Why is Israeli President Shimon Peres getting the US Medal of Freedom?

While it doesn't happen every year, it's not exactly rare for a foreign head of state or of government to be awarded the US Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award.

|
Yuri Gripas/Reuters
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (l.) shakes hands with Israel's President Shimon Peres before their meeting at the Pentagon in Washington, on June 11.

Why is Israeli President Shimon Peres receiving the US Presidential Medal of Freedom? In asking this, we’re not questioning whether Mr. Peres deserves accolades for his lengthy Mideast career. He’s already won the Nobel Peace Prize, after all. We’re wondering about the propriety of giving America’s highest civilian award to a foreign leader. Is that a common occurrence?

Well, it turns out it doesn’t happen every year, but it’s not exactly a rare thing. American presidents have bestowed the Medal of Freedom on at least 16 foreign heads of state or of government. Past notable winners include Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat (awarded posthumously in 1984), Britain’s Margaret Thatcher (1991), South Africa’s Nelson Mandela (2002), Czech leader Vaclav Havel (2003), and Germany’s Angela Merkel (2011).

The US Presidential Medal of Freedom is not meant to recognize service to the US, per se. Under an executive order issued by President John F. Kennedy in 1963, those eligible for the Medal of Freedom include “any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

As we’ve noted before, the bottom line of those criteria is that the medal can go to pretty much anyone who’s accomplished anything the US president likes.

Peres in particular is one of Israel’s founding leaders, and as such his award is meant to celebrate the ties between the two nations as well as his individual contributions.

Of course, Israel isn’t popular with everybody in the US, so Peres’ award has engendered some controversy. Comedian/activist Roseanne Barr, for instance, added one word, “protest,” in a retweet of an announcement of tonight’s ceremony.

But two-time Israeli Prime Minister Peres, now 88, has evolved into something of a Mideast elder statesman. As Israeli president – a largely ceremonial post – he has become more popular in his home country than he was when he held more powerful political posts.

And he’s not coming to the White House empty-handed. According to the Israeli paper Haaretz, he’s bringing gifts: a letter from Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, urging President Harry Truman to recognize Israel; a letter from President Truman to Israel doing just that; and a letter back to Truman from Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, thanking him for that recognition.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Why is Israeli President Shimon Peres getting the US Medal of Freedom?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2012/0613/Why-is-Israeli-President-Shimon-Peres-getting-the-US-Medal-of-Freedom
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe