http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/world/middleeast/shimon-peres-israel.html 2016-09-28 17:19:07 Obama and Bill Clinton to Travel to Israel to Honor Shimon Peres Presidents, prime ministers and a prince accepted invitations to the funeral on Friday for Mr. Peres, one of the country’s elder statesmen. === JERUSALEM — World leaders made plans to converge on Presidents, prime ministers and a prince accepted invitations to the funeral on Friday for Mr. Peres, who transformed himself from a polarizing figure to perhaps Israel’s most renowned elder statesman. Mr. Peres, 93, who slipped away just over two weeks after what his doctor called “ The United States will send a delegation including But the ministry mistakenly reported that Mr. Obama, who has been at odds with the current Israeli prime minister, “I can think of no greater tribute to his life than to renew our commitment to the peace that we know is possible,” Mr. Obama said in a Some Israeli analysts said they expected Mr. Obama to use the occasion to make a new pitch for a peace settlement that would grant statehood to the Palestinians, but they doubted that Mr. Peres’s death would change the dynamic. “Just by appearing here, he’ll probably want to make a speech that will mention the two-state solution,” said Zalman Shoval, a two-time Israeli ambassador to the United States and a member of Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party. “On whom will this have an impact is another question. On the Israeli public? I don’t think so. On the Palestinians? They have their own problems.” Mr. Peres’s body will lie in state on Thursday at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, and a funeral will be held the next day at Mount Herzl, the national cemetery. Israeli government ministers stood for a moment of silence at a special cabinet meeting on Wednesday. A portrait of Mr. Peres, with a black band across one corner, was in the background. Mr. Netanyahu, a former political opponent of Mr. Peres who He added: “I admired him. I loved him.” But Mr. Peres was seen as a more complicated figure among “Peres was an unrepentant war criminal and should be memorialized as such,” said Diana Buttu, a former adviser to the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. Mahmoud Abbas But “The Palestinian people are very happy at the passing of this criminal who caused their blood to shed,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the group, told The Associated Press. “Shimon Peres was the last remaining Israeli official who founded the occupation,” he added, “and his death is the end of a phase in the history of this occupation and the beginning of a new phase of weakness.” While Mr. Peres was a divisive figure for much of his long career, he came to enjoy support and admiration across the Israeli political spectrum by his final years. Mr. Netanyahu visited Mr. Peres in the hospital during the last two weeks, as did the opposition leader Isaac Herzog. Mr. Clinton called the hospital for updates. Pope Francis prayed for his recovery. Mr. Obama, who In an unusually long and personal statement, Mr. Obama described their first meeting, while he was a United States senator, and he described their conversations in detail. “Shimon was the essence of Israel itself,” he said. “A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever,” he added. “Shimon Peres was a soldier for Israel, for the Jewish people, for justice, for peace and for the belief that we can be true to our best selves — to the very end of our time on earth and in the legacy that we leave to others.” Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who has worked for years on Middle East peace issues, described Mr. Peres as “someone I loved deeply” and as a mentor. “His intellect, his way with words that was eloquent beyond description, his command of the world and how it was changing were extraordinary,” he said. In Germany, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier recalled that Mr. Peres became in 1986 Germany, Mr. Steinmeier added, “mourns a courageous and wise voice, who was a constant motivation” to do more. Mr. Peres was surrounded by his children when he died. “My father used to say, and I quote, ‘You are only as great as the cause you serve,’ ” Chemi Peres, his son, told reporters afterward. “He had no interest other than serving the people of Israel in whom he had great faith and whom he loved dearly until his final breath.”