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Monday, November 05, 2007
Today's News
- Tens of Thousands Honor Rabin at Tel Aviv Rally
- by Agence France Presse
Tens of thousands of people flocked to a Tel Aviv square late Saturday to honor Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin who was gunned down 12 years ago for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians…
President Shimon Peres, who was with Rabin when he was shot, called on the crowd to carry on Rabin’s legacy. "You are the heirs of Rabin. Do not flinch — continue on the path which he traced, that of peace and security."
- Abbas Aims for Peace Deal Before End of Bush Term
- by Aluf Benn, Barak Ravid and Yuval Azoulay (Haaretz)
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that Israel, the Palestinians and the United States have agreed to aim for a regional peace settlement before President George W. Bush steps down in January 2009.
During a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ramallah, Abbas said there is a real possibility for achieving a peace deal with Israel by then, but also called on Israel to start meeting some of its short-term peace obligations, such as a settlement freeze.
- Rice, Olmert Agree: Syrian Presence at Annapolis Acceptable
- by Roni Sofer (Ynet)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said that Israel and the US are interested in getting Syria to attend the Annapolis peace conference after their meeting in Jerusalem Sunday.
The two discussed the option of including Syria in the summit in wake of Rice’s recent meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem in Turkey where she talked with him about the possibility of Syria taking part in the conference.
- Dozens Arrested During Evacuation of West Bank Outpost
- by Efrat Weiss (Ynet)
Thirty-two right-wing activists who were arrested Sunday morning during the evacuation of the Shavot Ami illegal outpost in the West Bank vowed to return to the site once again.
Shortly after 3 pm Sunday afternoon, Border Guard officers arrived at the outpost located near the settlement of Kedumim in northern Samaria in order to evacuate all residents.
- Yigal Amir’s Son Circumcised in Prison
- by Dan Izenberg (The Jerusalem Post)
Under heavy security and protests by left-wing activists opposing a court ruling allowing Yigal Amir to attend the brit mila of his son, Amir’s wife and family arrived at Rimonim Prison on Sunday for the circumcision ceremony - 12 years to the day after Amir assassinated former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Scuffles were reported between police and several hundred demonstrators who gathered at the prison to protest the High Court’s decision.
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Fulfilling Rabin’s Vision
TODAY'S FEATURE
 PM Rabin & President Clinton (AP)
"We must remember and honor both Yitzhak Rabin and his mission. The future must belong not to those who live in darkness, but to those who stand with Yitzhak Rabin for life and peace."
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by President William Jefferson Clinton, Statement for the Middle East Bulletin While the events of the last several years have delayed the dream for which Yitzhak Rabin sacrificed his life, they in no way undermine the logic of his vision, the power of his faith, or the beauty of his gifts to us. Since his life was taken, we have seen the resolution of seemingly intractable conflicts in other regions of the world. In each instance, the parties decided that their interdependence compelled them to lay down their arms and embrace a concept of security through dialogue and cooperation, based on respect for our interesting differences, and the possibility of cooperation rooted in shared values, shared benefits, and shared responsibilities.
No one was more committed to the security of Israel than Yitzhak Rabin. No one understood better that maintaining that security requires a resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians, and a commitment to share a peaceful future with them. Access the full article>>
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Middle East Analysis
by Nabil Al-Khatib, Executive Editor of Al Arabiya, based in Dubai; Palestinian journalist from Ramallah, original commentary for Middle East Bulletin
People close to the late leader of Israel, and those who used to sit on the opposite side of the table negotiating with him from the Palestinian side, always talked about his determination to end the conflict based on the “two-state solution.”…
I do not think that late Yitzhak Rabin was ready to compromise by establishing a viable Palestinian state out of love to the Palestinians, but rather, because he realized the necessity of it and that the destiny of the Jewish state was at stake.
Sadly, Rabin paid with his life for trying to implement his vision. Meanwhile, Yigal Amir and all those who see only conflict and bloodshed as the solution are applauding themselves for their success and for the failure of the supporters of peace.
Hence, my advice, for all those concerned, is to try to build on what was achieved.
