Peres, Shimon
1923 - .
Israeli socialist politician.
Prime minister 1984-86 and 1995-96.

Peres was prime minister, then foreign minister, under a power-sharing agreement with the leader of the Consolidation Party (Likud), Yitzhak Shamir. From 1989 to 1990 he was finance minister in a Labour-Likud coalition. As foreign minister in Yitzhak Rabin's Labour government from 1992, he negotiated the 1993 peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace jointly with Israeli prime minister, Rabin, and PLO leader, Yassir Arafat. Following the assassination of Rabin Nov 1995, Peres succeeded him as prime minister, and pledged to continue with the peace process in which they had both been so closely involved, but in May 1996 was defeated in Israel's first direct elections for prime minister. Peres emigrated from Poland to Palestine 1934, but was educated in the USA. In 1959 he was elected to the Knesset (Israeli parliament). He was leader of the Labour Party 1977-92, when he was replaced by Rabin.