Rabin the Man and Israel the Country

October 23, 2007 - 5:48 PM by

According to the Hebrew calendar, tomorrow is the 12th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. I recall the evening well. It was the culmination of a visit from my parents, and we had just dropped them off at the airport. As we paid the parking lot attendant, he mentioned that he’d just heard that perhaps Rabin had been shot. We made our way home (which didn’t take long, given that we were living in the Modiin area at the time), and despite our attempts to clarify the information we’d just heard, we didn’t succeed in picking up any more news until we raced into the house and turned on the television, where every channel confirmed what we’d been told at the airport.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been twelve years already. I can still remember what it was like to be in Israel at the time. No one smiled. People wandered around looking bewildered and forlorn. Everyone was drawn to Malchey Yisrael Square (now known as Rabin Square), where teenagers in mourning were lighting candles and comforting one another. Israel was a sad place to be. Fragile trust between the different sectors of society was destroyed as accusations were hurled back and forth. We became ugly, simply, blindly hating one another because of outward displays of religion such as wearing a head covering, or because of where one resided. It was a terrible period for our country.

At the time, I wasn’t sure what my political beliefs were, but I mourned too. I mourned the man; the politician, less so. I mourned for the grandchildren who would never see their grandfather again. I mourned for the children who’d lost their father. I mourned for the widow, whose life partner was taken from her in an instant. Perhaps most of all, I mourned for the blow this assassination had dealt the country, tearing it apart and pitting brother against brother, robbing us of our innocence, in a sense.

Yaakov Kirschen over at The Dry Bones blog writes,

“The assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963 and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November of 1995 have both become dry history to a new generation, but remain emotionally charged experiences for those of us who lived through either.”

See the rest of his post here.

Dry Bones

Tags: • Category: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Politics 

Comments

4 Comments on Rabin the Man and Israel the Country

  1. Gliker on Tue, Oct 23rd 2007 7:39 PM

    2. I remember sitting in my car, crying. I was 24, recently released from the IDF and returned to the US to study.

    I still curse the killer and his ideology.

    And you do not know the supreme guilt I feel that I am married to an American woman, living here in the US and not at home where I belong.

    It makes this anniversery more difficult.

  2. Liza on Wed, Oct 24th 2007 2:46 PM

    3. Hi Gliker,

    While it’s not for me to tell you not to feel guilty (only you can do that), I think you’re being too hard on yourself. Your place is with your family, and if that’s in the US, then so be it. Just like my place is here, with my Israeli husband. You’re not doing anything wrong. As for the anniversary, do they have any commemorative ceremonies near where you live? I was in the US this year for Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut, and we went to a Yom Hizakaron ceremony organized by the local shaliach. In addition to the Americans who were there, there were also many Israelis. Despite not being sure about which group I felt more of a pull towards, I’m very glad I went. It would have been strange to do nothing, and being around other Israelis made me realize that I’d done the right thing by going.

  3. Gliker on Wed, Oct 24th 2007 7:28 PM

    4. Thank you Liza, but the guilt stays.

    There is no commemeration here. I checked on the consulate website and I see nothing.

  4. Alex on Sun, Oct 28th 2007 2:43 PM

    5. It was very same in the USSR on Stalin’s death. Also, there are many proofs on who really killed Rabin, such as one here http://samsonblinded.org/blog/how-rabin-was-killed.htm

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