In the presence of presidents, ministers and royalty representing more than half of humanity, Shimon Peres – who played a central role on Israel’s public stage since the country’s birth – was buried on Mount Herzl Friday.
President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton were among those who delivered eulogies. His three children – who also each spoke of their father – recited kaddish.
“Shimon Peres, merited not only a long life, but also a purposeful life,” Netanyahu said. “He was an active partner in the revival of the Jewish people, holding a sword of David in order to defend it. Shimon worked tremendously to ensure our power to defend ourselves for generations, and for that he will have gratitude for generations. At the same time, he did everything he could throughout his later years to achieve peace with our neighbors.”
Obama, in a soaring eulogy during which he traced Peres’s journey and compared his dreams and leadership to the situation in the region today, weighed in on the Netanyahu-Peres debate about whether peace or security comes first.
“I don’t think he was naïve,” Obama said, referring to one of the oft-heard criticism of Peres, “but understood from hard earned experience that true security comes from making peace with your neighbors.”
Obama cited Peres as saying that Israel had won all of its wars, but not yet achieved the greatest victory it sought: “release from the need to win victories.”
Obama, who spent 22 hours aboard Air Force One to spend six hours in Israel in order to pay respects to Peres, said that the former president believed that “Israel’s exceptionalism was rooted not only in fidelity to the Jewish people, but to the moral and ethical vision — the precepts of his Jewish faith.
“’The Jewish people weren’t born to rule another people,’ he would say. ‘From the very first day we are against slave and master’s” he quoted Peres as saying. “Out of the hardships of the diaspora he found room in his heart for others who suffered. He came to hate prejudice as one who know how it is to be its target.”
Peres, Obama said, understood even in the face of terror attacks and repeated disappointments at the negotiation table that “as human beings Palestinians must be seen as equal in dignity to Jews, and therefore must be equal in self determination.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the highest-ranking Arab official at the funeral, sat in the front row listening to these comments. Obama, at the beginning of his remarks, did something that none of the other speakers did: acknowledge Abbas presence at the funeral.
“President Abbas’ presence here is a reminder of the unfinished business of making peace,” Obama said.
Just happened to have time to go to Peres’ funeral, but not Margaret Thatcher’s. What a disgrace.
I would imagine part of the reason we don’t give hespedim is because, inevitably, people end up giving undue kovod, and saying words of sheker. Even reshaim are melaim mitzvos kerimon, but it doesn’t mean we have to pretend he was a tzadik just because he passed. It’s a shame to see people who know better doing so.
Shimon Peres had ‘Yechidus’ with ‘The Rebbe, MH”M’ Shimon Peres was an Oslo supporter (Or more) and also a Gaza Expulsion supporter. Last summer aboout 70 young Israel soldiers died in the war…a pregnant woman was killed…injuries death…fear…panic..etc. Who would honor such a destroyer of ‘Am Yisroel?’ Not I! Someone said: “Don’t judge him…If you were in a position of power, you don’t know how you would act.” I responded, Anyone who doesn’t listen to ‘The Prince of the Generation’ is a lowly bum, arrogant and foolhardy. Even if I were in power I would consider myself such if I… Read more »
I hope HRH has time to visit his paternal grandmother’s grave while he is there. She is one of the righteous having saved Yidden during the Holocaust.
Check out Obama’s six-star-dish Lubab Kippah
Dor Holejch Vdor Bo.