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Yitzhak Rabin

 
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Yitzhak Rabin, Soldier / Prime Minister of Israel

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  • Born: 1 March 1922
  • Birthplace: Jerusalem, Palestine (now Israel)
  • Died: 4 November 1995 (assassination)
  • Best Known As: Prime Minister of Israel, 1974-1977 and 1992-1995

Yitzhak Rabin became chief of staff for the Israeli military in 1964, and directed the armed forces during the Six-Day War of 1967. He succeeded Golda Meir as Prime Minister in 1974, but resigned in 1977. He became the leader of the Labour Party, served as Defense Minister in the late 1980s and was elected Prime Minister in 1992. A proponent of Middle East peace, Rabin shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres. In 1995 he was shot to death by an Israeli law student who claimed Rabin intended to "give our country to the Arabs."

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(born March 1, 1922, Jerusalem — died Nov. 4, 1995, Tel Aviv – Yafo, Israel) First native-born prime minister of Israel. He fought in the first Arab-Israeli War and became chief of staff in 1964. His strategies helped win the Six-Day War in 1967. After retiring from the army (1968), he served as ambassador to the U.S. (1968 – 73). As head of the Israel Labour Party, he twice served as prime minister (1974 – 77, 1992 – 95). During his first tenure, he secured a cease-fire with Syria in the Golan Heights and ordered the raid at Entebbe, Ugan. (see Entebbe raid). As defense minister (1984 – 90) he responded forcefully to the Palestinian first intifadah. In 1993 secret negotiations with the Palestinians yielded a political settlement that called for limited Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, for which he shared the 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace with Shimon Peres and Yasir 'Arafat. He was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish extremist.

For more information on Yitzhak Rabin, visit Britannica.com.

Columbia Encyclopedia:

Yitzhak Rabin

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Rabin, Yitzhak (yĭtskhäk' räbēn'), 1922-95, Israeli general and statesman, b. Jerusalem, the first native-born prime minister of Israel (1974-77, 1992-95). His extensive military experience began in 1940 when he joined the Haganah (Jewish militia) and thereafter fought in the British army. He rose in rank from brigade commander in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War to chief of staff in 1964 and was credited with Israel's military success in the Six Day War (1967). After serving as envoy to Washington (1968-73), Rabin was elected as a Labor representative to the Knesset (Israeli parliament). In Mar., 1974, he joined Golda Meir's cabinet as labor minister; after her resignation in May, Rabin succeeded her as prime minister. One of his most formidable challenges was the 1976 Entebbe raid, in which he authorized the operation of Israeli commandos in the rescue of more than 100 Jews held hostage there. Rabin resigned as prime minister in 1977 prior to Labor's loss at the polls. He was succeeded as party leader by Shimon Peres. As defense minister (1984-90) in the Labor-Likud coalition government, Rabin ordered a harsh crackdown in the West Bank in the late 1980s in an effort to end the Arab uprising there (see Intifada). Rabin ousted Peres as Labor party leader in 1992 and led Labor to victory in the national elections, becoming prime minister and defense minister. Rabin played a key role in peace negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and in 1993 he endorsed a historic peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), providing for mutual recognition and a transition to Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Rabin, along with Peres and PLO leader Yasir Arafat, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. In 1994, Rabin signed a peace treaty with Jordan, and a 1995 agreement with the PLO expanded Palestinian self-rule. He was assassinated Nov. 4, 1995, by an Israeli law student with links to right-wing extremist groups.

Bibliography

See I. Rabinovich, Waging Peace (1999).

(rä-bēn''bēn) pronunciation, Yitzhak or Itzhak 1922-1995.

Israeli military and political leader who commanded Israeli forces in the Six-Day War (1967) and served as prime minister (1974-1977 and 1992-1995). He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.


1922 - 1995

Israeli military leader and politician; member of the Knesset; prime minister, 1974 - 1977 and 1989 - 1995.

Born in Jerusalem, Yitzhak Rabin received part of his early education at an agricultural school; later, he became active in the Ahdut ha-Avodah (socialist labor) movement in the Galilee. In 1941 he joined the Palmah, the Haganah's elite commando unit. Rabin's early military experience included fighting against Vichy French forces in Syria and Lebanon. In the Israeli War of Independence (1948) he fought against the Egyptians in the Negev campaign and also in Jerusalem. After the war he studied in Britain at the army staff college, from which he graduated in 1953.

