Latest / BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback / Episode 483: BOB DOLE 1995 Clintons Comeback (Part 24) The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin Nov 4 1995

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Episode 483: BOB DOLE 1995 Clintons Comeback (Part 24) The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin Nov 4 1995 · BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

• 0:25
  SPEAKER_08: It has been unbelievably ten years since that dark day when we lost Isaac Rabin, and what I still believe was our best chance for a comprehensive and lasting peace.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_08: Not a week has gone by in those ten years when I have not thought of him.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_08: His family, his allies, Israel's struggle.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_08: It has been five years since I left office and since Mr.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_08: Arafat committed what I consider to be a colossal historical blunder in walking away from the peace proposal I made at that time, which is the first time.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: For many Americans, the mid-1990s are remembered as a period of relative peace and prosperity.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: President Bill Clinton was in the White House, the 1996 presidential campaign between Clinton and Senator Bob Dole was beginning to take shape, the Cold War had ended, and yet in the Middle East, history was moving in a far different direction.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: Just two years earlier, Rabin had stood on the White House lawn alongside PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and President Clinton to sign the Oslo Accords.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: The agreement was viewed by many around the world as a breakthrough in the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: Supporters believed the accords could finally lead to peace between two peoples who had endured generations of war, terrorism, occupation, and bloodshed.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: But not everyone agreed.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: Within Israel, the Oslo process deeply divided the nation.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Many Israelis supported Rabin's efforts, believing that difficult compromises were necessary to secure the country's future.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: Others viewed the concessions being discussed as dangerous and unacceptable.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: Demonstrations filled the streets.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: Political rhetoric became increasingly heated.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: Emotions ran high as Israelis debated the future of their nation.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: Throughout the Arab world, reactions were equally mixed.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: Some governments cautiously embraced the peace process, hoping it might bring some stability to the region.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yet radical organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad vehemently opposed the negotiations and launched terrorist attacks aimed at destroying any possibility of reconciliation.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: Extremists on all sides sought to derail the fragile hopes for peace.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: Against this backdrop, on the evening of November 4th, 1995, Prime Minister Rabin attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: Thousands gathered to show support for the peace process.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: The event concluded with speeches, songs, and expressions of optimism about Israel's future.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: Then, as Rabin walked toward his car, shots rang out.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: The Prime Minister was struck by bullets fired by Yigal Emir, a Jewish Israeli extremist who opposed the Oslo Accords.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: Rabin was rushed to the hospital, but his wounds proved fatal.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: Within hours, Israel and the world learned that one of the nation's most significant leaders had been assassinated by one of his own countrymen.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: The murder sent shockwaves across the globe.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: World leaders expressed grief and disbelief.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: President Clinton would famously eulogize Rabin with the words, Shalom Haver.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: Goodbye, friend.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: For many observers, Rabin's death marked not only the loss of a statesman, but also a turning point in the history of the Middle East process.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: Today, more than three decades later, historians continue to debate what might have been had Rabin lived.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Would peace have advanced?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Would the region have followed a different course?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: Those questions remain unanswered.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: What is certain is that Yig Shak Rabin's life reflects the story of modern Israel itself, from soldier to military commander, from statesman to Nobel Prize recipient, and ultimately to martyr for a cause he believed was essential to his nation's future.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: As we remember that tragic night and the turbulent era in which it occurred, we invite you now to listen to this Shalom TV retrospective in examining the life and career and legacy of Yitchak Rabin.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, I'm Mark Golub.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: And few figures loom as large in modern Jewish history, as does Yitzhak Rabin, former chief of staff of the Israeli army, who led Israel to its momentous victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, and who later in life, as a two-time prime minister, became a champion for Israel's reaching out a hand of peace to the Palestinians.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: It was Yitzhak Rabin who shepherded Israel through the Oslo Accords of 1993, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, together with his colleague Shimon Perez and his longtime enemy, Yasser Arafat, with whom he shook hands on the lawn of the White House on September 13th of that same year.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it was Yitzhak Rabin who in 1995, as he led the peace movement in Israel, was felled by an assassin's bullet as he departed a peace now rally in Tel Aviv.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: To be sure, Yitzhak Rabin is also a controversial figure in Israeli history.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: There are those who claim he made a serious mistake by giving arms to the Palestinian police, that it was Rabin who elevated the stature of Yasser Arafat, that Oslo was in many ways a failure, a mistake, and that his vision of peace was always a naive dream.