CNN WORLD News

Has Israel forgotten Rabin?

Peace

May 30, 1996
Web posted at: 9:45 p.m. EDT

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- When an extreme right-wing Jew stepped out of the shadows and gunned down Israel's prime minister last November, it uncovered a fanatical vein in Israeli society.

It was an act of extremism designed to wreck the shared vision of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres: To make peace with the Palestinians and the wider Arab world.

The man who pulled the trigger, Yigal Amir, immediately confessed to the crime and is now in jail serving a life sentence.

When Leah Rabin cast her vote in the election, she knew that her husband's murderer was also entitled to vote. But she is more concerned about what Peres' defeat could mean. If Labor doesn't win, then his (Yitzhak Rabin) loss was in vain and then his loss was a triumph to the murderer. -- Leah Rabin, Yitzhak Rabin's widow

Before his death, right-wing demonstrations portrayed Rabin as an enemy of the state.

remembered

Since then the assault on Labor's policies has been toned down. The rival camps confine themselves to occasional skirmishes but with none of the old vitriol.

After Rabin was fatally shot a little over 200 days ago, Israel was united in grief.

Support for the slain prime minister's partner for peace, Shimon Peres, leapt to as high as 20 percent, but now, the impact of Rabin's murder seems to have faded.

But there are differing opinions on whether Israelis who voted for Netanyahu have forgotten Rabin's assassination.


I don't think that (the assassination) is right, but I don't think it had any effect on who is going to win or that it makes (Netanyahu's) winning wrong. / In a way I do because Yigal Amir is sitting in jail and he is laughing and he is happy and it

Leslie Susser of the Jerusalem Post said Peres' campaign didn't play up the Rabin assassination because many feared that it could anger voters and turn them against Labor.

But Leah Rabin criticized the Labor Party leadership for not using Rabin's assassination in the party's election campaign.

"I feel like packing a suitcase and quickly getting out of here," Mrs. Rabin said. "They killed the prime minister. Why didn't they make use of this?"

Related stories


Feedback

Send us your comments.
Selected responses are posted daily.

[Imagemap]
| CONTENTS | SEARCH | CNN HOME PAGE | MAIN WORLD NEWS PAGE |

Copyright © 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.