Rabin, whose first career was in the military, was appointed chief of staff of Israel's armed forces in 1964; at the time of the June 1967 war he was Israel's commander in chief. In 1968 he retired from the army and became Israel's ambassador to the United States. He was very successful in that capacity, and the diplomatic experience combined with his military career gave him the leverage to start a second career, in politics, at the age of fifty-one.

Rabin returned to Israel from Washington, D.C., in March 1973; in the same year, he was elected to the Knesset for the first time and also served as minister of labor in the government of Prime Minister Golda Meir. In April 1974, when Meir resigned because of intense criticism of her government's handling of the 1973 war, the Labor Party's Central Committee sought her successor from among a field of candidates that included Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Yigal Allon, Pinhas Sapir, and Abba Eban, as well as Rabin. Rabin was selected in June 1974 primarily because of his reputation as a war hero and because he was not associated with the govern-ment's unpreparedness for the Yom Kippur War.

In creating his coalition, Rabin, who was Israel's first sabra (native-born) prime minister, refused to give in to the extremist demands of members of the National Religious Party for greater Orthodox (Jewish) religious influence on public policy. He consequently achieved only a bare majority, with the help of the new and small Citizens' Rights movement, and this left his government vulnerable to periodic attacks in the Knesset. From 1974 to 1975 Rabin worked closely with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was involved in the shuttle diplomacy that led to disengagement agreements with Egypt and Syria.

Rabin's first term as prime minister was marked by continuous intraparty bickering, primarily because
Defense Minister Shimon Peres attempted to take over leadership of the party and become the prime minister. Domestic economic problems, chiefly inflation, continuing criticism of the Labor Party's performance in the Yom Kippur War, and increased ethnic tensions between Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews all contributed to a gradual decline in the Labor Party's popularity and the rise of the Likud Party under Menachem Begin. Rabin resigned from the party leadership and from his post as prime minister in May 1977 because of a financial scandal involving his own and his wife's bank accounts in the United States. Shimon Peres replaced him as party leader.

After twelve years, during which the Labor Party, led by Shimon Peres, was the opposition party in a shared-power arrangement with the Likud, Rabin again became party leader and prime minister in 1989. Over intense opposition from conservative forces in Israel, he pressed hard for a peace treaty with the Palestinians and Israel's Arab neighbors. In September 1993 he signed an Agreement on Principles on Interim Self-Government with Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and an Accord to Implement Self-Rule for the Palestinians was signed in May 1994. In October 1994 Rabin signed a full peace treaty with King Hussein of Jordan. In the same year, he shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Foreign Minister Peres and Chairman Arafat.

On 4 November 1995, while he was speaking at a peace rally in Tel Aviv, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish right-wing extremist who opposed his overtures to Palestinians and other Arab leaders working toward peace in the Middle East. "The Rabin legacy" is often cited, but there is disagreement about its substance. For some it is associated specifically with the Oslo peace accords. For others it refers generally to the quest for peace. Critics have observed that those who allude to "the Rabin ideology" or "the Rabin legacy" mistake their own views for those of Rabin; these critics argue that Rabin did not have an ideology or a legacy - what he had was a sense of responsibility for the state and a willingness to pragmatically consider new ideas in order to pursue peace.

Bibliography

Inbar, Efraim. Rabin and Israel's National Security. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Kurzman, Dan. Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin,1922 - 1995. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Makovsky, David. Making Peace with the PLO: The Rabin Govern-ment's Road to the Oslo Accord. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.

Rabin, Yitzhak. The Rabin Memoirs. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.

Rabin, Leah. Rabin: Our Life, His Legacy. New York: Putnam, 1997.

"The Rabin Legacy." Jerusalem Post. 30 October 2001.

Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism toOur Time. New York: Random House, 1981.

GREGORY S. MAHLER

(rah-been)

An Israeli military leader and statesman who shared the Nobel Prize for peace in 1994 for his contributions to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. He was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli student in 1995.

