Thirty Years On: Rabin’s Legacy
Who Rabin Was - and Why He Still Represents Hope for Israel
I wrote this a few years ago in Hebrew.
**
Not sloppy - thorough.
Not slick - brutally honest.
Doesn’t boast about sleeping well at night - his sleep is restless, worried.
Not good at speeches - excellent at execution.
Doesn’t shift blame to subordinates, cronies, or family - takes it upon himself. When the government ordered an operation to rescue a hostage held by Hamas - an operation in which both the hostage and an officer were killed - he immediately convened a press conference. His main message was simple and rare: I am responsible.
Not funny. Not playful. Somber, hesitant. Often angry, yet quick to calm down.
Not a flatterer.
Not good at speeches in English - but strong in building relations with the world; earns respect, loved
Not skilled at petty politics - but superb in strategy; Rabin was the first PM to grasp that Iran is the existential threat.
No cigars - only cigarettes. Sometimes bums one.
Goes to the hardest conversations - with bereaved parents, with crowds shaken by terror, and, on the eve of the Six-Day War in 1967, with David Ben-Gurion. The founding father told Rabin that his plans for a pre-emptive strike against Egypt were risking Israel’s very existence. Rabin collapsed soon after, then rose to lead the IDF he had prepared for that war - Israel’s most impressive military victory.
Not arrogant. Say what you want about him - arrogant he was not.
Stands a little aside. Shy.
Believes peace is possible. Risks much for that possibility.
Doesn’t believe staying in power is a value as of itself. Believes in the path.
Paid the ultimate price.
**
You may think all this is past.
But if it is our past, it is part of us, Israelis.
It still lives — and can live again.
