Re: Shimon Peres, Israel’s Elder Statesman, Passes Away at 93

Admin Fri 30 Sep 2016, 3:32 pm

Prophetic Jerusalem Gathering of World Leaders at Peres Funeral Incredibly Fulfills
Isaiah 60
Unprecedented Gathering of World Leaders at Peres Funeral Fulfills Messiah Prophecy Before Rosh Hashana
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 30, 2016 , 11:17 am
“And nations shall walk at thy light, and kings at the brightness of thy rising.” Isaiah 60:3 (The Israel Bible™)
President Obama at funeral of Shimon Peres (Flash90)
President Obama at funeral of Shimon Peres (Flash90)
In a rare gathering, a multitude of world leaders will be arriving in Jerusalem on Friday for the funeral of Israeli statesman, Shimon Peres. The number and prominence of world leaders in attendance is staggering, but even more startling is how this conforms precisely to Biblical prophecies. For one rabbi, it is clear that such a gathering had to occur on this particular Sabbath eve, moments before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, while Gog and Magog is in full-swing.
In chapter 60 of Isaiah, the prophet directly addresses Jerusalem, predicting that the nations will turn to the city to dispel the darkness that rules in the days preceding Messiah.
Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of Hashem is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1
The prophecy goes on to say that that the kings of the world will come to the city, gathering together en masse, in the end of days.
And nations shall walk at thy light, and kings at the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: they all are gathered together, and come to thee; thy sons come from far, and thy daughters are borne on the side. Isaiah 60:3-4
The gathering of this many world leaders in one place at one time – and that place being Jerusalem – is a truly unprecedented event and a testament to the respect and love felt for Shimon Peres, the last of Israel’s “founding fathers.”
The list of dignitaries arriving for the funeral is staggering, including prime ministers, presidents, and princes. US president Barack Obama will attend, along with former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry. To the surprise of many, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will also be in attendance.
Also at the funeral will be French President Francois Hollande, Britain’s Prince Charles, British Prime Minister Theresa May, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, former British prime minister David Cameron, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German President Joachim Gauck, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, among many others.
Rabbi Yosef Berger, rabbi of the Tomb of David on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, told Breaking Israel News that not only is the gathering significant, but the timing, he said, is, “the opening to Gog and Magog, and the final stages before Messiah”.
“What is happening now is a process directed from Heaven, that so many world leaders will come to Jerusalem on the eve of Rosh Hashana,” Rabbi Berger told Breaking Israel News. “This is exactly like the psalm we will say a few days after the funeral, before blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashana.”
O clap your hands, all ye peoples; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For Hashem is most high, awful; a great King over all the earth. He subdueth peoples under us, and nations under our feet. Psalms 47:2-4
“This verse is speaking specifically about Gog and Magog,” explained Rabbi Berger. “The foreign kings may think they are coming for a funeral, but the reason they are really coming is to acknowledge God as their king, before blowing the great shofar to bring in the Messiah.”
In fact, the gathering of world leaders will be doing precisely that. As per Shimon Peres’s request in his will, musician David D’or will sing Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King) at the funeral, a Jewish prayer recited on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Rabbi Berger noted another auspicious aspect of the unscheduled gathering. “This is also the weekly Torah reading of Nitzavim, which begins with the gathering of leaders,” said Rabbi Berger.
Ye are standing this day all of you before Hashem your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel. Deuteronomy 29:9
Rabbi Berger quoted Maimonides, the foremost Torah authority of the 12th century known by the acronym of his name, Rambam, whose rulings are still used as the basis for much of Jewish law. Rabbi Berger explained that the Rambam brought this verse in the laws pertaining to kings as the sign of the beginning of the Messiah.

http://www.aish.com/jw/me/Shimon-Peres-The-Face-of-Israel.
Shimon Peres: The Face of IsraelShimon Peres: The Face of Israel
Remembering the indefatigable Jewish leader whose life embodied the saga of the Jewish state.
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
Few people ever embodied Israel like Shimon Peres, who has died at the age of 93.

Born in Belorussia in 1923, Shimon Peres’ life closely mirrored that of the Jewish state, to whose founding and development he dedicated his long life of public service. In each era through which he lived, Peres was a key player on the world stage, always working to safeguard Jews and the Jewish state.

