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November 4: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
The sitting prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated on this date in 1995. The murderer was Yigal Amir, a rightwinger opposed to the Oslo Peace Accords, which Rabin, a lifetime warrior, had signed in 1994 with his enemy, PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Rabin was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Tel Aviv. He was a commander in the Palmach during Israel’s 1948 war of independence, became chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces in 1964, and led Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. He was the last Labor Party prime minister before Menachem Begin’s Likud Party at last gained the office in 1978, and he was the most public face of Israel’s efforts to quell the first Palestinian intifadah (1987-1993) with military violence. By his second term as prime minister, Rabin understood that the Palestinian demand for self-determination was irrepressible and that Israel’s future depended upon the fulfillment of that demand, and he became a committed peacemaker.
“I believe . . . that peace is attainable regardless of the Arabs’ mentality, society or government.” —Yitzhak Rabin