As he turns 80, Shimon Peres is feeling as ‘healthy as an ox’

JERUSALEM -- Nobel laureate Shimon Peres, the peace visionary and perennial candidate to lead Israel, turns 80 this week and on Monday proclaimed himself "healthy as an ox'' after a medical exam.

Peres, who has run for prime minister five times but never won outright, was picked as temporary head of the Labor Party this year after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hardline Likud handed Labor its worst-ever election defeat in January.

Peres served three times as prime minister but was never elected to the post. Twice he succeeded Yitzhak Rabin in midterm, and once he became premier in a rotation arrangement with a rival after an election ended in a parliamentary deadlock.

Often eulogized as finished after election defeats, Peres has re-emerged again and again, putting forward new ideas. His latest is declaring Jerusalem "capital of the world,'' a form of internationalization to bypass conflicting Israeli and Palestinian claims to the city.

Peres turns 80 on Saturday but still carries himself like a man in the prime of life, standing straight and walking confidently, his trademark swept-back gray hair only marginally thinner than in years past.

"They sent me for a checkup and it turns out that I am as healthy as an ox from every aspect -- my heart, my body, my pulse,'' he told Israel TV.

A high point of his career was receiving the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for the first interim Israeli-Palestinian peace accords.

But when the negotiations crumbled into violence in 2000, Peres became the focus of criticism as a symbol of a process many Israelis believe allowed the Palestinians to gain strength and weapons for their battle.

Nevertheless, Peres continues to push for far-reaching concessions for peace with the Palestinians.

On the domestic political front, analysts say he may eventually lead his dovish party back into a partnership with Sharon. Peres served as foreign minister during Sharon's first term. For now, the Labor Party's policy is to support Sharon from outside the governing coalition if it moves toward peace.