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Yitzhak Rabin

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Yitzhak Rabin
יִצְחָק רַבִּין
5th Prime Minister of Israel
In office
July 13, 1992 – November 4, 1995
President Chaim Herzog
Ezer Weizman
Preceded by Yitzhak Shamir
Succeeded by Shimon Peres
In office
June 3, 1974 – April 22, 1977
President Ephraim Katzir
Preceded by Golda Meir
Succeeded by Menachem Begin
Personal details
Born March 1, 1922(1922-03-01)
Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine
Died November 4, 1995(1995-11-04) (aged 73)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Political party Alignment, Labor Party
Spouse(s) Leah Rabin
Children Dalia Rabin-Pelossof
Yuval Rabin
Profession Military officer
Religion Secular judaism
Signature

About this sound Yitzhak Rabin (Hebrew: יִצְחָק רַבִּין ‎‎ IPA: [jitsˈχak ʁaˈbin]; March 1, 1922 – November 4, 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995.

In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. He was assassinated by right-wing Israeli radical Yigal Amir, who was opposed to Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin was the first native-born prime minister of Israel, the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol.

Contents

Personal life

Rabin was born in Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine to Nehemiah and Rosa (née Cohen), two immigrants of the Third Aliyah, the third wave of Jewish immigration to Israel from Europe. Nehemiah Rubitzov was born in the Ukrainian village Sydorovychi near Ivankiv in 1886.[1] His father died when he was a child, and he worked to support his family from a young age. At the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the Poale Zion party and changed his surname to Rabin. In 1917, Nehemiah went to the British Mandate of Palestine with a group of volunteers from the Jewish Legion.

Yitzhak's mother, Rosa Cohen, was born in 1890 in Mohilev in Belarus. Her father, a rabbi, opposed the Zionist movement and sent Rosa to a Christian high school for girls in Homel, enabling her to acquire a broad general education. Early on, Rosa took an interest in political and social causes. In 1919, she sailed to the region on the S.S. Ruslan, the bellwether of the Third Aliyah. After working on a kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, she moved to Jerusalem.[2]

Rabin grew up in Tel Aviv, where the family relocated when he was one year old. In 1940, he graduated with distinction from the Kadoori Agricultural High School and hoped to be an irrigation engineer.[3] However, apart from several courses in military strategy in the United Kingdom later on, he never pursued a degree.

Rabin married Leah Rabin (born Schlossberg) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Leah Rabin was working at the time as a reporter for a Palmach newspaper. They had two children, Dalia and Yuval. Rabin was non-religious; according to American diplomat Dennis Ross, Rabin was the most secular Jew he had met in Israel.[4]

Military career

Palmach

In 1941, during his practical training at kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, Rabin joined the Palmach section of the Haganah, under the influence of Yigal Allon. The first operation he participated in was assisting the allied invasion of Lebanon, then held by Vichy French forces (the same operation in which Moshe Dayan lost his eye) in June–July 1941.

After the end of the war the relationship between the Palmach and the British authorities became strained, especially with respect to the treatment of Jewish immigration. In October 1945 Rabin was in charge of planning and later executing an operation for the liberation of interned immigrants from the Atlit detainee camp for Jewish illegal immigrants. In the Black Shabbat, a massive British operation against the leaders of the Jewish Establishment in British Mandate Palestine, Rabin was arrested and detained for five months. After his release he became the commander of the second Palmach battalion and rose to the position of Chief Operations Officer of the Palmach in October 1947.

IDF service

Yitzhak Rabin, Commander of the Harel Brigade, ca. 1948
Rabin and Yigal Allon (1949)
The Israeli delegation to the 1949 Armistice Agreements talks. Left to right: Commanders Yehoshafat Harkabi, Aryeh Simon, Yigael Yadin, and Yitzhak Rabin (1949)

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Rabin directed Israeli operations in Jerusalem and fought the Egyptian army in the Negev. During the beginning of the war he was the commander of the Harel Brigade, which fought on the road to Jerusalem from the coastal plain, including the Israeli "Burma Road", as well as many battles in Jerusalem, such as securing the southern side of the city by recapturing kibbutz Ramat Rachel.

During the First truce he participated in the altercation between the IDF and the Irgun on the beach of Tel Aviv as part of the Altalena Affair.

