JERUSALEM -- Shimon Peres was laid to rest Friday by dozens of world leaders who praised Israel's former president and prime minister for pursuing peace with an indefatigable spirit and optimism, even though his vision of a "new Middle East" was never fulfilled.
At a funeral befitting the globe-trotting Peres, speakers including President Barack Obama recalled a seven-decade political career that personified the history of Israel by building its military while also pushing it toward peace.
"He knew better than the cynic that if you look out over the arc of history, human beings should be filled not with fear but with hope," Obama told the mourners, made up of delegations from 70 countries.
Peres, who shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died Wednesday at age 93.
Among the mourners were French President Francois Hollande, the United Kingdom's Prince Charles, German President Joachim Gauck, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former President Bill Clinton.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sat in the front row alongside other world leaders. Representatives from Egypt and Jordan also were present.
About 4,000 mourners gathered at the national cemetery overlooking Jerusalem. Security was tight as 8,000 police officers flooded Jerusalem and closed streets.
In the final speech of the ceremony, Obama said Peres had told him Jews should not rule over another people and that Palestinians were entitled to dignity and self-determination.
"Just as he understood the practical necessity of peace, Shimon believed that Israel's exceptionalism was rooted not only in fidelity to the Jewish people, but to the moral and ethical vision, the precepts of his Jewish faith," Obama said.
He ended his comments by saying in Hebrew, "Toda rabah haver yakar," -- "Thank you so much, dear friend."
The gesture evoked one made by Bill Clinton 21 years ago, when he eulogized Rabin, who was killed by a Jewish nationalist. Clinton said, "Shalom haver," or "Goodbye, my friend."
Clinton was president when Peres, the last of Israel's founding generation of leaders, negotiated a historic interim peace accord with the Palestinians in 1993. In his remarks Friday, he said Peres "started life as Israel's brightest student, became its best teacher and ended up its biggest dreamer."
Peres led Israel through some of its most defining moments: creating its still-undeclared nuclear weapons program in the 1950s; disentangling its troops from Lebanon and rescuing its economy from triple-digit inflation in the 1980s; and guiding a skeptical nation into peace talks with the Palestinians in the 1990s.
He also created his nongovernmental Peres Center for Peace, which raised funds and ran programs for cooperation and development projects involving Israel, the Palestinians and Arab nations.
"I was fortunate to look up to you as a partner in the building of the state of Israel from its very foundations," said Reuven Rivlin, his successor as president. "You strived until your final breaths to reach the pinnacle of the Zionist dream: an independent, sovereign state, existing in peace with our neighbors."
Netanyahu said he was a fierce political rival of Peres, Israel's leading dove, and that the two had vastly different world views.
But he said that never got in the way of a strong personal relationship built since 1976, when Peres, as defense minister, ordered a hostage rescue mission in Entebbe, Uganda, in which Netanyahu's older brother, Yoni, was killed.
"I loved you. We all loved you. Farewell, Shimon. Dear man. Great leader," Netanyahu said.
Peres' son, Chemi, and Peres' devoted staff of assistants broke down in tears during a performance of the prayer "Avinu Malkeinu," or "Our Father, Our King." Jews sing the prayer on the Day of Atonement, which falls this year in mid-October, and Peres had requested singer David D'or perform it at his funeral.
Thousands of mourners viewed Peres' casket Thursday outside the parliament building. Early Friday, an honor guard escorted the flag-draped casket, along with Peres' family, on the short route to the cemetery.
After the eulogies, eight members of an honor guard carried the casket to the gravesite.
The coffin was lowered into a plot alongside two other prime ministers, Rabin and Yitzhak Shamir.
Soldiers passed bags of dirt to cover the casket, and a military cantor recited the prayer for the dead. Then the casket was covered in wreaths.
Peres' daughter, Tzvia Walden, recounted her father's boundless energy, his persistent pursuit of peace and his refusal to retire, even his in 90s.
"My father, you were a lover of life, who sprung like a lion at daybreak to fulfill his mission," she said. "For so long, I tried to catch up with you. But now, heed my loving words. You have earned a well-deserved rest."
Information for this article was contributed by Aron Heller and Josef Federman of The Associated Press and by Michael S. Arnold and Mike Dorning of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 10/01/2016