Shimon Peres was sworn in today as Israel's president, crowning the Nobel peace laureate's six-decade-long political career.
The 83-year-old, a former prime minister, was elected by parliament a month ago to the highly prestigious post, which though largely ceremonial, has proven to carry a lot of weight in Israeli politics.
He replaces Moshe Katzav, who resigned from the presidency last month after admitting - in a plea bargain for a dropped rape charge - to committing sex crimes against a woman employee and sexually harassing another.
As head of state, Mr Peres will have the critical job of granting pardons or commuting sentences for prisoners in Israeli jails, including dozens of Palestinian inmates Israel has pledged to release.
Mr Peres won a Nobel prize along with the late Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for a 1993 interim peace deal - Israel's first with the Palestinians that led to the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Born in Poland, Mr Peres immigrated before Israel achieved statehood and rose through the ranks of the leftist Labour party as an ally of the country's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion.
As deputy defence minister in the late 1950s he secured a secret deal with France to launch an Israeli nuclear programme was reportedly used to produce atomic weapons, though Israel has not confirmed this.
Mr Peres served as prime minister from 1984 to 1986, then again in 1995 after Mr Rabin's assassination. But he never won outright an Israeli election for the position.
In 2005 he left Labour to help found the centrist Kadima party alongside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister who lies in a coma since suffering a stroke the following year.
Mr Peres, Israel's ninth head of state, had to step down as Mr Olmert's deputy in order to become president.
While the job does not entail any direct involvement in policymaking, Israeli presidents traditionally speak out on key issues, often influencing political decisions. The president also meets world leaders.