Does Shimon Peres Support Israel?

Zach Mandel Feb 27, 2025 Updated Aug 06, 2026 3 min read

Short answer: Yes. Shimon Peres was one of the most consequential builders of the modern State of Israel: a lifelong Zionist who spent nearly seven decades in Israeli public life, helped establish Israel's core defense and nuclear-deterrence infrastructure, served three times as Prime Minister and one term as President, and shared the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating peace with the Palestinians. He died in 2016, so this support is historical record rather than current activity. (As of August 2026.)

What Shimon Peres has actually said and done

August 16, 1923: Born Szymon Perski in Wiszniew, Poland (in a region now part of Belarus). Relatives who remained there were later killed in the Holocaust, according to Wikipedia (cross-referenced with Britannica).
1934: Emigrated with his family from Poland to Mandatory Palestine as part of the Zionist aliyah movement, per Wikipedia.
1953: Appointed by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, as Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. He negotiated the reactor deal with France and oversaw construction of the Dimona nuclear facility, work central to Israel's defense deterrence, as reported by the Times of Israel and corroborated by the Wisconsin Project.
1977, and again 1984-1986 and 1995-1996: Served three separate terms as Prime Minister of Israel, a brief term in 1977, a rotation government from 1984-1986, and again in 1995-1996 after Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, per Encyclopaedia Britannica.
September 13, 1993: As Foreign Minister, authorized and backed the secret Oslo back-channel that produced the Oslo Accords, signed in Washington and aimed at Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation and a path toward Palestinian self-governance alongside Israel, according to The Conversation.
October 14, 1994: Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" following the Oslo Accords, per the official NobelPrize.org press release.
2007-2014: Served as Israel's ninth President, the first person to hold the presidency after having already served as Prime Minister. He stepped down in 2014 at age 90, per Wikipedia.
September 28, 2016: Died at age 93 in Israel, two weeks after suffering a stroke. His funeral in Jerusalem drew world leaders including then-U.S. President Barack Obama, as reported by The Washington Post.

The full picture

Shimon Peres's support for Israel was not a stance he took, it was the shape of his entire adult life. Born in Poland in 1923, he made aliyah as a child in 1934 and by his early thirties was already one of Ben-Gurion's most trusted lieutenants, entrusted with building the country's defense industry and its nuclear deterrent at Dimona, work widely credited with underwriting Israel's survival through decades of hostile wars. He went on to hold nearly every senior office in the state: Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, three terms as Prime Minister, and finally President from 2007 to 2014. His signature achievement, negotiating the 1993 Oslo Accords and sharing the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, reflected his conviction that Israel's long-term security depended on both military strength and a negotiated peace, not a rejection of Zionism but an application of it. He remained a public advocate for Israel and for Jewish state-building until his death in 2016, and he continues to be honored in Israel today: the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, a terminal at Ben Gurion Airport, and the Negev Nuclear Research Center all carry his name.

The bottom line

Shimon Peres was a founding-generation architect of the State of Israel and one of its most decorated statesmen, whose defense work, government service, and Nobel-winning peace diplomacy were all undertaken in service of a secure, democratic, Jewish state. He died in September 2016, and there is nothing in the current record to suggest otherwise or to question his lifelong commitment to Israel.

Carry a piece of that story with you

Peres spent a lifetime building and defending the State of Israel, work that still shapes daily life there today. If his story moves you, our Support Israel collection offers a simple, everyday way to carry that same connection to Israel with you.

Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.