Shimon Peres assumes presidency

[Salem6]

Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres has been formally inaugurated as the ninth president of Israel.


Arriving at the Knesset Mr Peres lay a wreath honouring fallen soldiers

The 83-year-old, who was elected last month, will serve a seven-year term.

His predecessor, Moshe Katsav, was forced to resign earlier this year after admitting charges of sexual harassment and abuse of authority.

Polish-born Mr Peres has held almost every senior cabinet position, and in 1994 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the Oslo peace accord.

Mr Peres was escorted to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, by senior military leaders and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik as the Israeli national anthem played.

He paused briefly to lay a wreath at a memorial honouring fallen soldiers, before entering parliament to the sound of a trumpet salute.

After reciting the oath of office, Mr Peres said: "I am no longer the messenger of a party but a trustee of the nation, of all the citizens of the state... (who) must encourage the peace process. Within the house. With our neighbours. In the whole region."

Elder statesman

Mr Peres also said that he would work to ensure that citizens of Israel who are not Jews do not suffer discrimination.

"If they do not enjoy complete equality, we will not be at peace with ourselves and with our fellow men.

"Israel... must be a good and warm home for Jews who are not Israelis, as well as for Israelis who are not Jews."

Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert paid tribute to Mr Peres saying:

SHIMON PERES
Born 1923 in Poland
Emigrated to British-administered Palestine 1934
Member of parliament since 1959
Prime minister in 1984 and 1995-1996




"Shimon Peres is one of the most important figures in Israel over the past 60 years.

"He is a person who is welcomed and known in the entire world as a representative of the state of Israel."

Mr Peres is Israel's elder statesman - he has twice served as the country's prime minister, though was never elected to the post in his own right.

His new role as president is largely symbolic, but the BBC's Christian Fraser in Jerusalem say there will be many Israelis hoping Mr Peres can bring some dignity back to political life.

Mr Katsav's predecessor, Ezer Weitzman, also departed in controversy after it emerged he had accepted thousands of dollars from a millionaire businessman while serving as an MP.

One man who will certainly be happy to see Mr Peres installed as president, our correspondent say, is Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

His inauguration removes any lingering possibility that Mr Peres could become a compromise candidate to replace him, should Mr Olmert come under serious pressure next month to resign when a parliamentary inquiry reports on the failures of the Lebanon war.




news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6899473.stm

[Salem6]

Despite his status as Israel's elder statesman and an impressive cabinet experience that includes two stints as prime minister, Shimon Peres has never led his Labour party to election victory.


Peres (left) has in the past served under Sharon

He has in the past achieved power in times of political crisis - often as a senior member of a broad coalition government.

As Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is being challenged by his own Likud party over plans to withdraw from Gaza, Mr Peres has the opportunity to come into his own again.

The 80-year-old Labour leader is a survivor of Israel's turbulent political scene.

He lost elections in 1977, 1981, 1984, 1988, and 1996.

However Mr Peres has held numerous cabinet posts over the years - most recently serving as Mr Sharon's foreign minister in the last national unity government, in 2001-2.

SHIMON PERES
Born 1923 in Poland
Emigrated to British-administered Palestine 1934
Member of parliament since 1959
Has held many cabinet posts since the 1970s - most recently foreign minister in 2001-2
Prime Minister in 1984 and 1995-1996
Labour leader since June 2003
Never led his party to Labour victory


His greatest successes have come on the international stage, and he was the guiding light behind Israel's first interim peace accord with the PLO in 1993 in Oslo.

A high point of Mr Peres' long career came in 1994, when he shared the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his role.

He first became prime minister in a national unity government in 1984, and took over the top job again after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

In 2000 he failed in his effort to secure the ceremonial post of president, losing to the relatively obscure Moshe Katsav.

It seems that he has never convinced a majority of Israelis that he can deliver security along with peace with Israel's neighbours.

Conditions

In June 2003, Mr Peres was elected interim leader of the Labour party, a few months after a crushing election defeat for Labour under Amram Mitzna earlier that year.

Since then he has extended a "safety net" in parliament to Prime Minister Sharon, enabling him to pursue a plan to disengage from Gaza and parts of the West Bank in the face of opposition from Likud.

However he has set conditions for joining another national unity government - in which he sought the foreign affairs portfolio again, but has been offered and accepted the role of deputy prime minister.

The conditions include negotiations with the Palestinian Authority Palestinian - which Mr Sharon has resisted - and a return to Israel's pre-1967 borders "with some adjustments needed for security and to find a solution for settlers".

For a man widely viewed as a dove in the context of Israeli politics, Mr Peres was hawkish on Israel's nuclear programme.

He has gone on record as admitting that Israel's nuclear facility at Dimona - the building of which he oversaw - was established as a deterrent, although Israel maintains an official policy of what is known as "ambiguity".



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