SHIMON PERES

February 2001
		Two-time prime minister Shimon Peres could have run for a third stint if current Prime Minister Ehud Barak had dropped out of the Feb. 6 election and left Peres to lead the Labor Party.

Israeli Special Election 2001 Ehud Barak Ariel Sharon Shimon Peres Benjamin Netanyahu   Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Index Israeli Election 1999 Index Complete NewsHour coverage of the Middle East.   Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Knesset The Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC

Polls indicate Peres had a much stronger chance of beating right-wing opponent Ariel Sharon than did Barak. But Barak let the deadline for withdrawing pass, despite pressure from some of his supporters. Peres ranks with Sharon as one of the only political figures in Israel whose public life reaches to the first days of Israeli statehood. A 1994 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his work on the 1993 Oslo peace accords, Peres has long been involved in Middle East peace negotiations and is thought to have a strong relationship with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Peres advocates what he calls "a new Middle East, " one that looks beyond the region's conflicts to economic growth, integration and education, rather than war. Winning an election for prime minister would actually be a first for Peres. His 1984 to 1986 tenure was part of a power sharing arrangement with the Likud Party in the National Unity coalition government. In 1995 the Labor Party appointed him to the position with the Knesset's confirmation following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Peres lost re-election seven months later to Benjamin Netanyahu. It was his fifth election loss, and he also lost his bid for Israel's largely ceremonial presidency last July. Peres, 77, immigrated with his family to Palestine from Poland when he was 11. At 20, he was elected secretary of the Labor-Zionist youth movement. A few years later he helped lead the Jewish military organization Haganah, and then headed the naval services in Israel's 1948 war for independence. In the 1950s and 1960s Peres served in various defense ministry positions, establishing himself as the architect of Israel's nuclear program. Peres was minister of defense for three years following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He served as foreign minister from 1986 to 1988, and again under Rabin for three years until the prime minister's assassination. Peres' extensive political career also includes terms as minister of immigrant absorption, minister of transportation and communications, minister of information and minister of regional cooperation. He was the Labor Party's chairman from 1977 to 1992 and has been a member of the Knesset since 1959. He held the party chairmanship again for a year following Labor's 1996 election loss before Barak took over the position in 1997. In 1994 Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Yasser Arafat for their work on the Oslo accords.

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