Shimon Peres was born on 2 August 1923 in Poland as Szymon Perski. At the age of 11, Peres, along with his mother and younger brother, Gershon, moved to pre-state Israel to join his father, who had immigrated two years earlier. At just 29-years-of-age, Peres was tapped by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, to be his personal advisor and to serve as director-general of the Ministry of Defense.

Peres’ political career was characterized by a constant struggle with his Labor Party rival, Yitzhak Rabin. More than once, Peres was defeated by Rabin in party primaries. He similarly failed in various other elections, leaving many to refer to Peres as Israel’s greatest political “loser.”

At the same time, Shimon Peres was behind many of Israel’s successes. Peres was orchestrated Israel’s nuclear program (see page 3), and in the 1980s he took measures to save Israel’s economy from skyrocketing inflation. As most are aware, in...

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