mistakes in his life. These mistakes as Bar- Zohar amply makes clear have been more than cancelled out by his remarkable contribution to the building of modern Israel.
This is a highly recommended wonderfully readable biography.

I was concerned when I saw the subtitle "The Biography" as though it were the definitive word on Shimon Peres. Peres--the Israeli "Mr Security", "the Energizer Peacemaker" who has picked himself up and returned to the arena so many times, and is now serving ably as President at the age of 84. How could you capture the wisdom and hope, the failings and mistakes of one of Israel's larger-than-life leaders? Amazingly, Michael Ben-Zohar with access to Peres, his friends and enemies, has made this a most readable page-turner and has captured a broad swath of Israeli history. Peres was present at the creation of the Jewish state, and has witnessed countless wars and many efforts at peace, sometimes when he was the architect. Yes, this is "The Biography" well worth reading, whether you are reliving this history or reading about it for the first time. Extraordinarily well done!

Political leaders biographies written by friends are usually dull proproganda that omit many unfavorable facts. So I purchased SHIMON PERES with a lot of skepticism and trepidation. But the author Bar-Zohar has avoided this common mistake and in doing so has proven the value and rewards for the reader. Peres agreeing not to involve himself in the work until completion combined with Bar-Zohar's well-documented, tireless research resulted in a work worth reading. Sometimes I winced as I read about Peres'
journey or groaned when I read about his actions and decisions. With dogged determination throughout his life, it is not a surprise that Peres would eventually become Israel's President. Entering Peres world did not endear this reader to him but increased my respect for a man who is committed to the survival and strength of Israel. I applaud Peres for challenging Bar-Zohar to document his life and mostly Bar-Zohar for ferreting out the facts that informed and created Peres' life. This book is a timeless, honest contribution to political history that anyone--from a gardener to a president-- should read and add to their library.

This book is a page turner which is no small feat for a biography. I learned so much about the man, Peres, and about his country. Between this book and Bar-Zohar's book on Ben Gurion, one gets a comprehensive and extremely readable history of the founding and history of Israel.
To say that Peres is a complex but fascinating man is an understatement. One minute you are cheering for him and the next scratching your head about his crazy ideas like the founding of a Jewish colony in French Guyana.
Early in his life Peres thought he would be content to be a farmer on a kibbutz. Fortunately for Israel, Ben Gurion recognized Peres unique visionary abilities and challenged him in multiple ways-to find weapons for Israel, first in France, then Germany; to build cities where none had been before, to build a nuclear reactor, and to build Israel's defense system from the ground up. Bar Zohar repeatedly refers to Peres as Mr. Security and documents how almost all of Peres choices and decisions have been motivated from that perspective. In contrast to his genious, Peres tendency to sabatoge himself politically makes one wonder what he could have done if he had been a master politician in addition to being a great stateman. In the end, one has to admire what this one man has done and will continue to do to for his homeland, Israel. The value of his contributions can not be overestimated.
This is a great book, one of the best that I have ever read. Bat Zohar is a meticulous historian and a great story teller. This book, Shimon Peres, is required reading for anyone interested in Israel, her leaders, and the history of the most important democracy in the Middle East.

This revealing, no holds barred biographic work is a tell all of one of the great statesmen of our time. Bar-Zohar presents it all and gets inside this very private persons life history. Reads like a novel but with documented facts and references.
Should be in every reader's library!

"Michael Bar-Zohar hit a home run. I would recommend this book to anyone who is learning about Israel and Shimon Peres. At times I thought I was standing next to Shimon Peres during his rise to power and the losses he dealt with.

I plan to read other books written by Michael Bar-Zohar

People outside Israel are constantly amazed at how a man
with such a reputation as Shimon Peres has been defeated in
every secret-ballot election he has run in. The answer is
simple: whereas outside Israel, Peres has benefitted from the
well-oiled public relations campaign he has cultivated for
years by playing up to various writers, artists and, most
importantly, international financial barons, Israelis had to endure the
most horrific period of mass bloodshed, leading to THOUSANDS
of dead and wounded which Peres' inflicted on the country by
way of his disastrous Olso Agreements
with Arafat.
It was the murdered Yitzhak Rabin who described his perenniel
rival and sometimes partner, Shimon Peres, the best:
"the inveterate underminer" (quoted from Rabin's autobiography).
Peres is the quintessential politician who has no charisma
or ideas of his own (although he has tried to build and
image of himself as an "intellectual", statements he makes when
he has not been prepped by handlers show him to be woefully
ignorant), but who works hard, harder than any
of his rivals, and through endless intrigues,
makes sure to place people loyal to him in positions of
power and influence, so that when the time comes and he decides
to make his move for power, those who oppose him are strongarmed
(or worse) out of his way.
Peres played a major role in building Israel's defense establishment
and defense industries, and in addition served an outstanding
term as Prime Minister in the years 1984-1986, but this wasn't enough for his immense ego.
He wanted international recognition as a "statesman", and in
a world largely hostile to the idea of a "Jewish State", he
came to realize that true international approbriation comes NOT to Israelis
like Ben-Gurion, Eshkol or Golda Meir, who built up Israel, but rather
to those who begin to dismantle it. It truly galled him that his
Likud opposite number Menachem Begin won the so-called Nobel "Peace" Prize
for destroying Jewish communities in the Sinai and giving up Israel's only supply of oil to Sadat who had no intention of honoring his "Peace" agreement with Israel, so he decided to outdo Begin by bringing mass-murderer Yasser Arafat and his terrorist gangs to Israel, giving them money, weapons, and territory from which to attack Israel. Peres denounced
those who did not fall into his trap as "murderers of peace", "fascists", and the such. Peres managed to convince, bribe or threaten enough Knesset members to support this madness and got the Israeli government to carry out this suicidal policy. Sure enough, Arafat launched his long-awaited terrorist war in September 2000 and it has claimed, as I pointed out above, THOUSANDS of Israeli dead and wounded. Yet, in spite of this, there is not a single word of regret of remorse from Peres and he still sits near the pinnnacle of power.
Peres has lost, to the best of my knowledge, every single secret-ballot election (either to the Prime Ministership, Presidency or the leadership of the Labor Party) he ever ran in where he was opposed by a serious candidate. However, in open votes, he fairs better because those who openly oppose him, often fall victim to police investigations, criminal proceedings (whether they are actually guilty of
anything is irrelevant), slander in the media or worse.
If you really are interested in finding out about Peres' influence on Israeli politics,
I strongly urge you to read Rabin's autobiography. That will give a much
clearer view of this man.

Author Michael Bar-Zohar does include criticism of Peres in the book,
but Bar-Zohar is a member of the veteran "MAPAI" (i.e. secular, formerly
Marxist/Socialist Ashkenazi) establishment and so he really is not
going to be objective, since his group wholeheartedly embraced
Peres' policy of importing terrorists to Israel and "de-Zionizing"
of the Jewish state. Thus, one should not expect all the truth, as I
have outlined it above, to come out of this book.