AP News, May 30th, 2007
Elder statesman Shimon Peres on Wednesday declared his candidacy for the ceremonial post of Israeli president, telling supporters, "This may be my last chance to serve the country."
His latest campaign caps a 60-year political career that has brought international accolades and a Nobel Peace Prize, but also repeated election losses, including to the current president, who stands accused of sex crimes.
Peres' backers said a victory this time for the energetic 83-year-old could help restore the dignity and prestige of the presidency, which have been badly tarnished by police investigations into President Moshe Katsav on suspicion of rape, sexual assault, corruption and other misconduct. Katsav has not been formally charged, but has stepped down temporarily to fight the allegations. His term ends this summer.
The president is elected in a secret ballot every seven years by the 120 members of Israel's parliament. Peres was the favorite when he ran last time, and was publicly endorsed by many legislators, including from outside his own party. On polling day, however, lawmakers gave the job to Katsav, a low-ranking politician who had the blessing of a prominent Jewish spiritual leader.
Longtime Peres adviser Yoram Dori said that this time he hoped the legislators would put aside partisan and tactical considerations.
"I expect members to vote according to what they think is right, what the Israeli public wants and what will restore to the presidency the respect that has been so badly damaged," he told Israel TV. "I think Shimon Peres meets those criteria."
At a meeting to announce the ruling Kadima party's formal endorsement of Peres for the June 13 presidential race, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Peres was the perfect candidate.
"The people of Israel would be honored to have Shimon Peres as its president," Olmert said. "Shimon Peres represents everything that is right, desirable and honorable in a president."
Peres is expected to face off against former Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin of the hawkish Likud, and Colette Avital of the centrist Labor Party. While Peres is the most high-profile candidate, victory is not assured.
Peres, a top aide to Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, became a politician in his own right in 1959, when he was elected to parliament. Since that time, he has held a succession of senior posts, including the premiership, and minister of defense, finance and foreign affairs.
He is feted by world leaders wherever he goes abroad, and he shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. At home, however, he is widely seen as aloof and cerebral, while lacking the military command experience that seems to reassure voters.
Peres served three brief stints as prime minister, while never managing to win an election.
He was first propelled into the premiership in a caretaker role in 1977 when incumbent Yitzhak Rabin resigned. Between 1984 and 1986, Peres and political opponent Yitzhak Shamir each took two-year turns in the premiership after a general election failed to produce a clear winner.
Peres found himself unexpectedly replacing the re-elected Rabin once again when he was gunned down by a political assassin in 1995. That term ended with his 1996 election defeat by Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 2005, Peres bolted the Labor Party that had been his home for his entire political life to join Kadima _ a party founded by his longtime friend and political rival, Ariel Sharon.
Dori said Peres had been bruised, but never broken by his political defeats.
"No one wants to lose, it's certainly not pleasant," Dori said. "The question is whether a defeat dictates your agenda and you go into a depression or if you look ahead and say to yourself, 'OK, what do we do tomorrow?'"
