Shimon Peres to Speak at Yale

Israeli statesman Shimon Peres, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, will speak on “What Risks Must a Nation Take for Peace?” tomorrow, February 11, 4-5 p.m. in Yale University’s Battell Chapel, corner of College and Elm streets. Mr. Peres’ visit to campus is jointly sponsored by the Chubb Fellowship of Timothy Dwight College and the David and Goldie Blanksteen Lectureship in Jewish Ethics of Yale Hillel.

Reporters are requested to bring media credentials and to enter through the door on College Street that is farthest to the left. A press section will be reserved and a mult-box will be available. Photographers are requested to limit flash photos to the first 10 minutes of the talk and the question-and-answer period following the lecture.

Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to Palestine with his family in 1934. When Israel achieved independence, Peres, then only 25 years old, was appointed head of the navy. In the 1950s, he was elected to the Knesset and named director general of the Ministry of Defense. He has been a prominent figure in Israeli politics ever since.

In 1968 he helped found the Labor Party, and in the 80s, he shared leadership of the country in a Labor-Likud coalition with Yitzhak Shamir. As prime minister, Peres brought the Israeli economy back from near collapse and withdrew Israeli forces from their incursion into Lebanon. In 1992 Yitzhak Rabin became prime minister and named Peres to his cabinet as foreign minister. In that capacity, Peres played a key role in the negotiations that led to the signing of a peace agreement in 1993 between Israel and the PLO. Peres, Rabin, and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994.

Following the assassination of Rabin in November 1995, Peres took over the position of prime minister. In a close election last May, he was unseated by Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud Party and current prime minister of Israel.