During 2012 and early 2013 I had a series of interviews with the then-President of Israel, Shimon Peres. The gist of our conversations was published in The New York Times Magazine. Other parts, still considered classified and touching on matters of intelligence, special operations and nuclear weapons will appear in my new book, a Mossad history.
Of all these interviews, my favorite quote, by far, is :”Each woman is born a mother, and every man dies a baby.”
Shimon Peres was a great man, a fighter for the security of Israel and for peace, as well as an aggressive politician who did not balk at dirty tricks to achieve his goals. Like the nuclear reactor that he built at Dimona – which he called “Israel’s insurance policy against a second Holocaust” – Peres had an internal nuclear reactor that did not pause for a second in generating new ideas and dreaming of a Middle East which would be better for all.
Until last night.
May his memory be blessed.