Because Rabin was assassinated, we tend to fetishise the notion that, had he lived, we would have peace.
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But a massive campaign of suicide bombings by Islamic militants soon overwhelmed the political discourse.
Repeated attempts to make peace have evaporated, leaving bouts of violence in their wake.
Sa’ar, speaking of Rabin’s legacy to a packed house of more than 200 people, said, “We are sick of words”. Rabin was assassinated as he left the rally minutes later. “This is a great symbol for Israeli society because people are saying they don’t only have to stay in their camp”. Although the divisions are complicated, they align with secular versus religious, European versus Middle East-descended, urban versus rural, educated versus working class.
The sides hold very different views on what kind of society the Jewish state should build, and especially on how to handle their entanglement with the Palestinians. “Don’t say the day will come, bring on that day – because it is not a dream – and in all the cities’ squares, cheer only for Peace!” “But it is not really so”, he said. At the same time, the way he shook Arafat’s hand – or rather was coerced by President Bill Clinton to do it – conveyed to the Israelis a parallel message: I’m doing it reluctantly, because I care about your security, but I don’t have a better option. Rabin would be in charge of bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians, Jordan and Syria, and Peres would take on multilateral peace talks for cooperative relations in the region.
To nationalists, Rabin was a traitor willing to forsake God-given lands to Israel’s enemies. With a credible Palestinian partner, it means a Palestinian state next to Israel, with all the painful evacuation of settlements and the security risks involved; with the absence of one – unilateral moves.
“If Rabin was not there we wouldn’t have reached the Oslo agreement with the Israelis”, said Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official who participated in the negotiations. There was an overwhelming outpouring of grief, and a sense of respect and affection from world leaders as well as the world Jewish community for the soldier-turned-peacemaker.
One tragic lesson was that there was no longer a distinction between character assassination and assassination. Killing Abraham Lincoln didn’t bring back slavery and killing Martin Luther King didn’t stop the civil rights movement.
Right across the Jordan River, Netanyahu and his administration are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the Holiest Sites in Islam. Each round was suddenly cut short when Israel’s prime minister was removed – first by assassination, then by coalition collapse, then by corruption charges.
Yitzak Rabin’s widow, Leah, greets Shimon Peres after his assassination in 1995. He is serving a life sentence. “Neither Jews nor Arabs felt they were being blamed”. A few called for his death.
Rabin was born in 1922 in Jerusalem. Netanyahu has said he did not see the posters at the rally.
The Israeli Left, meanwhile, has invented a populist version of Yitzhak Rabin that never existed. “But I didn’t realize the level of hatred and incitement against Rabin”.
Despite decades of trauma from war and conflict with the Palestinians, it was nearly unthinkable at the time in Israel that a Jew could kill a sitting prime minister and revered war hero over a political dispute. Arab frustration with the status quo has led to murderous attacks on Jews, confirming Jewish fears that many Palestinians want Jewish victims, not Jewish neighbors.
Hagai was in response to a recent statement by President Reuven Rivlin, in which he vowed never to pardon Yigal Amir.
In the midst of the many commemorations of Rabin’s death it seems more appropriate to suggest that though his murder is remembered, what he stood for has been largely forgotten. Rabin wanted a strong Israel to be able to afford to make peace; Netanyahu seems to want a strong Israel in the hope of not having to make peace.
Would Rabin have pushed on to a peace agreement if he’d lived? The next was between Ehud Barak and Arafat, beginning in July 2000, ending with Arafat’s walkout but resuming a month later and continuing through January 2001. But these were either rebuffed or ignored by Palestinians and neither had quite the gravitas of Rabin.
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As part of a panel of experts from multiple backgrounds and universities, Rabbi David Ellenson – the director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies – participated in a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Boston University on Wednesday. Only determined action seeking a permanent peace settlement will break this deadly cycle and provide Israelis and Palestinians with hope for the security, freedom and dignity they so deeply desire and deserve.
