Moreover, not having been born in Israel (with his mother, Peres emigrated from Poland to Palestine when he was a young teen) and having not served in the IDF (then as now the most important socializing institution in Israel), Peres was always defensive about his security credentials. Incredibly, none of his fantastic achievements for Israel’s security and survival were enough to defeat the allegations that he was insufficiently patriotic. Consequently, time after time he was defeated in the polls by his right-wing opponents, who accused him of being prepared to “divide Jerusalem.”

Thus, Peres’s political life story presents the most glaring example of a phenomenon we see all too often in Western democracies these days: the inverted relationship between the essential properties of a great leader and what it takes to get elected to a position of leadership. His departure leaves Israel mourning for a great statesman and grieving that he failed what he hoped for most in the last three decades of his life: to bring peace and tranquility to the Holy Land.

Shai Feldman is the Director of Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies and is a member of the board of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Image: Israeli President Shimon Peres speaks during a meeting with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in 2013. Wikimedia Commons/Department of Defense