India, Aug. 23 -- Shimon Peres and the war on Palestinians

Recently, I've been thinking about Shimon Peres. When I first met him in the mid-1980s, it was, I think, just after his first term as prime minister of Israel. He had moved to the foreign ministry. He served a second term as premier in the mid-1990s and then went on to become president from 2007 till 2014. He was a member of 12 cabinets, represented five political parties and served 46 unbroken years in the Knesset, in a political career spanning seven decades. Quite honestly, I know few politicians like him.

At the time I was anchoring "The World This Week", which London Weekend Television used to make for Channel 4. It was a Sunday morning show that dwelt on the key foreign af...