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.

Gidon: He did a lot of work attempting to bring peace to Israel, he did not succeed so much. In some ways he did, in that he was instrumental in the peace agreement that we have with the State of Jordan. Unfortunately that isn't very strong nowadays, but there is no question that that is an important point of any international policy platform; to try to make peace with your neighbours. However to make peace in Israel, he would unfortunately agree with me that he was a little less successful, because the spectrum of Israeli politics and the fights that we have over politics and policies, unfortunately Shimon Peres was very much a part of it. I don't know that anybody would really say that Shimon Peres was the architect of Israeli internal peace. I think he tried to bring external peace for Israel, but not much to Israel.

Of course he won the Nobel Peace Prize! The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for their efforts on the Oslo Accords, in order to bring peace in the land of Israel between the State of Israel and the Palestinian nation.

Tragically this Nobel Prize like others I am afraid, was made more for efforts that had already been put in, but had not yet come to complete fruition. Obviously since that prize was given, we have had Intifadas with busses being blown up by Palestinian terrorists and hundreds and even thousands of Jews being killed.

You've got to hand it to him that he tried. There is no question as far as the spotlights of the world, this tiny sliver of land, of the land of Israel, is what everyone is looking at, so anyone who tries to solve it and gets to a certain point, I guess they are deserving of a peace prize.

Paul: He became President in 2007, was he a good statesman?

Gidon: Perhaps he was a statesman in that he was a jet setter and he brought hundreds of VIPs to Israel. He was a great friend to many leaders, both in countries, politics and even in Hollywood. He raised Israel's brightness throughout the world.

As far as his politics were concerned, he wasn't one of the most successful Israeli politicians. He was not the shortest held Prime Minister and he ran for president twice and he only won the second time, but with God's help he succeeded in what he was doing and there is no question he was an eternal optimist.

Paul: And of course when he retired in 2014, he was the world's oldest leading head of state.

Gidon: Yes I guess so. I have a feeling that Shimon Peres winced any time anyone called him old, because even on the day of his induced coma, a few weeks ago, which I guess you could say that was the beginning of his death, he addressed an international symposium of Hi-Tec leaders from all over the world. He didn't rest for a second. So while he might have been old chronologically, he was always new and facing the future. In fact, amongst other Shimon Peres-isms, you could say, 'Let's look less at the past and more important is to look at our future'.

Paul: He gave his life to his country didn't he? His political career spanned 66 years.

Gidon: Yes and I have been merited to live in the State of Israel for about half of those 66 years. I cannot really say I was a great fan of Shimon Peres for all of those 66 years, but that is exactly what a democracy is. People hate you when you are there and love you when you are gone. I personally feel great merit that I was able to live in the same State as such a giant statesman. Just as he was able to pursue peace, I think that we can hope that we too, all of us in the way that we see fit, pursue peace between Jews and between Jews and others all throughout the world.

Paul: Was he religious?

Gidon: That's a little hard to say. I am not in the habit of checking people's religious metre. I think a person's religion, if we would call religion a person's relationship with God, there is a story told that when he was a young boy of about six, Shimon Peres was brought by his father to the arguably greatest Torah sage leader at the time, Rabbi Chofetz Chaim, who lived in Poland. He blessed him that he would have a long life. What is going around today is that that same Rabbi lived to be 93 years old just as Shimon Peres also lived to be 93 years old.

He had a great identity as a Jewish person and he had great respect for the Jewish religion as well. He was not in a religious political party, but I think that that's the less important question, the more important question is was he as great an individual person, as he was a statesman. Again stories are told how he would reach out and do acts of loving kindness and charity even when the spotlight was not on him.

Paul: What is his legacy and will Israel miss this statesman?

Gidon: It's a little early to say exactly what the legacy of Shimon Peres is. In Israel it takes more than just a few moments for politicians to get beyond the political squabbles of their lives, even after their deaths.

Today I don't think there are too many Americans who still have a problem with George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. I may be wrong, but I think everybody agrees that these were great leaders of the United States of America. We still have people, everybody basically who is alive today, who was alive yesterday, knew Shimon Peres, so you had your personal opinion of him and his policies during his life time. I think we will have to wait a generation or two, to really be able to look at Shimon Peres, as well as so many other Israeli leaders, with the perspective of time and of history, to really clarify what his living legacy and lasting legacy was for the land of Israel, the people of Israel, the State of Israel and in fact the entire world.