No Israeli public figure had a more profound influence on the nation's strategic posture, on the Mideast power balance, and on Israel's leading niche role in the global aerospace industry than Shimon Peres, a former defense minister, prime minister and president who died last month at age 93.

From his decade (1949-1959) at the defense ministry as the right-hand man of founding leader David Ben-Gurion, Peres was the point man who cemented Israel's regional power status – through the help of France -- with a nuclear weapons capability, yet left the door open for peace by his wink-and-nod policy of nuclear ambiguity. His early pioneering vision led to the founding of Israel Aerospace Industries and the rocketry and special propulsion means now associated with Rafael Ltd. and Israel Military Industries (IMI).

As defense minister (1974-1977) Peres rehabilitated a military humbled after the Yom Kippur war and shared lessons learned from then-Soviet capabilities at the height of the Cold War with Washington to the collective benefit of NATO. In his time as prime minister (1984-1986), Peres propelled Israel's entry into space, along with the technology that led to Israel's world-leading status as producer of unmanned aerial vehicles.

But the civilian warrior who also championed Israel's early settlement of the occupied West Bank was better known, in his later years, as a statesman for peace. The man who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat represented Israel's kinder, gentler face and a back channel of sorts for Russian, European, Arab and even US leaders who have found it difficult to deal with the nationalist, right-leaning governments of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Over the decades, Peres worked with 10 American presidents to chart and nurture the US-Israel strategic partnership that consumes the bulk of US security assistance funding and drives the geo-strategic agenda in an important part of the Middle East. In a 2009 interview with Defense News, Peres waxed poetic of the need to improve ties with Moscow without providing the advanced weaponry that could compromise US security.

"I've had long talks with Vladimir Putin and told him that just as they can't escape from their greatness, Israel cannot escape from its smallness. We don't have land, nor water, but we have a thriving agricultural industry that is purely scientific and innovative in nature. … There will be 100 million more people in the world in the coming decade, which means more hunger, more thirst, more problems. So I ask my Russian friends, why don't you become a major provider of water to the rest of the world to make you greater?"

At a eulogy in Jerusalem attended by leaders from some 70 states, US President Barack Obama noted that Peres laid the foundation for Israel’s defense industry and for the formidable armed forces that won Israel’s wars. Yet, Obama said, Peres understood "that true security comes through making peace with your neighbors."

This article is part of a larger Defense News 30-year anniversary project, showcasing the people, programs and innovations from the last three decades that most shaped the global security arena. Go to defensenews.com/30th to see all of our coverage.

Opall-Rome is Israel bureau chief for Defense News. She has been covering U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, Mideast security and missile defense since May 1988. She lives north of Tel Aviv. Visit her website at www.opall-rome.com.

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