Ten years after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin most of the population of this country is mourning him. Yet, each one of us remembers him and mourns him in a different way.
I first heard of Yitzhak Rabin in September 1948. I was a young Holocaust survivor who had recently arrived from France to fight in the War of Independence. The group I came with was volunteers from Canada and, because I spoke English, they suggested I should join them. At one point, we were sent to Tel Litvinsky (the present Tel Hashomer) to be assigned to our military units.
While we were waiting for our assignment, we were approached by two rugged looking soldiers claiming to be from the Palmach. Of course, we all heard about the Palmach and their daring exploits against the Arabs.
They tried to recruit us into their ranks telling us that if we wanted to see real action, Palmach was the place. They told us that they were sent by their commanding officer whose name was Yitzhak Rabin. While we were considering their request, our orders came to join the 7th armored brigade, stationed at Sumaria, in the north of the country. Somehow, I always regretted that I didn't join them.
I don't remember where I saw Yitzhak Rabin for the first time, but it was during the war of Independence. Someone pointed him out to me and I will never forget my first impression of him. He was a handsome man with a shock of reddish hair and there was an aura of unassuming strength about him, but also an aura of openness and honesty. To me, as a Holocaust survivor, the Israeli soldiers, and especially Yitzhak and his young Palmachniks, seemed like Jewish warriors straight from the Maccabeean period. I was absolutely in awe of them. I had just arrived from the abyss of the Holocaust, where Jews were considered the lowest form of life on earth only to be destroyed like vermin. I saw things done to our people during the war that no human being should be exposed to.
To me, these young soldiers who spoke with excitement of how they were going to defeat eight Arab armies seemed like giants. Giants, who came not only to restore our dignity, but also to straighten the spine of all the Jewish people in the world. And above all, to prove that Jews are not the cowardly beings the Nazis and their helpers tried to depict.
The American army may have liberated me from the Nazis, but men like Yitzhak Rabin and his men liberated me from the humiliation that I was subjected to as a Jew in Europe. It was an awesome feeling.
Yitzhak Rabin was, in my mind, always connected to that awesome feeling. As the years went by, my admiration for him did not diminish.
His assassination by a Jewish extremist was more than a shock to all of us. It was the end of our belief that a Jew wouldn't murder a Jew, especially a prime minister of Israel. Especially since Rabin was not just a politician who rose through the political ranks, like President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others. Rabin, the military commander, was a man who dedicated most of his life to the safety of the State of Israel and who was ready to die for it.
Therefore, no matter what one thinks of Rabin's Oslo Accords, the heinous crime of Yigal Amir is more than just the murder of a politician, it is the murder of a man who, in the numerous wars the Arabs waged against the State of Israel, was willing to die for Israel and may even have saved Yigal Amir and his family. Yigal Amir has nothing to do with the moral Jewish values that we nurtured for two thousand years of the Galut. He may pretend to be a religious Jew, but that would demean our religion.
Concerning Rabin's support of the Oslo agreement, I have come to the conclusion that it was a grave mistake.
So many wars and bloodshed. Perhaps we should give this process a chance? When Rabin became prime minister and lead this country through the treacherous waters of the Oslo Accords, many of us followed him, including myself. We reasoned that, after all, we couldn't live by our swords forever, especially when our grandchildren are now serving in the army. What impressed us was the fact that it was the first time that the Arabs were willing to sit down and talk peace. But we should have known better.
Rabin lead us on a road of hope that would end in peace, but the road was the same old Arab road of hate that, as usual, ended in the death of so many of our people.
Ask any Palestinian boy why Yasser Arafat gave orders to start the second Intifada and he will tell you that Arafat did it because we showed weakness. He reasoned that if a few hundred Hizbullah terrorists could defeat the mighty Israeli army and force its soldiers to run with their tails between their legs from Lebanon, then his million shahids marching on Jerusalem would surely defeat the cowardly Israelis.
Since then, Arafat died and was replaced by Mahmoud Abbas ("Abu Mazen"), who is supposed to continue the so-called peace process. Who is Abbas and can we trust him more than Arafat?
To us Holocaust survivors, Abbas is a Holocaust denier who wrote his PhD thesis doing just that. Are we, as survivors, supposed to trust a man like that? A man who wrote a book based on a malicious lie, knowing perfectly well that it is a lie? No one who set out to write a book about the subject could have avoided coming across millions of documents, photos and films that confirmed that the Holocaust took place. Is this the man to whom we are to entrust the future of our country?
The recent declaration of his Fatah fighters (and I am not talking about Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaida) makes a mockery of the whole so-called peace process. A quote from "Armed Wing of PA Ruling Party Wants to Wipe Israel Off the Map":
And this is Fatah, Abu Mazen's organization. How are we going to make peace with the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda, and the Iranians, who declare day and night that they won't rest until they would destroy us?
Hope is essential, but false hope is very dangerous.
The tragedy of Rabin's death is that Yigal Amir murdered Rabin to kill the Oslo agreement, but any one who had any sense should have realized that Arafat himself would kill it, as it later transpired. For exposing Arafat's true intentions we have to thank Ehud Barak, who offered Arafat everything the Arabs wanted, only to be rewarded with the second Intifada.
