American baby-boomers will always remember where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated.
Israelis, who today are marking the 14th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, will always remember where they were when Rabin was murdered by an Israeli religious-nationalist Jew, determined to undermine the peace efforts of Rabin's government.
I was a reporter for Haaretz at the time, covering Palestinian affairs. When Rabin was shot and injured, my editor asked me to call Palestinian politicians for reactions. I contacted several Palestinian leaders and was on the phone with Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator, when Rabin's assistant Eitan Haber emerged from the hospital in Tel Aviv, and read from a handwritten note: "The government of Israel announces in dismay, in great sadness, and in deep sorrow, the death of Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an assassin, tonight in Tel Aviv. May his memory be blessed."
With tears in my eyes, I simultaneously translated the statement for Saeb, whom I had known for years as a tough Fatah activist and leader. His voice broke. This moment, Saeb said, underscores that the Israeli-Palestinian battle is not being fought between the two peoples but between moderates and the extremists. The murder will show that this is a contest between moderates and extremists on both sides: Between Israeli and Palestinian moderates, who yearn for peace and are resolved to pursue it, and Israeli and Palestinian extremists who are determined to thwart any compromise toward peace.
Saeb was right. And for a short while, following the assassination, most Israelis and Palestinians were hopeful that the shock and trauma of the murder would deal a defeating blow to those who view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a zero-sum game. They were hoping that the jolt would solidify the broad support on both sides for a viable Israeli- Palestinian peace settlement.
But it was precisely this notion, this hope for peace that the extremists feared. It motivated Palestinian militants to wage a wave of suicide bombings in Israel to derail the peace process. It was this hope that motivated Jewish terrorists to use violence to derail peace efforts. Whenever hope for peace emerged, it was challenged by the extremists, using physical and verbal violence.
The violence, the hatred, the enmity, the bloodshed, reinforced on both sides a sense of mutually exclusive victimhood. It solidified a mutually exclusive sense of self-righteousness. It created a thick layer of emotional scar tissue, for both Israelis and Palestinians, which blurred and concealed the common ground between the two peoples.
The political manifestation of this common ground is the two-state solution, a solution that will be the result of a negotiated, mutually-accepted separation between Israelis and Palestinians, an end to the occupation, a historic compromise between two conflicting narratives.
That is the hope - the only hope - for a viable Israel and a viable Palestine, for peace, security, justice and prosperity for both peoples. That is the hope, the future. And in order to reach this goal, Israelis and Palestinians - and their friends internationally - must realize again that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a zero-sum game. Moderate Israelis and Palestinians - by far the majority on both sides - must come back to the realization that a two-state solution is a win-win, and that the alternatives entail only losses for both sides.
Underscoring that notion is a pivotal challenge for those in Israel, in Palestine and worldwide who support peace.
With tears in my eyes, I simultaneously translated the statement for Saeb, whom I had known for years as a tough Fatah activist and leader. His voice broke. This moment, Saeb said, underscores that the Israeli-Palestinian battle is not being fought between the two peoples but between moderates and the extremists. The murder will show that this is a contest between moderates and extremists on both sides: Between Israeli and Palestinian moderates, who yearn for peace and are resolved to pursue it, and Israeli and Palestinian extremists who are determined to thwart any compromise toward peace.
Saeb was right. And for a short while, following the assassination, most Israelis and Palestinians were hopeful that the shock and trauma of the murder would deal a defeating blow to those who view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a zero-sum game. They were hoping that the jolt would solidify the broad support on both sides for a viable Israeli- Palestinian peace settlement.
But it was precisely this notion, this hope for peace that the extremists feared. It motivated Palestinian militants to wage a wave of suicide bombings in Israel to derail the peace process. It was this hope that motivated Jewish terrorists to use violence to derail peace efforts. Whenever hope for peace emerged, it was challenged by the extremists, using physical and verbal violence.
The violence, the hatred, the enmity, the bloodshed, reinforced on both sides a sense of mutually exclusive victimhood. It solidified a mutually exclusive sense of self-righteousness. It created a thick layer of emotional scar tissue, for both Israelis and Palestinians, which blurred and concealed the common ground between the two peoples.
