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Remembering Rabin

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On the eve of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israelis and the world’s leaders remember the deceased champion of the peace process and Israeli hero. Rabin, who shepherded the Oslo process from an idea to a historic signing of principles, strove for the implementation of a solution to the conflict that guarantees Israel’s security while providing the Palestinians with self-determination. His relationship with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, international legitimacy, and decent domestic support enabled Rabin to strive for a long-term solution to the conflict. However, domestic opposition from some right-wing groups remained and the fanatic Yigal Amir murdered Rabin 14 years ago at a rally for peace. It’s important to remember, some protesters at the rally began chanting anti-Rabin slogans and cheering upon hearing of the assassination attempt.

Former President Bill Clinton, in recent remarks at the Washington Institute, told multiple anecdotes about Rabin. Accentuating the difficulty in obtaining Middle Peace (and the brilliant foreign policy tactics used by the former president), Clinton told the following story:

There were literally thousands of details. And so we were supposed to go into the Cabinet Room of the Oval Office and they were going to sign, Rabin and Arafat, three copies of these nine maps—twenty-seven signatures. And I was going to witness them. And we got in the middle of it and I went out to take a phone call, and then all of a sudden Rabin comes and says, we got a big problem here. Arafat had decided in the middle of the signing, like on map five, whatever it was, there was a mistake. And a crossroads that was very important to him was denoted as belonging to the Israelis when he thought it belonged to the Palestinians.

And so I took him back into the private dining room. It’s on the other side of the Oval Office. And I left him alone for the first time. I said, “Look, this was near Jericho, this crossroads. I said, “I went to Jericho once on a Christian pilgrimage, neither one of you can identify with that. (Laughter.) And you don’t care that there was once a tax collector named Zacchaeus that sat in the tree and Jesus brought him down and went home with him. That doesn’t mean a thing to you. And this crossroads doesn’t mean a thing to me, you guys got to work this out.”

I closed the door and walked out on them. I had no earthly idea what would happen. And just before they closed the door, I said, “Let me remind you, we’re already fifteen minutes late and the entire world press corps is standing out in front of the White House waiting for us. Are you going to blow this deal over this crossroads?

So anyway, ten minutes later they come out. They’re all smiles and Rabin was convinced that Arafat was right. That, in fact, the Israelis had meant to give jurisdiction over this crossroads, close as it was to Jericho, to the Palestinians. And the trust was so great that Arafat then went into the Cabinet Room and signed a map that was wrong. So that, as a matter of international law, he gave up what Rabin had just given him by his word. He thought Rabin’s word was worth more than a legally binding peace of paper that I had witnessed. Think how far we are from that today.”

In remarks at the annual Rabin memorial service held in Jerusalem, Israeli President Shimon Peres said:

“Yitzhak Rabin’s candle which has been lit here tonight will not burn out. It is an immortal flame that connects to thousands of candles that were lit in the homes, the squares and the city streets throughout Israel on that dark night”…

“Rabin’s assassination delayed the entire process and hampered the diplomatic course, but the understanding between us and our neighbors has grown, and its urgency has not changed.”

Former IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak praised Rabin as a revolutionary in an interview with Middle East Progress. He said:

“I think that Rabin understood that continuing to control the lives of millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is a huge burden on the state of Israel, not only with the international community but also internally. That is what made him go ahead with the process that later became known as Oslo.

Back in Rabin’s days, the two-state solution was perceived as treason by the Israeli right. Rabin was called a traitor because he was willing to give back land. Today it is supposedly accepted—even Netanyahu, Livni, Olmert and Sharon changed their minds and moved closer to Rabin’s position. In that regard, I think not only was he courageous but he also created a real shift in the worldview of most, albeit not all, Israelis. Given that we are still not done with this conflict, this outlook remains as relevant as ever.”

 

Author

Ben Moscovitch

Ben Moscovitch is a Washington D.C.-based political reporter and has covered Congress, homeland security, and health care. He completed an intensive two-year Master's in Middle Eastern History program at Tel Aviv University, where he wrote his thesis on the roots of Palestinian democratic reforms. Ben graduated from Georgetown University with a BA in English Literature. He currently resides in Washington, D.C. Twitter follow: @benmoscovitch

Areas of Focus:
Middle East; Israel-Palestine; Politics

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