Page "Shimon Peres" Paragraph 32

Peres was once considered a " hawk ".

He was a protégé of Ben-Gurion and Dayan and an early supporter of the West Bank settlers during the 1970s.

However, after becoming the leader of his party his stance evolved.

More recently he has been seen as a dove, and a strong supporter of peace through economic cooperation.

While still opposed, like all mainstream Israeli leaders in the 1970s and early 1980s, to talks with the PLO, he distanced himself from settlers and spoke of the need for " territorial compromise " over the West Bank and Gaza.

For a time he hoped that King Hussein of Jordan could be Israel's Arab negotiating partner rather than Yasser Arafat.

Peres met secretly with Hussein in London in 1987 and reached a framework agreement with him, but this was rejected by Israel's then Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir.

Shortly afterward the First Intifada erupted, and whatever plausibility King Hussein had as a potential Israeli partner in resolving the fate of the West Bank evaporated.

Subsequently, Peres gradually moved closer to support for talks with the PLO, although he avoided making an outright commitment to this policy until 1993.