I first heard of Yitzhak Rabin in September 1948. I was a young Holocaust survivor who had recently arrived from France to fight in the War of Independence. The group I came with was volunteers from Canada and, because I spoke English, they suggested I should join them. At one point, we were sent to Tel Litvinsky (the present Tel Hashomer) to be assigned to our military units.
While we were waiting for our assignment, we were approached by two rugged looking soldiers claiming to be from the Palmach. Of course, we all heard about the Palmach and their daring exploits against the Arabs.
They tried to recruit us into their ranks telling us that if we wanted to see real action, Palmach was the place. They told us that they were sent by their commanding officer whose name was Yitzhak Rabin. While we were considering their request, our orders came to join the 7th armored brigade, stationed at Sumaria, in the north of the country. Somehow, I always regretted that I didn't join them.
I don't remember where I saw Yitzhak Rabin for the first time, but it was during the war of Independence. Someone pointed him out to me and I will never forget my first impression of him. He was a handsome man with a shock of reddish hair and there was an aura of unassuming strength about him, but also an aura of openness and honesty. To me, as a Holocaust survivor, the Israeli soldiers, and especially Yitzhak and his young Palmachniks, seemed like Jewish warriors straight from the Maccabeean period. I was absolutely in awe of them. I had just arrived from the abyss of the Holocaust, where Jews were considered the lowest form of life on earth only to be destroyed like vermin. I saw things done to our people during the war that no human being should be exposed to.
To me, these young soldiers who spoke with excitement of how they were going to defeat eight Arab armies seemed like giants. Giants, who came not only to restore our dignity, but also to straighten the spine of all the Jewish people in the world. And above all, to prove that Jews are not the cowardly beings the Nazis and their helpers tried to depict.
The American army may have liberated me from the Nazis, but men like Yitzhak Rabin and his men liberated me from the humiliation that I was subjected to as a Jew in Europe. It was an awesome feeling.
Yitzhak Rabin was, in my mind, always connected to that awesome feeling. As the years went by, my admiration for him did not diminish.
His assassination by a Jewish extremist was more than a shock to all of us. It was the end of our belief that a Jew wouldn't murder a Jew, especially a prime minister of Israel. Especially since Rabin was not just a politician who rose through the political ranks, like President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others. Rabin, the military commander, was a man who dedicated most of his life to the safety of the State of Israel and who was ready to die for it.
Therefore, no matter what one thinks of Rabin's Oslo Accords, the heinous crime of Yigal Amir is more than just the murder of a politician, it is the murder of a man who, in the numerous wars the Arabs waged against the State of Israel, was willing to die for Israel and may even have saved Yigal Amir and his family. Yigal Amir has nothing to do with the moral Jewish values that we nurtured for two thousand years of the Galut. He may pretend to be a religious Jew, but that would demean our religion.
Concerning Rabin's support of the Oslo agreement, I have come to the conclusion that it was a grave mistake.
So many wars and bloodshed. Perhaps we should give this process a chance? When Rabin became prime minister and lead this country through the treacherous waters of the Oslo Accords, many of us followed him, including myself. We reasoned that, after all, we couldn't live by our swords forever, especially when our grandchildren are now serving in the army. What impressed us was the fact that it was the first time that the Arabs were willing to sit down and talk peace. But we should have known better.
Rabin lead us on a road of hope that would end in peace, but the road was the same old Arab road of hate that, as usual, ended in the death of so many of our people.
Ask any Palestinian boy why Yasser Arafat gave orders to start the second Intifada and he will tell you that Arafat did it because we showed weakness. He reasoned that if a few hundred Hizbullah terrorists could defeat the mighty Israeli army and force its soldiers to run with their tails between their legs from Lebanon, then his million shahids marching on Jerusalem would surely defeat the cowardly Israelis.
Since then, Arafat died and was replaced by Mahmoud Abbas ("Abu Mazen"), who is supposed to continue the so-called peace process. Who is Abbas and can we trust him more than Arafat?
To us Holocaust survivors, Abbas is a Holocaust denier who wrote his PhD thesis doing just that. Are we, as survivors, supposed to trust a man like that? A man who wrote a book based on a malicious lie, knowing perfectly well that it is a lie? No one who set out to write a book about the subject could have avoided coming across millions of documents, photos and films that confirmed that the Holocaust took place. Is this the man to whom we are to entrust the future of our country?
The recent declaration of his Fatah fighters (and I am not talking about Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaida) makes a mockery of the whole so-called peace process. A quote from "Armed Wing of PA Ruling Party Wants to Wipe Israel Off the Map":
Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aksa Brigades, said in a pamphlet distributed in the Gaza district "anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury. Any [Islamic leader] who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world."The Arab Palestinian organization publicly identified with Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his recent call to "wipe Israel off the map."
And this is Fatah, Abu Mazen's organization. How are we going to make peace with the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda, and the Iranians, who declare day and night that they won't rest until they would destroy us?
Hope is essential, but false hope is very dangerous.
The tragedy of Rabin's death is that Yigal Amir murdered Rabin to kill the Oslo agreement, but any one who had any sense should have realized that Arafat himself would kill it, as it later transpired. For exposing Arafat's true intentions we have to thank Ehud Barak, who offered Arafat everything the Arabs wanted, only to be rewarded with the second Intifada.