Ahead of the curve, for better or for worse
President Shimon Peres' 90th birthday bash began on Tuesday, some two months ahead of his actual birthday in August (the event coincides with his annual presidential conference this week). The fact that his birthday celebrations were moved up is highly symbolic of Peres' life and what he has come to represent: Even in his birthday, he is ahead of the curve.
Outpacing the rest has been a hallmark of Peres, for better or for worse (usually the former).
Peres was the protege of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and built the Dimona nuclear reactor over the objections of practically everyone in the defense establishment. On the other hand, he opposed Israel's decision to take out Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, to the point that he refused to sign the Knesset's congratulatory note to then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin (even though representatives of multiple parties signed it).
As defense minister in the 1970s, Peres joined hands with the settlers and broke the taboo on building Jewish communities in Samaria, undermining his own Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. During Rabin's second term in the 1990s, he once again charted his own course by engineering the Oslo Accords in defiance of Rabin. At least one of these two episodes will rank high in Israel's history books; the other will live in infamy. Which is which? That is in the eye of the beholder. Or rather the historian.
During most of his youth and early political life he was an outsider, never quite taking part in the collective Israeli experience. The Israeliness of contemporaries like Moshe Dayan charmed him but also made him jealous to a fault.
Peres' contribution to the Israel Defense Forces outweighs that of many senior officers and combat troops, but he has always been haunted by his lack of military experience. Time and again his rivals have hit him where it hurts, but as the curtain began to draw on his political career he became the most popular public figure both at home and abroad. He is also Israel's most senior envoy on the world stage.
You would have thought that after being portrayed as a media-hungry public servant for 70 years he would shed his facade and let us in on his life. But truth to be told, there are still many aspects of his personal life to which we have not been privy. Even his marriage to Sonia, a relationship that he valued so much, unraveled after they separated.
His intellectual heft and expansive knowledge were used against him. He has been accused of reading the back covers of books so he would not have to read their contents. This is a false accusation. He reads books from cover to cover, he consumes poetry, he has translated some works, and he even written some manuscripts as a hobby.
But he has always applied rationalism and common sense; not once has he chosen to romanticize rhymes at the expense of internalizing the meaning of lyrics. He would understand, rather than feel, a good book.
An eternal truism is that his life in the public limelight has allowed him to build a reservoir of wisdom, a quick understanding of things, a unique memory and the capacity to manage and perform with a high degree of confidence. This has been complemented with some selfishness and a constant desire to be loved and recognized for his actions and added value. He has always been a strong-willed fighter for getting things done. He is not one of those people who expends time and effort on things that are uninteresting.
How would he like to be remembered after he turns 120? If he had to choose one epithet, he would probably ask that he be remembered as "the one who thought outside the box." Even today, at 90, he is doing that by championing nanotechnology.
But why think of his legacy? We all wish him many more years of productive service. There is ample time left for writing the life and times of Shimon Peres.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו