U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who died late Tuesday of brain cancer at the age of 77, was one of the first American legislators to study Israel's health care system, President Shimon Peres noted Wednesday in a statement of condolence.

He called Ted Kennedy a "great American leader who was also a great friend of the State of Israel."

Peres recalled the 1986 visit to the Jewish State by the Massachusetts senator, which he said had been specifically aimed at learning about Israel's health care system. It "was basically for the first time to study the health insurance system in Israel because he saw already at that time that the health issues are going to be central ones for the American people," said Peres.

Kennedy, who called health care reform "the cause of my life," once said "the achievements of yesterday are the problems of today, namely that we have to achieve things anew and not just be satisfied with the past," Peres said.

The issue did indeed become Kennedy's signature cause and also continued to dog American administrations throughout the senator's career. Health care reform is a major centerpiece of the current Obama White House as well.

The Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which was headed by Kennedy, passed new health care legislation last month. The bill is now being debated in Congress.

'Family Knew Great Tragedies'
Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy served as a federal Democratic lawmaker for 46 years. Two of his older brothers, one a U.S. president and the other a U.S. senator, were both shot to death by assassins while serving in office.

President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963 during a motorcade in Texas by 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine. The assassin was himself killed two days later by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby as he was being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail, leading to decades of speculation by conspiracy theorists.

U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was killed in 1968 while celebrating his successful primary election campaign in California for the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination. The assassin was 24-year-old Arab immigrant Sirhan Sirhan, who was born in Jerusalem and who remains incarcerated in a U.S. prison to this day.

Ted Kennedy came from a family "that knew great tragedies," Peres noted, "but also has shown greatness in many ways. We listened to him as a world leader because he was great on all issues of our time and our generation. It is a real loss to the American people it is also a painful loss for us," he said.