The political manifestation of this common ground is the two-state solution, a solution that will be the result of a negotiated, mutually-accepted separation between Israelis and Palestinians, an end to the occupation, a historic compromise between two conflicting narratives.
That is the hope - the only hope - for a viable Israel and a viable Palestine, for peace, security, justice and prosperity for both peoples. That is the hope, the future. And in order to reach this goal, Israelis and Palestinians - and their friends internationally - must realize again that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a zero-sum game. Moderate Israelis and Palestinians - by far the majority on both sides - must come back to the realization that a two-state solution is a win-win, and that the alternatives entail only losses for both sides.
Underscoring that notion is a pivotal challenge for those in Israel, in Palestine and worldwide who support peace.
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wonderful summary and statement
I remember where I was...I was a student in an orthodox yeshiva in Colorado and once I understood the longing of the orthodox in terms of the peace process, I left the yeshiva. People do not know how deeply entrenched the radicalism is, nor how twisted the hearts of those who prayed for Rabin's death. Where there is the need to control destiny, there is no heart for peace. The fear that propels those who cannot come to the table of peace must be seen for what it is. I rejoice that the Palestinian people have had the patience to live so long under such horrid conditions.
As usual Ori captures the past even as he is steely eyed and objective about the future.As he and many weeped theday of the assasssination so it is today that we weep today but we almost intensify our efforts working toward peace,
Thank you, David, Mary and Jerry for your comments.
On Saturday, at the Square in Tel-Aviv, Israelis will gather again to mark the 14th anniversary.
The lineup of the speakers is not promising: too many politicians. So I would like to remind us of the speech that David Grossman gave three years ago. Here is how he ended his speech:
"The decisive majority of Israel’s citizens now understand—of course, some of them without enthusiasm—what the shape of a peaceful solution will look like. Most of us understand that the land will be divided, that there will be a Palestinian state. Why, then do we continue to sap ourselves with the internal bickering that has gone on now for almost forty years? Why does our political leadership continue to reflect the positions of the extremists and not of the majority? After all, we’ll be much better off if we reach this national consensus on our own, before circumstances—external pressures, or a new Palestinian uprising, or another war—force us to do so. If we do it, we will save ourselves years of erosion and error, years in which we will shout again and again, “See, land, that we were most wasteful.”
"From where I stand at this moment, I request, call out to all those listening—to young people who came back from the war, who know that they are the ones who will have to pay the price of the next war; to Jewish and Arab citizens, to the people of the right and the people of the left: stop for a moment. Look over the edge of the abyss, and consider how close we are to losing what we have created here. Ask yourselves if the time has not arrived for us to come to our senses, to break out of our paralysis, to demand for ourselves, finally, the lives that we deserve to live."
I think Rabin would have warmly endorsed this speech.
I remember that day as a doomed day, ever since Israël's political positions toward Palestine, has been one of radical destruction.
The Hamas was financed by Israël to counter the Fatah! Just like the US secret services trained Ousama Ben Laden, and financed the Taliban to fight the Soviets,Israël is responsable for the actual situation in Palestine in the same way, the USA is responsable for the situation in Irak and in Afghanistan.
I used to respect Shimon Perez, who sadly enough gave in to the extremists positions and therefore drowned the only possibility of rebuilding a strong opposition!
Israël is in a greater danger today than it ever was, because of it's criminal attitude toward the Palestinian people.
No political opposition, only a FEW COURAGEOUS citizens are still trying to build bridges between Israëli and Palestinian people.
Daniel Barenboïm is one of those beautiful people, a rare honorable Israëli citizen who struggles through Art and is an Ambassador for Peace!
Yehudi Menhuin was also a great Israëli, relentlessly reminding the world that the Gipsies, homosexuals and handicaped people were also victims of the Holocost.
The Israëlis need to wake up and change their world!
They need to realize that only a firm stance to build Peace can save their country.
They have the power to do so, while the Palestinians are in a position of survival and total despair enabling extremists to recruit chidren to sacrifice their lives to kill a few jews!
Hate and Fear are the planet's worse ennemies!
Israël today is breeding Hate at great speed, that might someday swallow it up, leaving the rest of the world citizens indifferent.