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: But for most Jews, inside Israel and without, Yitzhak Rabin is viewed as a courageous statesman, offering hope to a people exhausted by occupation and incessant terrorist attacks.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yitzhak Rabin was the warrior who stood for peace.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: And he was often eloquent in his statements in support of peace.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Back in the early 1980s, when I was first doing my program La Chayim, strictly on radio, I had the wonderful chance to sit with Yitzhak Rabin.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: And we feel that your hearing a few moments of that radio interview will give you a different sense, a glimpse into the man.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: And when we met, I asked Mr.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Rabin to comment on the days leading up to Israel's preemptive strike against Egypt and Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Here's some of what Yitzhak Rabin had to say.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_18: First, allow me to say that I don't consider what happened in the Six-Day War as a preemptive preemptive war by Israel.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_18: I believe all the wars that Israel has has waged against the Arab countries were justified for the simple reason.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_18: It was and it is unfortunately even today, that most of the Arab countries in the past, all of them, stressed that they were at war with us.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_18: It was not a war that was initiated by Israel.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_18: It was a prolonged war that the Arab countries declared against the very existence of Israel.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_18: There were ups and downs in terms of the escalations of hostilities actions by the Arab countries.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_18: But as long as they have stressed that they were at war with us, I don't believe that any one of the wars were initiated by Israel.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_18: We were put before a condition that the whole security of Israel, I would say even more so the whole future of Israel was at stake.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_18: Therefore, even though I said I can't promise you results that will be like a journey to the Sinai, it's going to be, I said, a very painful war, but I see no choice to Israel if we would like to survive as a Jewish independent state.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_18: It was not so easy.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_18: We waited what is known in the his in the history of Israel, the waiting period.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_18: We gave the United States time to bring about a solution by peaceful means to use its influence through political means to bring about a political solution to what was created by Egypt and to restore the situation to what it used to be prior to the 15th of May 67, when Egypt carried out an act of war and massed all its forces into the Sinai adjacent to the lines with Israel.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_18: The United States first promised to bring about an international flotilla that will secure the innocent passage through the Straits of Tehran.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_18: Later on, of course, we were told that no such flotilla would be formed.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_18: And we realized that no one, really no one, would move its finger to to come to the support of Israel.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_18: I believe that in the Six Day War the issue was so clear, so direct, so personal to everyone.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_18: And the threat was so well understood by everyone in Israel and by all of us together.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_18: And we went to war not because we wanted, because we realized that we had no choice.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_18: Therefore, it was a kind of a war that we fought and we were sorry that we had to fight it.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_18: We were sorry also to see the Arab soldiers got killed in service of fanatic anti-Israeli feelings.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_18: We didn't feel that they even understood what for they were fighting.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_18: They just followed the totalitarian regimes, the fanatic ideas of President Nasser of Egypt and other Arab leaders.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_18: And I think it was expressed in many ways.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_18: After that war, there were many talks among young soldiers that for the first time in their lives experienced a war.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_18: And I heard them, and I heard them talking about how they managed to avoid killing Arab soldiers when they felt it was not necessary to achieve their objectives.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_18: How they felt sorry when they had to do it for the purpose of defending their own country.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_18: This is why I gave in my speech on Mount Scopus after Jerusalem became again a united city, and for the first time after 2,000 years, the first time a united, free capital of the state of Israel.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_18: I felt that I expressed the feelings of most of the soldiers, not just my own my own.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_18: We are practically have not fought five wars as normally we say.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_18: It's a one long war of over thirty years that was hopefully ended for the time being only with one Arab country, with Egypt, when the peace treaty between our two countries was signed.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_18: Still it's a long way to go till a real peace will be established.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_18: I've never lost faith.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_18: I'll never lose faith.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_18: I've got patience.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_18: Well, Jewish faith, tradition teaches teach us that there is no uh the chikapa kids.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_18: You can't push the end, and it has been always not so easy for Jews, no doubt, to try to do what what there is no precedent to it in the history of mankind, to revive our life of the nineteenth centuries again in the only place where Jewish independent life can come up in Airzisland.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: And those were some of the thoughts of Yitzhak Rabin in his own words.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yitzhak Rabin was only a human being.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: He was not a god.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: He made many mistakes during his lifetime, both military and political.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: But he will always be remembered for his idealism, for his passion for peace, and for his being willing to give his life in service to the state of Israel and to Kal Yisrael, the entire Jewish people.