Shimon Peres (help·info) (Hebrew: שמעון פרס‎, born Szymon Perski on 2 August 1923) is the ninth and current President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President. In November 2008 he was presented with an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

Born in Wiszniewo, in Poland (now Belarus) in 1923, Peres moved with his family to Mandatory Palestine in 1934. He held several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after Israel's War of Independence. His first high level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952, and Director-General in 1953 through 1959. During his career, he has represented five political parties in the Knesset: Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labor and Kadima, and has led Alignment and Labour. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks which he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords. Peres was nominated in early 2007 by Kadima to run in that year's presidential election, being elected by the Knesset for the presidency on 13 June 2007 and sworn into office as the first former Prime Minister to be elected as President of Israel on 15 July 2007 for a seven-year term.

Shimon Peres was born on 2 August 1923 in Wiszniewo, Poland (now Višnieva, Belarus), to Yitzhak (1896-1962) and Sara (b. 1905 née Meltzer) Perski. The family spoke Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian at home, and Peres learned Polish at school. He now speaks English and French in addition to Hebrew. His father was a lumber merchant, later branching out into other commodities whilst his mother was a librarian. Peres has a younger brother, Gershon.