c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) In a bitterly contested primary battle, Amir Peretz, a 53-year-old trade union leader, recently deposed Shimon Peres as head of the Israeli Labor party. Peretz gained his stunning victory by drawing 42 percent of the votes to Peres’ 40 percent.

Many pundits called Peres’ defeat the end of his long political career. But it is never wise to write “ha-sof” (Hebrew for “The End”) to one of Israel’s most durable public figures. Peres and two other remarkable Israeli leaders _ Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon _ were born within a few years of one another in the 1920s.

As young men, they were active players on Israel’s military and political stage during the Jewish state’s War of Independence in 1948, four years before Peretz was born in Morocco. And all three “Boys of the 1920s” have served as Israel’s prime minister.

Amazingly, two of them _ Sharon and Peres _ still occupy leadership positions as prime minister and deputy prime minister. It is likely that if Rabin had not been assassinated in 1995, he, too, would be a major force within Israeli politics.

The trio’s record of achievements is an extraordinary example of political survival, physical endurance and mental strength.

While Sharon and Rabin, both celebrated wartime generals, were elected to lead Israel as prime minister, Peres _ three times an appointed or interim prime minister _ has never won an election. Inside Israel, Peres is perceived as a man with a brilliant intellect and distinguished resume dating back to 1948, but he is also viewed by many as the ultimate political insider without a strong electoral base among Israel’s voters.

However, he is greatly admired outside Israel as a 1994 Nobel Peace Prize winner and an architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Peres’ resume is a study in recent Middle East history. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, placed the 25-year-old native of Poland (Peres was 11 years old when his family came to British Mandate Palestine in 1934) in charge of military personnel and arms purchases for newly created Israel. Peres did an excellent job in obtaining the arms required to ensure Israeli independence, and in later years he acquired jet aircraft and other modern arms necessary for his country’s defense.

When he was 36, Peres was elected to the Knesset (Parliament) and he is the longest serving member of that body. Over the decades he has been in and out of many Israeli cabinets and became one of Israel’s leading voices in the international arena. Despite his record as a tough-minded defense minister, Peres shifted his focus and by 1993 became a strong supporter of the Oslo Accords that brought Israel into direct negotiations with Yasser Arafat and the PLO.

Peres, a unique combination of visionary dreamer and military hawk, continued to believe in the Oslo Accords long after it became clear that Arafat was either unable or, more likely, unwilling to make final peace with Israel. As a result of his continued belief in Oslo, in 1996, Peres was defeated by Benjamin Netanyahu in the first direct election for prime minister in Israel’s history.

Through his long career, Peres has written nine books and hundreds of articles, delivered thousands of speeches and become a familiar face on international TV. The father of three children, Peres is a lover of poetry and drama. If the ancient Greek philosopher Plato were alive, he would call Peres a “philosopher-king.”

But whatever the future may hold for Peres, I admire the fact that at age 82, he retains his zest for political activity and has not lost his superb gift of oratory in the three languages I have heard him speak: Hebrew, English and French.

A word of encouragement to Peres: Don’t be too downcast by your recent Labor party defeat. Remember that your first cousin, the actress Lauren Bacall, just a year younger than yourself, is still active in the entertainment world. Happily, the final curtain has not come down for either of you.

MO/PH END RNS

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the forthcoming book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

Editors: To obtain a photo of Rabbi Rudin, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.

Rudin’s column normally runs on Thursday, but is running early this week because RNS will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.