Remembering Yitzhak Rabin in a country reeling from recent violence

Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's former prime minister, who was shot by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir after addressing a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

The date is forever etched on the Israeli consciousness and, similar to the 1963 assassination of US president John F Kennedy for Americans, Israelis alive at the time will always remember where they were when they heard the news.

Last week Israelis marked the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar with various ceremonies and rallies.

Three bullets and 20 years later, with the country still reeling after a month of Palestinian stabbing attacks and Israeli countermeasures, the assassination anniversary left a huge "what if?" question unanswered. What if Rabin hadn't been killed? Could he have succeeded, despite the horrific wave of suicide bombings that followed the signing of the initial peace deal in 1993, in bringing the Oslo process to a successful conclusion resulting in a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians?

Former US president Bill Clinton, who brought Rabin, together with Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, to the White House in September 1993 to sign the Oslo accord and shake hands, has no doubt the answer is yes.

“Had he lived, Yitzhak Rabin would have been able to reach a peace deal within three years, because the Palestinians trusted him,” he says. “They were absolutely convinced he would do what he promised to do.”

But many Israelis, especially on the right, are less convinced.

Peace treaty Rabin’s preference had been a peace treaty with Syria, and he reluctantly turned to the Palestinian track after the Syrian negotiations faltered.

Nahum Barnea, a leading columnist for the Yedioth Aharonot newspaper, said Rabin endorsed the secret Oslo talks with the Palestinians because he wanted to prevent his Labour party rival, Peres, from taking all the credit.

“No one knows what would have happened had Rabin survived. However, 20 years of failure can teach us something. A peace agreement would not have been signed: the gap between the sides was too big, the expectations were too high, the fear of the political and personal price was too big,” he says.

“While Arafat and Rabin were allegedly marching towards an agreement, Arafat funded and encouraged acts of terror, and Rabin funded and encouraged the establishment of settlements in the West Bank, mainly massive settlement around Jerusalem.”

Many analysts still believe the maximum Rabin was prepared to offer was less than the minimum that Arafat was willing to accept.

The assassination did not end peace efforts. In the ensuing two decades prime ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert tried unsuccessfully to clinch an elusive land-for-peace deal, and Ariel Sharon withdrew Israeli forces and settlers from Gaza, with the possibility that the unilateral disengagement was only a prelude to a wider move in the West Bank.

However, the momentum of the Rabin years and the feeling that the sides were generally moving in the right direction – despite the formidable obstacles – seem to have been replaced by mutual distrust, antipathy and stagnation, punctuated by periodic wars in Gaza and waves of West Bank violence.

Prior to the Rabin assassination, most Israelis found it difficult to envisage a Jewish citizen killing a democratically elected Israeli leader. Now it is clear that any leader who signs a peace deal handing over parts of the biblical land of Israel to the Palestinians could be a target for the militant right-wing fringe, which has grown in recent years and frequently attacks innocent Palestinians, churches and mosques in so-called price tag attacks.

Incitement Many on the left in Israel cannot forgive prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, then head of the Likud-led opposition, for his failure to speak out against the hatred and incitement so prominent in the right-wing protests that proceeded the Rabin assassination. Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog used this week's Knesset session marking the assassination anniversary to attack Netanyahu.

“Rabin tried to prevent Israel from becoming ‘Israstine’, and you, from up on the balcony, heard that they were calling him a traitor. Then there were three gunshots,” he said. “Israel is burning . . . You, Mr prime minister, are responsible for the situation.”

The political divide in Israel remains, as does the question of whether it is possible to divide the land to achieve peace and maintain Israel’s Jewish majority. Peres, Rabin’s party rival turned peace partner, stressed that Rabin’s vision, leadership and bravery is sorely missed today. “This remained his legacy, an uncompleted goal of a compromise that has to be achieved for the benefit of future generations and the security of the state of Israel.”