Yitzchak Rabin
Yitzchak RabinFlash 90

Dalia Rabin, the daughter of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, believes that if her father had not been assassinated, he might have decided  to end the Oslo peace talks because of PA terrorism. Dalia Rabin made her claim in an interview with the Hebrew-language daily Yediot Acharonot.

"Many people who were close to my father told me that on the evening of the murder he considered stopping the Oslo process," she said. Rabin had considered ending talks due to terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.

In addition, she said, "Arafat wasn't delivering the goods."

Rabin "wasn't a blind man running forward without a thought" she continued. "I don't rule out the possibility that he considered going into reverse on our side as well," she said. "He was someone for whom the security of the state was sacrosanct."

She rejected criticism of her father over the terrorist onslaught that began in 2000 and has since been termed the 2000 Terror War,  the Second Intifada, or (bitterly) the Oslo War. "Historical processes develop, change... It is impossible to judge a person murdered in 1995 for what happened in 2000," she argued.

Rabin's assassination is mourned each year at official state ceremonies. In addition, the Rabin Organization, a private group, has organized an annual rally each year on November 4, the Gregorian calendar date on which Rabin was killed. This year's rally may be the last due to lack of public interest.

While Rabin is often remembered as belonging to the political Left, some analysts say that his approach to negotiations with the Palestinian Authority was considerably more politically centrist than that held by recent governments. Rabin, they claim, rejected the creation of a PA state, insisting that the Oslo accords would create only an autonomous PA area. He also supported the right of Jews to build in Judea and Samaria.

His critics blame him for willfully ignoring the dire warnings and pleas by opponents of the Oslo Process and forcing the accord upon the Israeli public through shady political deals. Rabin famously called the Jews murdered by terrorists after the signing of the Oslo accords "victims of peace."