In the following period he was the deputy commander of Operation Danny, the largest scale operation to that point, which involved four IDF brigades. The cities of Ramle and Lydda were captured, as well as the major airport in Lydda, as part of the operation. Following the capture of the two towns there was an exodus of their Arab population, their expulsion order being signed by Rabin. Later, Rabin was Chief of Operations for the Southern Front and participated in the major battles ending the fighting there, including Operation Yoav and Operation Horev.

In the beginning of 1949 he was a member of the Israeli delegation to the armistice talks with Egypt that were held on the island of Rhodes. The result of the negotiations were the 1949 Armistice Agreements which ended the official hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Following the demobilization at the end of the war he was the most senior (former) member of the Palmach that remained in the IDF.

In 1964 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) by Levi Eshkol who replaced David Ben Gurion and, like him, served as Prime-Minister and Minister of Defense. Since Eshkol did not have much military experience, Rabin had a relatively free hand.

Under his command, the IDF achieved victory over Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the Six-Day War in 1967. After the Old City of Jerusalem was captured by the IDF, Rabin was among the first to visit the Old City, and delivered a famous speech on Mount Scopus, at the Hebrew University. In the days leading up to the war, it was reported that Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown and was unable to function.[5] After this short hiatus, he resumed full command over the IDF.

Ambassador and Minister of Labour

Following his retirement from the IDF he became ambassador to the United States beginning in 1968, serving for five years. In this period the US became the major weapon supplier of Israel and in particular he managed to get the embargo on the F-4 Phantom fighter jets lifted. During the 1973 Yom Kippur war he served in no official capacity and in the elections held at the end of 1973 he was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Alignment. He was appointed Israeli Minister of Labour in March 1974 in Golda Meir's short-lived government.[6]

First term as Prime Minister

Following Golda Meir's resignation in April 1974, Rabin was elected party leader, after he defeated Shimon Peres. The rivalry between these two labor leaders remained fierce and they competed several times in the next two decades for the leadership role. Rabin succeeded Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel on 3 June 1974. This was a coalition government, including Ratz, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers. This arrangement, with a bare parliamentary majority, held for a few months and was one of the few periods in Israel's history where the religious parties were not part of the coalition. The National Religious Party joined the coalition on 30 October 1974 and Ratz left on 6 November.

In foreign policy, the major development at the beginning of Rabin's term was the Sinai Interim Agreement between Israel and Egypt, signed on 1 September 1975. Both countries declared that the conflict between them and in the Middle East shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means.[7] This agreement followed Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy and a threatened ‘reassessment’ of the United States’ regional policy and its relations with Israel. Rabin notes it was,”an innocent-sounding term that heralded one of the worst periods in American-Israeli relations.”[8] The agreement was an important step towards the Camp David Accords of 1978 and the peace treaty with Egypt signed in 1979.

Operation Entebbe was perhaps the most dramatic event during Rabin's first term of office. On his orders, the IDF performed a long-range undercover raid to rescue passengers of an airliner hijacked by militants belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Wadie Haddad faction and the German Revolutionary Cells (RZ), and had been brought to Idi Amin's Uganda.[9] The operation was generally considered a tremendous success, and its spectacular character has made it the subject of much continued comment and study.

Towards the end of 1976 his coalition government with the religious parties suffered a crisis: A motion of no confidence had been brought by Agudat Israel over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base when four F-15 jets were delivered from the US and the National Religious Party had abstained. Rabin dissolved his government and decided on new elections, which were to be held in May 1977.

Following the March 1977 meeting between Rabin and U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Rabin publicly announced that the U.S. supported the Israeli idea of defensible borders; Carter then issued a clarification. A "fallout" in U.S./Israeli relations ensued. It is thought that the fallout contributed to the Israeli Labor Party's defeat in the May 1977 elections.[10] At the same time, it was revealed that his wife, Leah, continued to hold a US dollar account from the days that Rabin was ambassador to the United States. According to Israeli currency regulations at the time, it was illegal for citizens to maintain foreign bank accounts without prior authorization. In the wake of this disclosure, Rabin handed in his resignation from the party leadership and candidacy for prime minister, an act that earned him praise as a man of integrity.

Opposition Knesset member and Minister of Defense

Following his resignation and Labor Party defeat at the elections, Likud's Menachem Begin was elected in 1977. Until 1984 Rabin was a member of Knesset and sat on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. From 1984 to 1990, he served as Minister of Defense in several national unity governments led by prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres.

