Shimon Peres timeline – 1923-2016

Shimon Peres Timeline – 1923-2016

• 1923  – Born in Wiszniew in Poland (now Belarus)
• 1934 – Joins his father in British Mandate Palestine
• 1938-41– Lives and works on a kibbutz, which he founded
• 1941-44 – Leads the youth wing of David Ben-Gurion’s centre-left Mapai party
• 1944 – Arrested on an illegal settlement-scouting expedition in the Negev
• 1945 – Marries Sonya Gelman. They later have three children
• 1946 – Chosen as a youth delegate to the Zionist Congress in Basel
• 1947 – Joins the Haganah, the predecessor of the IDF
• 1952 – Appointed Deputy Director-General at the Ministry of Defence
• 1953 – Promoted to Director-General, aged 29
• 1954-56 – Plans the Suez War with the British and French
• 1959 – Elected to the Knesset with Mapai, serving as Deputy Defence Minister
• 1969 – Appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption in Alignment coalition
• 1970 – Becomes Transport Minister, then Information Minister
• 1974 – Made Defence Minister in rival Yitzhak Rabin’s government
• 1977 – Succeeds Rabin as head of left-wing coalition, but loses to Likud
• 1984 – Finally wins more seats than Likud, but can’t form a government
• 1984-88 – Rotates power with right-wing Likud, Peres acts as PM for two years
• 1988-90 – Governs in coalition with Likud, Peres as Finance Minister
• 1990-92 – Leads the Opposition, then Rabin forms and leads the Labor Party
• 1992-95 – Negotiates with the Palestinians, which leads to the Oslo Accords
• 1995 – Rabin assassinated, Peres is interim PM
• 1996–97 – Loses to Benjamin Netanyahu in the election, replaced by Ehud Barak
• 2000 – Peres runs for presidency, but loses to Moshe Katsav
• 2001-04 – Serves as Foreign Minister in coalition under Ariel Sharon
• 2004-05 – Leaves Labor to help Sharon form Kadima, disengages from Gaza
• 2006 – Sharon suffers huge stroke weeks before election he was due to win
• 2007–14 – Peres wins presidency, serves into his 90s, the world’s oldest premier