Childhood in the Shtetl

Shimon Peres was born into a family of great Torah scholars; he was a direct descendant of Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner, and his grandparents were steeped in Torah learning. He later recalled that his earliest memories were of going to synagogue and studying Jewish texts with his zeidi (grandfather). On Yom Kippur, Peres later wrote, his grandfather would chant the Kol Nidre service; “Indeed,” Peres wrote in his memoirs, “his voice still seems to ring in my ears, and every year, at Yom Kippur, that same sense of awe still sends a shudder deep inside me.”

Though Peres recalled his childhood as idyllic, rising anti-Jewish violence, including the murder of a Jew in his small town by anti-Semites, and ruinous boycotts and anti-Jewish taxes made life intolerable. Five years before the Holocaust would wipe out European Jewry, Peres was sent to Israel at the age of 11, where he began to help build the nascent Jewish state.

Years later, after World War II, Peres found out what had happened to his beloved grandfather: “The Germans, aided by local collaborators, herded all the Jews into the wooden synagogue, my grandfather at their head. They put on their prayer-shawls as the Germans barred the doors and set the place alight, and they died the age-old death of Jewish martyrs.” Peres wrote: “I imagined my grandfather offering his last prayer to God, in that sweet voice of his which still sings hauntingly in my memory.”

Kibbutz Life

Peres’ family settled in Tel Aviv, but at the end of 9th grade, Peres left to go to boarding school. Child refugees fleeing Hitler’s Europe were pouring into the nascent Jewish state, and youth villages (in effect, gigantic orphanages) were being built to shelter these traumatized Jewish children. Though still a child himself, Peres volunteered to move to Bet Shemen, a community near Tel Aviv, and help guard it from Arab terrorists.

Still a teen, Peres joined the Haganah, the Jewish defense force and precursor to Israel’s army. Each night he took turns guarding the school. Years later, he recalled those years as “one of the happiest periods of (his) life”. He met his future wife, Sonia, in Bet Shemen, while he fought with the Haganah, helping protect Jews in the area from the Arab riots of 1936-9.

After high school, Peres moved to Kibbutz Geva where he worked as a shepherd and farmer. Eking out crops from the rocky soil was difficult, and the kibbutz was poor. Each kibbutznik owned exactly two outfits: one for work and one for Shabbat. The kibbutz also owned one formal men’s suit (consisting of a shirt, a pair of trousers, and a British army jacket which they dyed black), which the kibbutz members all shared. Peres wore it to his wedding to Sonia on this kibbutz in 1945.

Israel’s War of Independence

In the late 1940s, Peres rose through the Hagana, taking on responsibility for procuring manpower and arms. When Israel declared independence in May 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion appointed Peres to head Israel’s navy. Though still a young man, he later wrote: “I was weighed down with all my other duties: arms procurements, arms production, intelligence, research and development.”

The pressure was enormous. Within hours of declaring independence, the fledgling Jewish state was invaded by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. As Israelis battled for their very lives, the arms that Peres procured meant the difference between life and death.

Though Israel was still struggling for its very life, Peres helped define the sort of nation his new country aimed to be, ordering what was perhaps Israel’s very first humanitarian rescue operation overseas. When an earthquake struck Greece, he directed Israel to send ships to help rescue efforts there.

Rescue at Entebbe

Peres served in a number of high level positions in Israel’s government throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. On June 27, 1976 he was Minister of Defense, when Israel received terrible news: terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, aided by the West German Red Army Faction, had hijacked a French commercial jet traveling from Israel to France.

The terrorists forced the plane to fly to Entebbe, Uganda, where they freed those passengers who did not appear to be Jewish or Israeli. For six tense days, Israel weighed how to respond. The terrorists were demanding the release of prisoners in Israel, Kenya and Germany, and Peres emerged in Israel’s cabinet as a strong opponent of giving in to their demands, urging then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to respond militarily.

Peres’ deciding moment was meeting Yoni Netanyahu, a member of the elite military unit that would perform a raid (and the older brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). “My impression was one of exactitude and imagination,” Peres later recalled. Reassured, he persuaded the rest of Israel’s cabinet to send in Israel’s special forces to defeat the terrorists and rescue the hostages.

On July 3, Israel sent four Hercules C-120H cargo planes, carrying over 100 soldiers, and escorted by Phantom jet fighters. The planes flew 2,500 miles (4,000 km) to Uganda. Within an hour of landing, Israeli fighters had rescued the hostages. All seven terrorists were killed. Three Israeli hostages and one soldier, Yoni Netanyahu, died in the fighting.