When Rabin came to office, Israeli troops were still deep in Lebanon. Rabin ordered their withdrawal to a "Security Zone" on the Lebanese side of the border. The South Lebanon Army was active in this zone, along with the Israeli Defence Forces.

When the first Intifada broke out, Rabin defended the firing of live ammunition on unarmed Palestinians by the IDF.[11] After the United Nations Security Council protested, Rabin instructed Israeli soldiers to club protesters as a first resort, and to shoot Palestinians if soldiers' lives were in danger.[12] Rabin encouraged Israeli soldiers to "break the bones of young Palestinians, to break either their legs so they would be unable to run or their hands to prevent them from throwing stones."[13] This policy Rabin characterized as "force, might and beatings." [14][15] It resulted in hundreds of injuries and the beating deaths of around a dozen Palestinians from January to March of 1988.[16] The firing of live ammunition continued as well, resulting in nearly a hundred Palestinian deaths in February and March 1988.[17]

Rabin the "bone breaker" was used as an International image.[18] The combination of the failure of the "Iron Fist" policy, Israel's deteriorating international image and Jordan cutting legal and administrative ties to the West Bank with the U.S.'s recognition of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people forced Rabin to seek an end to the violence through negotiation and dialogue with the PLO.[18][19]

In 1990 to 1992, Rabin again served as a Knesset member and sat on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Second term as Prime Minister

Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993

In 1992 Rabin was elected as chairman of the Labor Party, winning against Shimon Peres. In the elections that year his party, strongly focusing on the popularity of its leader, managed to win a clear victory over the Likud of incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. However the left-wing bloc in the Knesset only won an overall narrow majority, facilitated by the disqualification of small nationalist parties that did not manage to pass the electoral threshold. Rabin formed the first Labor-led government in fifteen years, supported by a coalition with Meretz, a left wing party, and Shas, a Mizrahi ultra-orthodox religious party.

Rabin played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian National Authority and granted it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Prior to the signing of the accords, Rabin received a letter from PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel, and on the same day, 9 September 1993, Rabin sent Arafat a letter officially recognizing the PLO.

After the announcement of the Oslo Accords there were many protest demonstrations in Israel objecting to the Accords. As these protests dragged on, Rabin insisted that as long as he had a majority in the Knesset he would ignore the protests and the protesters. In this context he said, "they (the protesters) can spin around and around like propellers"[20] but he would continue on the path of the Oslo Accords. Rabin's parliamentary majority rested on non-coalition member Arab support.[21] Rabin also denied the right of American Jews to object to his plan for peace, calling any dissent "chutzpah".[22]

After the historical handshake with Yasser Arafat, Rabin said, on behalf of the Israeli people: "We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears ... enough!"[23] During this term of office, Rabin also oversaw the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace in 1994.[24]

Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life.

—Yitzhak Rabin, 1994 Nobel Peace Prize lecture[25]

Nobel Peace Prize

For his role in the creation of the Oslo Accords, Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres.[26][27] The Accords greatly divided Israeli society, with some seeing Rabin as a hero for advancing the cause of peace and some seeing him as a traitor for giving away land they viewed as rightfully belonging to Israel. Many Israelis on the right wing often blame him for Jewish deaths in terror attacks, attributing them to the Oslo agreements.

Rabin was also awarded the 1994 Ronald Reagan Freedom Award by the former president's wife, former First Lady Nancy Reagan. The award is only given to "those who have made monumental and lasting contributions to the cause of freedom worldwide," and who "embody President Reagan's lifelong belief that one man or woman truly can make a difference.".[28]

Assassination and aftermath

Monument marking the site of the assassination: Ibn Gabirol Street between Tel Aviv City Hall and Gan Ha'ir
Graves of Yitzhak (right) and Leah Rabin (left) on Mount Herzl

