Obama: ‘Todah rabah, Shimon’

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President Barack Obama posted an impassioned paean to the legacy of Shimon Peres.

“There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves,” said the unusually lengthy statement coming out late Tuesday, an hour or so after the death of Israel’s elder statesman at 93 was announced.

“My friend Shimon was one of those people,” Obama said.

The statement, issued also in the name of the first lady, Michelle Obama, recounted Obama’s meetings with Peres in Israel and in Washington, D.C., including in 2012, when Obama awarded Peres the Presidential Medal of Honor.

Obama’s characterizations of Peres were suffused with an appreciation of what the American president has acknowledged is his preferred vision of Israel — that of a nation peopled by pioneers ready to defend their country but also committed to pursuing peace.