I didn't plan to be a politician. The founder of our country, David Ben-Gurion, called me from the kibbutz to serve in the underground. We were short of manpower, short of arms. I was 24 years old. I was supposed to serve my country for one or two years. I am 89 years old this year, and I keep going.

Peres remained active in politics however serving as Rabin's foreign minister from 1992. Peres announced however that he supported Olmert and would remain with Kadima. In 1941 he was elected Secretary of Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed a Labor Zionist youth movement and in 1944 returned to Alumot where he worked as a dairy farmer Shimon Perespherd and kibbutz secretary.

Peres was nominated in early 2007 by Kadima to run in that year's presidential election and was elected by the Knesset to the presidency on 13 June 2007 and sworn into office on 15 July 2007 for a seven-year term. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister producing the Oslo Accords. His first high-level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952 and Director-General in 1953 through 1959.