On the evening of November 4, 1995 (12th of Heshvan on the Hebrew Calendar[29]), Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a radical right-wing Orthodox Jew who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin had been attending a mass rally at the Kings of Israel Square (Now Rabin Square) in Tel Aviv, held in support of the Oslo Accords. When the rally ended, Rabin walked down the city hall steps towards the open door of his car, at which point Amir fired three shots at Rabin with a semi-automatic pistol. Two shots hit Rabin, and the third lightly injured Yoram Rubin, one of Rabin's bodyguards. Rabin was rushed to nearby Ichilov Hospital, where he died on the operating table of blood loss and a punctured lung within 40 minutes. Amir was immediately seized by Rabin's bodyguards. He was later tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment. After an emergency cabinet meeting, Israel's foreign minister, Shimon Peres, was appointed as acting Israeli prime minister.[30]

Rabin's assassination came as a great shock to the Israeli public and much of the rest of the world. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis thronged the square where Rabin was assassinated to mourn his death. Young people, in particular, turned out in large numbers, lighting memorial candles and singing peace songs. Rabin's funeral was attended by many world leaders, among them U.S. president Bill Clinton, Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and King Hussein of Jordan. Clinton delivered a eulogy whose final words were in Hebrew – "Shalom, Haver" (Hebrew: שלום חבר‎, lit. Goodbye, Friend).[31][32]

The square where he was assassinated, Kikar Malkhei Yisrael (Kings of Israel Square), was renamed Rabin Square in his honor. Many other streets and public institutions in Israel have also subsequently been named after him. After his assassination, Rabin was hailed as a national symbol and came to embody the Israeli peace camp ethos, despite his military career and hawkish views earlier in life.[33] He is buried on Mount Herzl. In November 2000, his wife Leah died and was buried alongside him.

There is much debate regarding the background of Rabin's assassination. There are a number of conspiracy theories related to the assassination of Rabin.

After Rabin's assassination, his daughter Dalia Rabin-Pelossof entered into politics and was elected to the Knesset in 1999 as part of the Centre Party. In 2001, she served as Israel's Deputy Minister of Defense.

Commemoration

The Knesset has set the 12th of Heshvan, the murder date according to the Hebrew calendar, as the official memorial day of Rabin. An unofficial but widely followed memorial date is 4 November, the date according to the Gregorian calendar.

In 1995 the Israeli Postal Authority issued a commemorative Rabin stamp.[34]

The Yitzhak Rabin Center was founded in 1997 by an act of the Knesset, to create "[a] Memorial Center for Perpetuating the Memory of Yitzhak Rabin." It carries out extensive commemorative and educational activities emphasizing the ways and means of democracy and peace.

Mechinat Rabin, an Israeli pre-army preparatory program for training recent high school graduates in leadership prior to their IDF service, was established in 1998.

Many cities and towns in Israel have named streets, neighborhoods, schools, bridges and parks after Rabin. Also two government office complexes and two synagogues are named after Yitzhak Rabin. Outside Israel, there are streets named after him in Bonn, Berlin and New York and parks in Montreal, Paris, Rome and Lima.[35] The community Jewish high school in Ottawa is also named after him.[36]

The Cambridge University Israel Society host its annual academic lecture in honour of Yizhak Rabin.[37]

Reggae singer Alpha Blondy has recorded a single called "Yitzhak Rabin" in memory of the Israeli prime minister.