Starting from the beginning will only keep things permanently at the beginning. Access the full article>>
by Noa Rotman, granddaughter of Yitzhak Rabin, published in Yedioth Ahronoth, adapted for Middle East Bulletin
My memory is worn, scarred, stimulated and pained. Once a year, I sit shiva in the national mourners’ hut, wearing a three-piece suit, hair styled, everything in place, crying reservedly. Once a year, they bring out my grandparents’ freckled wonder girl to say something touching, something authentic and real, while all made up for the cameras, hoping that she won’t forget to top it off with an interesting anecdote from her last encounter with him. The wonder girl, who turned 30 this year, who has the first hint of wrinkles around her eyes, isn’t sure how to sort between realities and revised memories, among the images in her head…
My memory hurts. How does it hurt? It hurts like longing, like a broken heart. Why use the word ‘like’? My heart is truly broken. Maybe I’m blessed because I used to have a normal family, with an omelet in the evening and a warm blanket at story time before bed, with pajamas with a faint smell of laundry detergent, with the table set for Friday night dinner, with cakes and relatives. And when everything shattered and we almost became a meager copy of the family we once had been—a faded row of almost painfully beautiful, mourning figureheads—I decided to rescue the remnants of the family I had and stopped cooperating with the collective memory. Access the full article>>
by Yuval Rabin, Yitzhak Rabin’s son, spoke for the first time on Saturday at rally in memory of his father Saturday night (Translated from the original Hebrew by Middle East Bulletin)
This should be the outcry of all honest Israelis: Israelis that love the state and worry about its character and its future. Israelis who believe that the state of Israel needs to be Jewish, democratic and also civilized. If we wish for life, if democracy is more than a dictionary definition to us, and if we don’t want the blood of the next one who’s murdered on our hands – now is the time to do something. To break the silence, and cry out, ask questions, and seek answers. …
The legacy of my father is not a collection of empty sayings about exalted ideas. His legacy sought out the day to day, the simplicity that makes up our lives. He wanted to prevent the fine moment of Israeli sacrifice and pain, the moment between the ringing of the doorbell, and the appearance of those bearing bad news at the door. He wanted to wipe the salty tears from a mother’s face with laughter of children, to allocate enormous budges from another fighter jet to another computer for a child. To replace the order for reserve duty with a family vacation. He wanted to provide us all with the ability to live simply, to live peacefully, with no more wars. …
The time has come for courageous decisions. So let us send from here a call of support and encouragement to the government to lead the peace process, without taking cover in the protective shadow of indecisiveness and inaction. Access the full article>>
by Yigal Sarna, Yedioth Ahronoth, translated by Middle East Bulletin
Imagine a world in which the rally marking the twelfth anniversary of Rabin’s assassination does not take place. A world without Yigal Amir and his handgun and his infant son awaiting circumcision. A world in which Yitzhak Rabin got down off the stage in November 1995 and rode from there in his armored car with his loyal bodyguards and arrived at his home, and afterwards perhaps defeated Bibi and was elected as prime minister again, stubborn in his redheaded way and continuing the Oslo Accords.
Would that have been a completely different world from the one that surrounded last night’s rally for Yitzhak Rabin? Would it have been quieter? Would the many who were killed in the Intifada afterwards still be with us? History is full of such "ifs." But that thought did not leave me during this annual ceremony that repeats itself to exhaustion, that every year shows the last speech once again, Eitan Haber’s agonized cry, the shock. …
Is a ceremony necessary? After all, for some Israelis, all Israeli existence since 1995 is a kind of ongoing mourning rally in memory of the last prime minister who could be defined as a responsible man, a real person in charge, who sought to create a new Israeli agenda in which education, for example, moved to center stage.
Access the full article>>
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Background Basics
Peace Processes
Israeli-Arab
“Even if there are many hardships, even if the effort is tremendous, even if we must live through moments of disappointment and hours of frustration, we still have no doubt in our hearts Arab nations are joining us on the path to peace. The path is indeed long, and our work is not nearly done.”
Address to the Knesset on the Washington Declaration, August 3, 1994
Israel-Jordan
“Friends say to us: ‘The pace of events is too fast. We cannot keep up. Wait a moment.’ We have waited forty-six years. We have gone through war, pain and suffering. To prevent further loss and sorrow, we cannot wait even one day more. It looks like the walls of hostility are tumbling down before our eyes and all this would have been impossible, had not the two peoples, the Jordanians and the Israelis, and their leadership wanted this to happen.”
