Shimon Peres: A remarkable man and a longtime friend

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016 | 2 a.m.

I remember the first time I met Shimon Peres.

I was just a teenager when I traveled by myself — it could have been my first airplane trip — to Israel in 1962. My parents thought I should spend a summer working on a kibbutz while learning all I could about this nascent state of Israel. Because I knew practically nothing, every day was an eye-opener, especially my first week, which was spent shoveling cow manure into 50-pound burlap bags. (Some would say I learned that lesson well!)

I got a phone message where we were staying that a friend of my father’s was going to pick me up at 5 p.m., so I should be dressed and ready to go. Because the message was from my parents, it probably also said, “and don’t be late.”

And that is when I met Shimon Peres. He was a young man who was working in the Defense Ministry. One of his mentors was a woman named Golda Meir. Talk about breaking glass ceilings: when she became prime minister of Israel, she broke a lot more than glass!

Shimon drove me to Tel Aviv, where we went to the Mann Auditorium. He wanted to show me this new performing arts center of which all of Israel was proud. I was more interested in what took place inside. The Philharmonic Orchestra from the Soviet Union was playing that night, and the thought of it floored me. Here I was, an American boy in a faraway land listening to an orchestra from the Soviet Union! The same Soviet Union that caused us to duck under our school desks for safety in case of a nuclear attack! How much more unpatriotic could I get?

But to the man whose career in public service to Israel and the world was just getting started, what I was living through was the way things should be. No wars, no anxiety, no strife between and among countries — just beautiful music on a beautiful night in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, Israel.

I thought of the night I met the most remarkable Mr. Peres when, on Friday, I joined one of the largest and most impressive arrays of world leaders ever gathered to say goodbye to the man I had known for over 55 years. I went to Israel out of respect for his life, his friendship and the bond that had been created so many years before — not by me, of course, but by my father decades earlier.

Wars create common cause among those who fight them. Peace, which oftentimes is much harder to achieve, creates lasting friendships bound by mutual respect, trust and, yes, love. That was true in the case of Hank Greenspun and Shimon Peres. I was just a fortunate beneficiary of that relationship.

One day the entire story may be told, but for now it is enough to say that what Shimon did for Israel — often with the help of Al Schwimmer and from time to time a newspaper publisher from Las Vegas — is the stuff from which novels are written.

Shimon was the right-hand man and “go to” guy for Israel’s first prime minister and founding father, David Ben-Gurion. Whatever needed to be done, Shimon got it done. He became prime minister himself and later, president of Israel. Along the way he did more for Israel and the cause of humanity and morality than almost any other leader throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

In a documentary we made a few years ago about my father’s life, Shimon reflected on the story of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 and the urgency the entire nation felt as Israelis were surrounded by Arab armies ready to drive the brand new country into the sea.

“We were waiting for the ship (that Hank sent full of armaments) like we were waiting for the Messiah,” Shimon recounted. He explained that young Israelis took those weapons and broke the siege of Jerusalem and swept through the Negev to win the war against incalculable odds.

For the next 40 years until my father’s death, their relationship and exploits, together with Schwimmer, was a true-life, unbelievable story of wars and peace.

Asked by my loved ones why I flew all night just to say goodbye to President Peres, my answer was simple. “Where else should I be?”

Through the past half century I was blessed to be able to spend so much time just listening to the brilliance of this man as he imagined a world without war, one in which Israel and her Arab neighbors could fulfill the biblical aspiration of a Middle East that was truly a land of milk and honey.

In our religious traditions, we are commanded to pass the stories of our people from parent to child to grandchild. It is the way that our stories live on and the lessons within those stories of triumph and tragedy, illuminate and connect each succeeding generation, one to the other.

As close as Shimon and my father were, as blessed as I was to be able to continue that bond of respect and friendship and love for that man, a story my daughter reminded me of the other day reinforced my understanding that in Shimon Peres there was a man who lived the Biblical commitment to exalt and adore and to teach from one generation to another. He remained young and vibrant his entire adult life because he thought and acted as if he were part of each new generation. In fact, he was often the oldest man with the youngest and most imaginative mind in the room.

Amy worked for Tipper Gore in the mid-1990s. She traveled everywhere with the wife of the vice president and was always at her side. It was on a busy street in Seoul, South Korea, where Tipper was out for a walk, surrounded by her Secret Service protectors, when they noticed an equally large contingent of security personnel and their protectee walking on the other side of the street.

Someone whispered to Tipper that it was Israel’s prime minister, Shimon Peres, and asked Tipper if she would like to say hello. “Of course,” was her reply. At which point Amy told one of the service agents to let Mr. Peres know that Amy Greenspun was part of the group.

Moments later, the sea of agents parted and Shimon came bounding across the street. He walked right past Tipper Gore and said, “Where is Hank Greenspun’s granddaughter?” Family first. Friendship first. Generation to generation foremost.

The last of Israel’s founding fathers has been laid to rest. Rest well, Shimon Peres. You have earned your place in the history of man. And like those world leaders who eulogized him Friday said atop Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, now is time for the next generation to follow Shimon’s lead — all the way toward a more peaceful world.

Brian Greenspun is owner, editor and publisher of the Sun.