Whenever an Israeli politician comes to power the press, always seeking to invest leading personalities with an aura of mystery, invariably describes him as an “enigma.” Shimon Peres, who has succeeded Yitzhak Rabin as the Labor Party” leader, has somehow escaped this routine.
But though he has been on familiar terms with journalists and political commentators for years and is a household name nationwide, he is being written about now in such contradictory terms that the “enigma” cliche is once again indispensable in any attempt to shed some light on his career and character.
Peres at 54 is a controversial politician who has as many friends and allies as he has rivals and opponents. He is characterized by his supporters and adversaries with such completely different attributes that these descriptions reflect two contradictory personalities.
AS SEEN BY SUPPORTERS, ADVERSARIES
To his allies and friends Peres is a man with striking breadth of vision, imagination and faithful loyalty. In the eyes of his supporters Peres is also a scholar who constantly manages to find time to enrich his education, a man of foresight and action. It was he, say his friends, who initiated the building of Israel’s two nuclear reactors and who planned the creation of Israel’s own military industry. Peres is usually characterized by his followers as a shrewd statesman who back in the ’50s foresaw the Israeli interest in nurturing close connections with France.
His opponents, on the other hand, prefer to characterize him as an unreliable man whose carefully cultivated suave image conceals his real personality. In the eyes of his rivals, Peres is an utterly selfish politician who gives priority to his personal career above any other value.
According to his adversaries, Peres is a lightweight and superficial person who pretends to be the kind of “intellectual politician” that he is not. They accuse him, moreover, of being flighty and even irresponsible in his approach to crucial diplomatic negotiations during recent years. They say he was too easily won over by Henry Kissinger.
However, there are some characteristics of Peres to which both his supporters and rivals agree. Peres is, first and foremost, a thoroughbred “political animal” fully familiar with the mentality and codes of conduct prevailing in the Israeli political arena.
PUBLIC CAREER BEGAN 33 YEARS AGO
Peres began his public career some 33 years ago when, at the age of 20, he became an active member of the executive of the youth movement of Mapai (the previous embodiment of Labor.) His military activity was always in the administrative field. Peres was never an active soldier.
In the pre-State period, he dealt with purchasing military equipment in foreign countries. At the end of the 1948 war he was selected to head the Defense Ministry’s mission in the U.S. In 1952 he returned to Israel to be appointed Deputy Director General of the Defense Ministry. A year later he became Director General serving under David Ben Gurion.
Peres habitually refers to his years of faithful service as Ben Gurion’s disciple, thus stressing the inspiration he derived from the legendary founder of the State. Peres, indeed, demonstrated extraordinary loyalty to Ben Gurion when, in 1965, (having served for six years as a Knesset member and as Deputy Minister of Defense) he joined the elder leader in seceding from Labor to establish a new political party, Rafi.
Shimon Peres became the Secretary General of Rafi, formed by Ben Gurion as a reaction to his dispute with his veteran colleagues in Mapai in the “Lavon Affair.” Peres’ motive in following Ben Gurion in his political adventure was largely emotional. He felt he could not abandon his beloved leader in his most severe political crisis.
Although he personally did not believe in the political wisdom and justification of the secession from Mapai, Peres became the main spiritual and organizational engine of Rafi, bringing it to a modest success in the 1965 elections.
Several years later, when Ben Gurion had effectively retired from active politics, Peres strove for the reunification of Mapai and Rafi and took an active part in the creation of the Labor Party. Peres started his career as a senior national leader in 1969 when he joined Golda Meir’s Cabinet. He served as Minister of Absorption, then as Minister of Communication and Transportation, Minister of Information, and, since June 1974 as Minister of Defense under Rabin.
His early years of service as a Cabinet member did not make much impression on the public. He is remembered as the man who put forward an imaginative proposal to double Jerusalem’s population in four years by directing most new olim to the capital, and as the man whose term as the Minister of the Post Office was mainly marked by his decision to change its name to “Ministry of Communications.”
However, his highly-developed public relations skills were demonstrated during his short service as Minister of Information. His role in the infinitely more important job of Minister of Defense has not yet been subjected to critical analysis.
KEEPS HIS LIFE PRIVATE
Peres is a man who has shown remarkable competence in the art of political survival. He lost many political battles but despite this has succeeded in fulfilling his ambition to become Labor’s leader and the most likely candidate for Prime Minister.
Both his supporters and rivals agree that he succeeded in keeping his private life far from the public eyes. His wife, Sonia, is a modest woman who consistently refuses to expose herself to the press. Peres has two sons and a daughter who, like their mother are unknown to the public. In the final analysis, Peres will be judged mainly by one consideration: whether his record as leader and as Premier coincides with the assessments of his friends or his enemies.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
