Paul Calvert spoke with Gidon Ariel about Shimon Peres, his work for peace, the impact of his political career, who he was as a man and what he means to the State of Israel.

With world leaders gathered in Jerusalem at the end of September for the funeral of one of Israel's founding fathers, Paul Calvert spoke with Orthodox Jew Gidon Ariel, a visionary and pioneer in Jewish-Christian relations, to hear his thoughts on Shimon Peres.

Paul: How important was Shimon Peres to Israel?

Gidon: Shimon Peres was one of the founding fathers of the State of Israel. He died at the age of 93 and was just getting started.

He had been the right hand man of Israel's founding father, David Ben Gurion, who was the first prime minister of Israel. Afterwards he became a member of Israel's Parliament and became a deputy minister and a minister in many different ministries, until he became prime minister and afterwards even the president of Israel.

He never rested, because he was always very busy promoting Israel, promoting the technological advances of Israel and making sure people would visit Israel and that people would learn about Israel.

As far as his political ideals were concerned, he was almost messianic in his belief for peace. He chased after peace just like the Psalmist writes, 'seek peace and pursue it'. That was Shimon Peres. He pursued some policies that many Jews in Israel and many Israelis disagreed with. They thought he was taking it too far, for example the Oslo Accords. Today though, when we are about to bury Shimon Peres in the plot of the great heroes of the State of Israel on Mount Herzl, Israel's cemetery for its giant leaders, we are all of us together in the State of Israel, standing as one in memory and respect for Shimon Peres, one of Israel's greatest leaders.

Paul: Was he a good prime minister?

Gidon: He was not prime minister for a long time, barely a year or two, but as the minister of finance in a national unity government, led by Yitzhak Shamir, he was able to turn around the tremendous inflation that Israel was undergoing in the 80's. For that he has much merit. He also had tremendously good connections with the French and Americans. In other words, he was very instrumental in creating and broadening Israel's international standing.

So was he a good prime minister? Like anybody, you could say it depends on what his polices and politics were, but certainly on those counts I think that everyone will agree the answer was yes.

I'd like to point out that I stand on the right wing of Israel's politics and Shimon Peres was very squarely on the left wing, but when push comes to shove, we are all Jews here; we're all Israelis and we all believe in our right and responsibility to be here and we are all one big family.

Paul: He was born in Poland and his father immigrated to what was then Palestine, in 1932. His family followed in 1934. Do you think this decision saved his life?

Gidon: No question about it. Not only did it save his life, there's no question that God was pushing his father to move to the land of Israel, because otherwise they would have probably been another victim of the Holocaust, while instead Shimon Peres went on to be one of the leaders of the State of Israel. This was a lifesaving and divine invention to save the lives of Jews all over the world. So yes, definitely, by moving to Israel Shimon Peres not only saved his own life, but he saved the lives of many other Jews.

I would like to point out that even in our time, it's important for Jews to recognise their right and responsibility to move to the land of Israel, or at least that opportunity, because the life that you save may be your own.

Paul: Did Shimon Peres do a lot of work to bring peace to Israel?