Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak RabinIsrael news photo: Flash 90

For the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Peace Accord, Dalia Rabin, the daughter of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, was asked what her father’s position would have been in retrospect of the peace agreement.

Dalia Rabin appeared this morning on a special interview by the IDF Radio Station Galei Tzahal commemorating 20 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords by her father and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Dalia Rabin said, "It's impossible to say unequivocally that things would not have been handled differently if Rabin had not been murdered."

She continued to say, "Arafat was, in his [Rabin's] eyes, a symbol of terror and a symbol of an abominable thing, but he came to the conclusion that Arafat could deliver the goods and bring about a breakthrough because all the leaders in the field received instructions from Tunis [PLO headquarters before the establishment of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority -ed.]."

Rabin believes that neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority (PA) was ripe for negotiations at the time. Israel was not ready to concede territory, she said, and the PA was not ready to waive its ideology, including the right of return for Arabs who left when the modern Jewish state arose in 1948 and their millions of descendants.

Rabin asserted that it’s possible that her father would have regretted signing with Yassar Arafat. “He carefully took all relevant considerations into account, and ultimately came to the crucial decision and accepted full responsibility for it,” she said, adding, "He is the one who paid the price.” 

In concluding the interview, Rabin says, "there's a consensus today that Oslo is on the map. Even Netanyahu recognizes the principle of 'two states,' and the other side also understands the conditions for a solution."