Editing Shimon Peres (section)

==Second premiership (1995–1996)==
{{see also|Twenty-fifth government of Israel|Twenty-sixth government of Israel}}
[[File:Channel2 - Yitzhak Rabin.webm (cropped).jpg|thumb|Peres (far left) and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (far right) during the 4 November 1995 peace rally at which Rabin [[Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin|was assassinated]]]]
[[File:Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_Peres_and_Clinton.jpg|thumb|Shimon Peres with U.S. President [[Bill Clinton]] at the White House, April 1996]]

While the Oslo peace policies, at the time, enjoyed the support of most Israelis, they also faced intense opposition from extreme members of Israel’s right-wing.<ref name="Rais"/> In response to intense street protests by right-wing opponents of the Oslo peace process, a coalition of left-wing parties and peace groups organized a rally in support of the peace process in [[Tel Aviv]]'s [[Rabin Square|Kings Square]] on 4 November 1995, which both Prime Minister Rabin and Peres attended. While making his way from the stage to his car after concluding his speech to the gathered crowd of more than 100,000 people, Rabin [[Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin|was assassinated]] by [[Yigal Amir]], a right-wing Israeli Jew who opposed the peace process.<ref name="fastfactsOslo1"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Rabin assassinated at peace rally - Nov. 4, 1995 |url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9511/rabin/index.html |website=CNN |date=4 November 1995 |access-date=26 May 2022 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526072307/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9511/rabin/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BBF1">{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Derek |last2=Black |first2=Ian |last3=Freedland |first3=Jonathan |title=Israel's Yitzhak Rabin assassinated at peace rally - archive, 6 November 1995 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/yitzhak-rabin-assassinated-at-peace-rally-israel-1995 |website=The Guardian |access-date=26 May 2022 |language=en |date=6 November 1995 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526072306/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/yitzhak-rabin-assassinated-at-peace-rally-israel-1995 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Schmemann |first1=Serge |title=ASSASSINATION IN ISRAEL: THE OVERVIEW;RABIN SLAIN AFTER PEACE RALLY IN TEL AVIV; ISRAELI GUNMAN HELD; SAYS HE ACTED ALONE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/05/world/assassination-israel-overview-rabin-slain-after-peace-rally-tel-aviv-israeli.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=26 May 2022 |date=5 November 1995 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526072309/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/05/world/assassination-israel-overview-rabin-slain-after-peace-rally-tel-aviv-israeli.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kessel19961"/>

After Rabin's assassination, Peres was made acting prime minister and acting defense minister of a provisional government.<ref name = CV /><ref name="BBF1"/><ref name="PsychologyPress1">{{cite book |title=The Middle East and North Africa 2003 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-1-85743-132-2 |page=523 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CfBKvsiWeQC |access-date=10 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=1 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501072345/https://books.google.com/books?id=4CfBKvsiWeQC |url-status=live }}</ref> On 14 November 1995, the Labor Party [[1995 Israeli Labor Party leadership election|confirmed Peres as its new leader]], which thereby cleared the last formality before he could be invited by President [[Ezer Weizman]] to form a new government.<ref name="Kenig"/><ref>{{cite web |title=NEWS SUMMARY |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/14/nyregion/news-summary-037176.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=26 May 2022 |date=14 November 1995 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526072306/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/14/nyregion/news-summary-037176.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On 15 November 1995, Peres was invited by  to form a new government. On 21 November, Peres signed a coalition agreement between Labor, [[Meretz]] and [[Yiud]] (which had been members of [[Twenty-fifth government of Israel|Rabin's government]]), which was formally approved by the Knesset the next day, establishing a new government with Peres as prime minister.<ref name="PsychologyPress1"/>

Peres' second stint as prime minister ultimately lasted a total of seven months. During this time, he attempted to maintain the momentum of the peace process.<ref name = CV />

On 10 February 1996, Peres made the widely expected announcement that he would call early elections, moving the elections to late May, five months earlier than they otherwise were to be held. The election would be the first to use a new system in which the prime minister was directly elected in a vote coinciding with the Knesset election.<ref name="Kessel19961"/> Peres had hoped that early elections would deliver a [[Mandate (politics)|mandate]] for his pursuit of a two-state solution.<ref name="warriordies1">{{cite web |last1=Liebermann |first1=Oren |title=Shimon Peres: Israel's warrior for peace dies |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/27/middleeast/shimon-peres-obit/index.html |website=CNN |access-date=26 May 2022 |date=28 September 2016 |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526063933/https://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/27/middleeast/shimon-peres-obit/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Peres had called the elections early because of promising polls.<ref name="Kessel19961"/> He was heavily leading in the polls for the prime minister vote at the time the election was called, with polls showing him to have between a twenty and twenty-five percent lead.<ref name="failedtoconvince1"/><ref name="Kessel19961"/>  Additionally, Labor was also leading in polls for the Knesset vote. Despite the promising polls, however, some in Labor had, even at this time, expressed concerns about the ability of Peres  to win, given his failure to deliver an outright win for the Labor Party during his earlier stint as party leader.<ref name="Kessel19961">{{cite web |last1=Kessel |first1=Jerrold |title=Israeli elections will test support for peace - Feb. 11, 1996 |url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9602/israel_elex/02-11/index.html |website=CNN |access-date=26 May 2022 |date=11 February 1996 |archive-date=26 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026080005/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9602/israel_elex/02-11/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> His lead in the polls began to decrease after the [[Jaffa Road bus bombings]] on 25 February 1996. However, even in the last month before the election, he enjoyed a reduced leading margin of around five percent.<ref name="failedtoconvince1"/>

On 11 April 1996, Peres initiated [[Operation Grapes of Wrath]],<ref>"[http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/israel-palestinianconflictgazawarpoliticsnetanyahu.html Israel's wars of choice push its politics further to the right] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002102127/http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/israel-palestinianconflictgazawarpoliticsnetanyahu.html |date=2 October 2016 }}". [[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]]. 22 July 2014.</ref> which was triggered by [[Hezbollah]] [[Katyusha rockets]] fired into Israel in response to the killing of two Lebanese by an IDF missile. Israel conducted massive air raids and extensive shelling in southern Lebanon. 106 Lebanese civilians died in the [[1996 shelling of Qana|shelling of Qana]], when a UN compound was hit in an Israeli shelling.<ref>Lazar Berman,[http://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-defends-actions-during-1996-lebanon-operation/ 'Bennett defends actions during 1996 Lebanon operation,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606235515/https://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-defends-actions-during-1996-lebanon-operation/ |date=6 June 2021 }} ''[[The Times of Israel]]'', 5 January 2015.</ref>

During his term, Peres promoted the use of the internet in Israel and created the first website of an Israeli prime minister.<ref name="belovedabroad"/>