In 2005, he was voted the greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.[38]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ izrus.co.il (18 March 2010). "Доказано украинское происхождение Ицхака Рабина | Еврейские новости мира и Украины | ВЕК – Всеукраинский еврейский конгресс". Jewish.kiev.ua. http://jewish.kiev.ua/news/3383/. Retrieved 31 August 2011. 
  2. ^ Yitzhak Rabin – from soldier to Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dadalos
  3. ^ Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yitzhak Rabin 1922 – 1995
  4. ^ Dennis Ross. August 2004. The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
  5. ^ Krauthammer, Charles (18 May 2007). "Prelude to the Six Days". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051701976_pf.html. 
  6. ^ Jewish Virtual Library Yitzhak Rabin
  7. ^ "Interim Agreement between Israel and Egypt". Knesset.gov.il. http://www.knesset.gov.il/process/docs/egypt_interim_eng.htm. Retrieved 31 August 2011. 
  8. ^ Yitzak Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, ISBN 0-520-20766-1 , p261
  9. ^ Avner, Yehuda (2010). The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership. The Toby Press. ISBN 9781592642786. 
  10. ^ William B. Quandt (2005) Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967 University of California Press, ISBN 0520246314 and ISBN 9780520246317 p 182
  11. ^ Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Second Edition), at 699 (Indiana University Press 2009).
  12. ^ Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Second Edition), at 699 (Indiana University Press 2009).
  13. ^ Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Second Edition), at 699 (Indiana University Press 2009).
  14. ^ Shipler, David K. (26 January 1988). "U.S. Jews Torn Over Arab Beatings". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/26/world/us-jews-torn-over-arab-beatings.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print. 
  15. ^ "Israel Declines to Study Rabin Tie to Beatings". New York Times. 12 July 1990. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/12/world/israel-declines-to-study-rabin-tie-to-beatings.html?pagewanted=print. 
  16. ^ Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Second Edition), at 699 (University of Indiana Press 2009).
  17. ^ Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Second Edition), at 699 (University of Indiana Press 2009).
  18. ^ a b Shlaim, Avi (2000). The Iron Wall; Israel and the Arab World. Penguin Books. pp. 453–457. ISBN 0-14-028870-8. 
  19. ^ Sicherman, Harvey. "Yitzhak Rabin: An Appreciation". Foreign Policy Research Institute. http://www.fpri.org/peacefacts/023.199511.sicherman.rabinappreciation.html. 
  20. ^ Her Grandfather, His Legacy Jpost
  21. ^ Rabinovich, Itamar. Israel in the Middle East: documents and readings on society, politics, and foreign relations, pre-1948 to the present. http://books.google.co.il/books?id=iVJR9UZnTVAC&lpg=PA186&ots=5Dc0xwkXml&dq=rabin%20knesset%20majority%20jews%20arabs&hl=en&pg=PA186#v=onepage&q=rabin%20knesset%20majority%20jews%20arabs&f=false. 
  22. ^ Katz, Shmuel (20 October 1995). "Yitzhak Rabin's Own Chutzpah...". Jewish Daily Forward. http://www.shmuelkatz.com/Articles/YitzhakRabinsOwnChutzpah.pdf. 
  23. ^ 1993 Year in Review: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Treaty-http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1993/Israeli-Palestinian-Peace-Treaty/12315348902747-2/
  24. ^ 1994 Year in Review: Treaty between Israel and Jordan-http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1994/Treaty-between-Israel-and-Jordan-and-Peace-in-Ireland/12295509437788-4/
  25. ^ 1994 Nobel Peace Prize lecture (10 December 1994)
  26. ^ "Nobel Prize. org". Nobelprize.org. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1994/rabin-bio.html. Retrieved 31 August 2011. 
  27. ^ Nobel Prize.org 1994 Nobel Prize Laureates
  28. ^ The Ronald Reagan Freedom Award Reagan Foundation
  29. ^ November 4, 1995 hebcal.com
  30. ^ BBC On This Day
  31. ^ CNN The Assassination and Funeral of Yitzhak Rabin
  32. ^ "Shalom haver". http://www.jafi.org.il/education/jewish/haver.html. 
  33. ^ Jpost Third anniversary commemoration Yitzhak Rabin: The Sabra, the Mensch By Abraham Rabinovich
  34. ^ Commemorative Rabin Stamp Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  35. ^ "גרסה להדפסה: מדינה שלמה על שם רבין – וואלה! חדשות". walla.co.il. http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//803587/@@/item/printer. Retrieved 31 August 2011. 
  36. ^ Yitzhak Rabin High School
  37. ^ "CU Israel Society Statement – Inaugural Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Lecture | Union of Jewish Students". Ujs.org.uk. 14 November 2010. http://www.ujs.org.uk/news/553/cu-israel-society-statement-inaugural-yitzhak-rabin-memorial-lecture/. Retrieved 31 August 2011. 
  38. ^ גיא בניוביץ' (20 June 1995). "הישראלי מספר 1: יצחק רבין – תרבות ובידור". Ynet. http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3083171,00.html. Retrieved 10 July 2011. 

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by
Golda Meir
Leader of the Alignment
1973–1977
Succeeded by
Shimon Peres
Preceded by
Shimon Peres
Leader of the Labor Party
1992–1995
Succeeded by
Shimon Peres
Awards
Preceded by
Colin Powell
The Ronald Reagan Freedom Award
1994
Succeeded by
King Hussein I



 
 
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$copyright.smallImage.alttext Gale Encyclopedia of the Mideast & N. Africa. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: History. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
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