It appears as though in the few days since Israel’s first lady Sonia Peres passed away on Thursday at 87, the media has spoken about her much more than it did throughout her entire life.

According to Dr. Ilan Ben-Ami of the department of Sociology and Political Science at the Open University of Israel, despite the image that Sonia Peres did not have any public or political involvement as portrayed by the media  , the opposite is the truth.

Ben-Ami, who has authored a book entitled “Behind Great Men: The Private and Public Lives of Israel's Prime Minister's Wives”, told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew site on Sunday: “Without a doubt, her special image [in the press, ed] was the fact that she distanced herself from the press and from politics. I talked to many people who knew her, and apparently they also knew about her involvement. It turns out that many political consultations took place in the Peres’ home and she took part in them not only by serving coffee or tea ...”

Ben-Ami, who outlined the process he underwent in compiling information for the chapter in his book on Sonia Peres, said that he found additional information in written biographies of various political figures, including Shimon Peres himself. Reading between the lines, Ben-Ami found quite a few reports on the contribution of Sonia Peres to Israeli politics.

“One of the most important political moments where she intervened was during the late eighties when [Shimon Peres] was supposed to hand over the Prime Minister’s office to Yitzchak Shamir as laid down in the rotation agreement,” said Ben-Ami. “There were those who called on him not to give the role to Shamir whom they hated, but Sonia expressed a clear position that in no way does one violate an agreement. She said that agreements must be respected. It was one of those times that Peres accepted his wife’s advice.”

Ben-Ami described a second incident in which Sonia Peres became involved: It was during what Yitschak Rabin named "The Dirty Trick" in 1990, when her husband orchestrated a failed attempt to overthrow then-Prime Minsiter Yitschak Shamir and form a narrow government made up of the left-wing factions and the hareidi parties instead of the existing national unity goverment of which he was a member.

“Sonia was told of the trick and expressed her stand against it,” said Ben-Ami. “Here her husband did not listen to her advice. He was intoxicated by the smell of being in power. This was the one time she agreed to come to the Knesset and it was a highly humiliating experiencefor her. This event was the most significant milestone in her decision to shy away from the spotlight.”

After her death on Thursday, Terror Vicitm's Almagor Chairman Meir Indor said that Sonia “did not believe the Arabs and had hawkish views. Her opinions were revealed to us when she came to bring us refreshments while we demonstrated outside her home.”

Indor also revealed that in recent years, Sonia Peres became an almost religious woman. “Sonia and her husband moved away from one another ideologically,” he said. “May her memory be blessed as a woman of truth who had a warm Jewish heart.”

Dr. Ben-Ami also spoke about the late Sonia Peres as a gracious woman. “I heard many stories about her warm graciousness . She volunteered with the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers and in the seventies worked with immigrants and later with children in institutions.”

He added that most of Sonia Peres’ work was done without any PR. “Today, someone told me that when their son attended boarding school in Pardes Hannah, she came there to help clean the rooms ... Her actions were different from the way others behaved, she did what she thought was fitting.”