ISRAEL

A Lesson Not Yet Learned: How the Left in Israel has Hijacked the Memory of Yitzhak Rabin

This month, in what is now called Rabin Square, an event took place marking the 16th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a peace rally by right-wing radical Yigal Amir. The commemoration began at around 7:30 PM Saturday night, with thousands showing up to pay their respects to the late Prime Minister. Many, including Yossi Sarid of the Meretz Party, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, and Eldad Yaniv of the National Left, spoke to those gathered, offering Israel’s struggling and wounded left-wing words of solace and encouragement.

Sadly, it seems that less than two decades after losing one of the brave pioneers of peace in Israeli politics, those who still care about peace seem to have completely missed the point of what happening on the fateful day in November 1995, for it was not to keep a particular political party alive. True, since the Prime Minister’s assassination the peace process has stalled several times, and at this point it would be fair to say that it barely has a pulse. Yet, what needs to be imprinted in the collective memory of this young state is not the need to be an outspoken leftist, but rather to learn how to disagree with the politics of others and coexist with them. Yet some of those gathered in Rabin Square carried signs declaring, “I Will Not Let The Right Silence Me,” while others stood under banners that identified them as members of the Meretz Party or the National Left.