I Saw Yitzhak Rabin Once, It Was Not A Pretty Sight
Jerusalem Day 1995
With the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, I sometimes see references to Yitzhak Rabin and the Oslo accords. Some talk about his vision for Israel while others speak about his courage to take the chance and put his signature on the peace with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Many authors talk about the “good Rabin vs the bad Netanyahu” and that “Rabin would have acted differently if the events of Oct. 7 had happened on his watch”. The funniest thing I saw lately was some one speaking highly of Rabin while saying that he refers to the “good Rabin of the 90's”, not the “bad one from the 60’s and the 70’s”. Only there were never two Rabin's. There was always just one; Israeli, Zionist military statesman.
Rabin the boy very quickly became Rabin the man, when at the age of 18 he joined the the newly created Palmach (the elite fighting force of the Haganah) as one of its founding fathers. When the War Of Independence broke out he was appointed commander of the Harel brigade, at the age of 26. He held several other military positions during the war.
Fast-forward to the 60’s, Rabin was appointed Head of Staff of the IDF and achieved victory over the combined armies of Syria, Egypt and Jordan. After the war he retired from the army and was appointed to the position of the Israeli ambassador to US. In this position he was instrumental in building the new Israeli-American relationships.
After his service as ambassador finished, Rabin returned to Israel after 1973 Israeli-Arab war and in1974 was elected to the position of the Prime Minister of Israel and held that position till 1978.
Rabin was re-elected as Prime Minister in 1992 elections. His term saw two major events; the signing of the peace treaty with Jordan, which was a huge success for both nations and the signing of the Oslo peace accords with PLO that established the Palestinian Authority in Judea, Samaria and Gaza Strip but failed to bring the peace everyone(?) where hoping for.
I skipped a lot of what I can say about Rabin and this short summary doesn’t even begin to do justice this giant of a man.
Jerusalem Day celebration, June 1995
Jerusalem Day is an Israeli national holiday that commemorates the reunification of East Jerusalem (including the Old City) with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967.
As an 8th grade student I went to the Jerusalem Day parade. I was very nervous as it was my first Jerusalem Day parade and probably only the second time I was in Jerusalem. There were thousands of children like me and a lot of grown ups marching through the streets of Jerusalem. We ended up at a huge rally at the Teddy Kollek soccer stadium. There were many thousands of us, of all ages, from all across Israel. There was music and many speakers talking at the rally. As kids we had better things to do than listen to the speakers.
Then the stadium got quiet and the host announced that he was proud to welcome Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, Miss Lea Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. The three came out to the soccer field and then it happened. They were booed and scorned. I have never seen this level of contempt and hatred from thousands of people in the stadium. They were cursed and shouted at by the entire stadium. I was shocked and looked at my friends, they were just as shocked at this sight of hatred but it seemed that the entire stadium wished the three death and ready to lynch them.
At that moment, the three of them seemed very small and powerless. They walked quietly across the field to their seats.
How was this possible? How could these giants of Israeli military and political leadership, the ones who built the state of Israel and served it for dozens of years, be hated like this? How is it possible that the person who commanded the liberation and unification of Jerusalem could be this hated on Jerusalem Day. Who are these school children, who haven’t done anything for their county and yet allowed themselves to curse and hate the Prime Minister of Israel and one of its greatest leaders of all time?
This event happened half an year before Itzhak Rabin was assassinated.
Oslo accords were dead
By this time, the Oslo peace plan was already failing. Suicide bombings in buses and cafe were almost a daily occurence. Hundreds of Israelis had been killed in many terrorist attacks, more were wounded. Shootings on the streets and knifing were happening all the time.
My father had me switch schools so that I didn’t have to ride the bus to get there.
In such atmosphere, Rabin was quickly losing support of the people. The brief hope for peace in the beginning of the 90’s was fading. People argued whether Arafat was even capable of stopping the terror attacks or whether he was for them, outsourcing the attacks to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in order to have his hands clean while Israel bled.
There were huge demonstrations against the continuation of the peace process as many Israelis couldn’t imagine peace given the daily reality of suicide bombings.
Rabin was the most hated person in Israel at the time and it was showing in the polls. He was losing control. It cost him his life half an year later.
After Rabin’s assassination, Shimon Peres took charge and tried to get elected. The polls were in his favor all through the election campaign but his popularity kept slipping as more and more terror attacks hit Israel and in the end he lost the election.
Peres later admitted knowing all along he would lose, he had no chance convincing anyone that “peace is on the way“ in such reality.