Speech at the opening of the Arava border crossing between Israel and Jordan, August 8, 1994
Israel-Lebanon
“The negotiations with Lebanon are connected to the negotiations with Syria, and we know that Beirut will not lift a finger without the approval of Damascus. Despite this, we repeat even today our offer to the authorities in Beirut.”
Address at the opening of the Knesset, April 18, 1994
Israel-Palestinian
“I want to say bluntly, that we have found a partner for peace among the Palestinians as well: the PLO, which was an enemy, and has ceased to engage in terrorism.”
Speech at a Tel Aviv peace rally, hours before he was shot, November 4, 1995
“We came with a desire to make peace, and I must tell you, Members of Knesset, that we also found a willingness for peace on the other side, on the part of the Palestinians who have also known great suffering for generations. Both we and the Palestinians knew that we would not receive everything we want, and the Palestinians would not get everything they want. That is the nature of negotiations. That is the nature of compromise. That is the nature of peace.”
Address at the opening of the Knesset, April 18, 1994
Israel-Syria
‘’Without partners for peace, there is no peace…Even with Syria, it will be possible to make peace."
Speech at a Tel Aviv peace rally, hours before he was shot, November 4, 1995
Power of Leadership
‘’I was a military man for 27 years. I waged war as long as there was no chance for peace…I believe there is now a chance for peace, a great chance, and we must take advantage of it for those standing here, and for those who are not here - and they are many. I have always believed that the majority of the people want peace and are ready to take a chance for peace."
Speech at a Tel Aviv peace rally, hours before he was shot, November 4, 1995
“What are the options which face us after 27 years of ruling and I do not want to use other terms an entity which is different from ourselves religiously, politically, nationally; another people? The first is to leave the situation as it is, to make proposals that do not have and never had a partner and there can be no agreement without a partner. To try and perpetuate the rule over another people, to continue on a course of never-ending violence and terrorism, which will bring about a political impasse. All the Governments of Israel certainly since the Yom Kippur War have understood the danger inherent in such an impasse. Accordingly, all the governments have sought the second option. The second option is to try and find a political solution initially through agreements on the separation of forces. The Government of Menachem Begin chose this path in the peace agreement with Egypt. The Government of Yitzhak Shamir also went this way, in consenting to the Madrid peace conference. We have also chosen this path with the Oslo talks and the signing of the agreement in Washington.”
Address at the opening of the Knesset, April 18, 1994
"Our dream is also your dream. King Hussein, President Mubarak, Chairman Arafat, all the others, and above all the President, Bill Clinton — a president working in the service of peace — we all love the same children, weep the same tears, hate the same enmity, and pray for reconciliation. Peace has no borders."
Speech at the signing of the Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement, September 28, 1995
Nuts and Bolts of the Peace Process
“The road to reconciliation leads through the prisons. In our prisons, there are currently more than five thousand Palestinian prisoners who, in accordance with the Government’s decision, will be released.”
Speech in the Knesset upon ratification of Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement, October 5, 1995
“There are endless possibilities to enter Israel from the territories fewer from Gaza, more from Judea and Samaria. Many paths, both covert and exposed, lead from the territories into Israel. We cannot hermetically seal the territories before individual infiltration.”
Address at the opening of the Knesset, April 18, 1994
Role of the Public
“The debate goes on: Who shapes the face of history - leaders or circumstances? My answer to you is: We all shape the face of history. We, the People. We the farmers behind our plows, the teachers in our classrooms, the doctors saving lives, the scientists at our computers, the workers on the assembly line, the builders on our scaffolds. We, the mothers blinking back tears as our sons are drafted into the army; we, the fathers who stay awake at night worried and anxious for our children’s safety. We, Jews and Arabs. We, Israelis and Jordanians. We, the people, we shape the face of history.”
Address to the United States Congress, July 26, 1994
A Biography of Yitzhak Rabin
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Middle East Progress appreciates the support and cooperation of Americans for Peace Now, Geneva Initiative, Israel Policy Forum, and New Israel Fund.
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