Peres later recalled hearing the news. He’d been awake for days and was exhausted in his office. Relief at the daring rescue turned to horror when a colleague arrived with the news: “Shimon…. Yoni’s gone. The bullet hit him in the back and went through his heart. He was shot from the control tower.”

“I turned to the wall,” Peres recalled, and for the first time all that tense week, gave vent to his feelings, and cried. Later, when commemorating the daring rescue operation, Peres dubbed it Operation Yoni.

Overtures for Peace

Peres held some of the top posts in Israel’s government in the 1980s, including Prime Minister (1984-6), Foreign Minister (1986-8) and Minister of Finance (1988-90).

In 1992, Peres once again became Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was one of the key players in negotiations that led to the controversial signing of the Declaration of Principles with the PLO in September 1993, which was meant to have led to a formal, permanent, agreement within five years. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasir Arafat. The PLO eventually scuppered any formal compromise with the Jewish state.

Although the PLO never emerged as a true partner for peace, Peres did help negotiate one important peace treaty at the time: Israel’s 1994 Peace Treaty with Jordan, ending Jordan’s 46-year declaration of war against Israel, and which is still in effect.
“I was born an optimist and have remained one throughout my life,” Peres wrote in his memoirs. Even when permanent peace agreements seemed elusive, Peres remained committed to his dreams that one day the Jewish state would enjoy peace with those who are committed to its annihilation.

In the absence of real partners to peace, Peres did what he could in his own life to initiate peace and cooperation between Israel and its enemies. In 1997, he founded the Peres Center for Peace, which has brought life-saving medical treatment to 12,000 Arab children, trained over 250 Arab doctors and healthcare professionals in Israeli hospitals, and fosters cooperation between Jews and Arabs in business and the arts.

Meeting the Chafetz Chaim

Dr. David Luchins, professor at Touro College and chair of its political science department, recalls this story. In September 1993, the day after Yom Kippur, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Luchins met with Peres who was then Israel’s Foreign Minister. Senator Moynihan had requested the meeting at the behest of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, who had a number of questions about the newly signed Camp David Accords.

Peres was eager for the Rabbi's support and gave us detailed answers to every question. (Alas, everything he predicted could "go wrong" did so in short order.)

At the end of the meeting Senator Moynihan thanked Peres for his strong support of the Jerusalem Fellowships, a project of Aish HaTorah that the Senator served as Founding Honorary Chairman. Peres grew animated "Senator, let me tell you why I support The Jerusalem Fellowhips and Yeshivot. Over 60 years ago, when I was 8 years old, I was already an ardent Labor Zionist. I had a religious uncle who was upset by my lack of faith and dragged me to the village of Radin to meet the Chaftez Chaim, the venerable Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan."

Peres continued: "The great Rabbi and I had quite a talk. He quoted Maimonides and I responded with Marx, He quoted Talmud and I quoted Ushishkin, The Chafetz Chaim then began to cry and put his hands on my head and blessed me. 'The Aibeshter (God) gave me a long life. He should give you the same. You should go as you wish to Eretz Yisrael.and become a great leader of the Jewish people. But remember mein kind, that you can’t have a Jewish State without the Aibeshter and the Aibesher's Torah!"

Peres became quite emotional. "Senator," he declared, "yesterday was Yom Kippur. I do not fast all day. My wife does. I do not spend the day in synagogue. But every Yom Kippur night I think of what the Chafetz Chaim told me and realize how true his words were... and that is why I support the Jerusalem Fellowships and Aish HaTorah.”

Shimon Peres never gave up working, nor his belief in a better future. In 2015, Time Magazine asked the then-92 year old “When you look back on the 70 plus years of public life you’ve lived – as a founder of the state of Israel, as an architect of the Oslo Accords – what do you feel most proud of?”
Peres’ responded as he’d always lived:
“The things I should do tomorrow.”
SHORT VIDEO

Admin Wed 28 Sep 2016, 11:03 pm

Shimon Peres, Israel’s Elder Statesman, Passes Away at 93
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 28, 2016 , 7:55 am
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Jeremiah 3:15 (The Israel Bible™)
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/shimon-peres.jpg
Former President of Israel Shimon Peres (Photo: Official Facebook Page of Shimon Peres)
Last night, Shimon Peres passed away at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, two weeks after suffering a stroke. Peres was 93 years old when he passed away.
A protege of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, Peres first came into prominence in the Israeli government as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952, and then as Director-General from 1953 until 1959. Due to his tireless work, the fledgling state was able to acquire weapons essential to its survival.
Also in that position, he developed warm relations with France, convincing them to sell Israel the he advanced Dassault Mirage III French jet fighter. Peres also convinced France to help Israel build the nuclear reactor in Dimona, which was begun in 1958. For his part in bringing the two countries closer, Perez was awarded Francee’s highest medal: the French Legion of Honor.
He served as Deputy Defense Minister until 1965. In 1969, Peres was appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption and in 1970 became Minister of Transportation and Communications. In 1974, after a period as Information Minister, he was appointed Minister of Defense.
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/46-Subscribe-Generic-600WIDE.jpg
In 1977, Prime Minister Ytzchak Rabin stepped down from his position due to a scandal involving foreign funds belonging to his wife. Peres became the unofficial acting Prime Minister but was defeated in the next elections by Menachem Begin (Likud).
After the 1984 elections resulted in a failure to choose a prime minister, Peres’ Alignment Party and Yitzchak Shamir’s Likud agreed to a unity government and a rotation arrangement, in which Peres served as Prime Minister for two years, and in 1986, became Israel’s Foreign Minister.
In As Israel’s Foreign Minister, Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for his part in bringing about the Oslo Accords.
After Rabin’s assassination in 1995, Peres served as Acting Prime Minister and Acting Defense Minister for seven months until the 1996 elections.
His final position in his long and illustrious career serving the State of Israel was as its ninth president from 2007 until 20014. He authored 12 books and founded the Peres Center for Peace.
Born in Poland in 1923, his family made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in 1932. Peres’ wife, Sonya, passed away in 2011. He is survived by a daughter and two sons, eight grandchildren, and many grandchildren.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/76403/shimon-peres-israels-elder-statesman-passes-away-93/#Wt8MlUH2vqfQSJIF.99

Obama, Clintons, Pope to Attend Shimon Peres’ Funeral
“Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains; for Hashem hath comforted His people, and hath compassion upon His afflicted.” (Isaiah 49:13)
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement saying US President Barack Obama will attend the state funeral of Israel’s ninth president Shimon Peres on Friday. Peres, considered the last living Founding Father of Israel, passed away two weeks after suffering a major stroke.
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/rsz_pope_francis_in_march_2013_3.jpg
Pope Francis (Photo: Casa Rosada, Wiki Commons)
Dozens of major world leaders will arrive in Jerusalem on Friday for the funeral. The list includes former US President Bill Clinton and his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Joe Biden, Pope Francis, Prince Charles, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German President Joachim Gauck, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Beatrix, Queen Mother of the Netherlands, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, President of Togo Faure Gnassingbé, and President of Romania Klaus Iohannis.

The foreign ministry has activated an emergency protocol to consolidate information regarding the arriving dignitaries and caring for their needs. The statement notes that ministry personnel will be coordinating the funeral operation with Ben-Gurion International Airport, government ministries and police.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara expressed deep personal sorrow over the passing of the former President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres. The Prime Minister will issue a special statement later this morning and convene the Cabinet in a special session.

In his statement about the passing of President Peres, President Obama wrote: “There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people.

image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/144-JerusalemCovenant-600WIDE.jpg

“Shimon Peres once said that, ‘I learned that public service is a privilege that must be based on moral foundations.’ Tonight, Michelle and I join people across Israel, the United States and around the world in honoring the extraordinary life of our dear friend Shimon Peres—a Founding Father of the State of Israel and a statesman whose commitment to Israel’s security and pursuit of peace was rooted in his own unshakeable moral foundation and unflagging optimism.”

Concluded Obama, “A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever. For the gift of his friendship and the example of his leadership, todah rabah, Shimon.”

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau wrote that Peres was “above all a man of peace. My deepest condolences to his loved ones and to the people of Israel on his passing.”

“In former President Shimon Peres, we lost a key world leader and a friend of India. I am pained by his demise. Our condolences to the people of Israel,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Former US President George W. Bush also issued a statement, saying that “it was by his innate humanity, his decency, that Shimon inspired the world over and helped pave a path to peace.”

Education Minister Naftali Bennett directed Israel’s education system to dedicate Wednesday to the life and achievements of Shimon Peres, and called on Jewish communities and schools to do the same, “so the future generation for whom he fought will know who he was and be inspired by him.”

With additional reporting by Breaking Israel News Staff
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/76418/obama-clintons-pope-attend-shimon-peres-funeral/#Pgb7WZ8DjlQ18XOe.99