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: He was one of the giants of early Israeli life, and his memory will forever be a blessing.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: To give you sort of a feel for what was happening in Israel and in the Middle East during this time period, I thought we'd go to the Center for Foreign Relations uh with a piece that they did on the Oslo Accords that kind of explained what the agreement was, what what uh was happening, uh, and how that was going to bring about some level of peace in Israel between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: Then we'll hear from Yikshak Rabin himself in a short interview about where they were in 1994, and and then we'll look at the political situation that was happening in Israel the night that Rabin was killed.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: So with that, let's take a look at the Oslo Accords.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_03: And if you want to learn more about them, we have an episode in our back catalog in our first season on Bob Dole, where Bill Clinton uh we looked at that agreement and that um accord uh in its in it when it was signed at the White House in 1993.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_26: Two bitter adversaries meet on foreign soil to sign an agreement to help bring peace to their peoples.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_26: The world applauds them for putting old animosities aside, and they eventually win the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_26: But what if their efforts do not succeed in ending a decades-old conflict?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_26: I'm Jim Lindsay, and this is History Lessons.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_26: Our topic today is the signing of the Oslo Accords in the South Lawn of the White House on September 13, 1993.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_26: The Oslo Accords originated in discussions that a Norwegian mediator brokered in January 1993.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_26: At the time, Israeli law banned contacts between Israelis and Palestinian liberation organization officials.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_26: So throughout the talks, the Norwegians frequently served as a go-between for the two sides.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_26: Few people expected the largely secret talks to succeed.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_26: Indeed, the Israeli government did not send an official representative to the talks until May.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_26: But thanks in part to the diligence of Norway's foreign minister, a deal was struck in August.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_26: The Oslo Accords fell far short of being a full-fledged peace treaty.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_26: Its goal was instead far more modest, to establish a process in which the two sides might one day reach a permanent settlement.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_26: Formerly known as a declaration of principles on interim self-government arrangements, the accord's main provisions are mutual recognition, the formation of an interim Palestinian government to administer the territory under its control, and an Israeli agreement to withdraw from parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_26: The hope was that future negotiations would produce agreement on the thorny issues that had been put aside under Oslo, most notably the future of Jerusalem, the fate of the Palestinian refugees, the future of Israeli settlements, and the possibility of a Palestinian state.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_26: The Oslo Accords were controversial with both Israelis and Palestinians.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_26: Many Israelis objected to striking a deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a man they saw simply as a terrorist.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_26: Other Israelis also objected to the idea of relinquishing control over what had been biblical Israel.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_26: Palestinian critics of the Accords opposed recognizing Israel's right to exist, especially when the agreement did not recognize Palestinian statehood.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_26: Israeli and Palestinian leaders nonetheless met at the White House on September 13th.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_26: Israeli foreign minister Shimon Perez and Mahmoud Abbas of the PLO signed the accords at the same wooden table at which the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty had been signed 14 years earlier, in what the New York Times appropriately called a silent memorial to the assassinated Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_26: The most memorable image of the day came in Amarfat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands under the watchful eye of President Bill Clinton.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_26: Rabin addressed the issue of revenge in Jamarx after the signing ceremony.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_19: Live side by side with you in dignity, in empathy, as human beings, as free men.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_19: And saying again to you enough.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_26: President Clinton's remarks that day signaled the high hopes embedded in the Oslo Accords.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_08: Now the efforts of all who have labored before us bring us to this moment, a moment when we dare to pledge what for so long seemed difficult even to imagine, that the security of the Israeli people will be reconciled with the hopes of the Palestinian people, and there will be more security and more hope for all.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_26: Palestinians gained self-rule in West Bank towns like Bethlehem, Hebron, and Nabilis after the signing of the so-called Oslo II Accords in September 1995, but Rabin was assassinated two months later by a right-wing Israeli extremist.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_26: Subsequent efforts to move negotiations forward eventually stalled, most notably after the Camp David talks in 2000 and violence rose.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_26: Scholars and diplomats now wage heated debates over whether Oslo's failure to produce a lasting peace owed to bad luck, its implementation, or its basic conception.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_26: What is the lesson of the Oslo Accords?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_26: Just this.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_26: International agreements can still be useful even when they do not deliver all that is expected of them.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_26: Oslo did not resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict, but it's a Accomplishments nonetheless remained significant.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_26: The PLO formally acknowledged for the first time Israel's right to a safe and peaceful existence.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_26: The Palestinian National Authority was born, and Palestinians gained a measure of self-rule over the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_26: Perhaps most important, the practice of direct talks between the two sides was established.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_26: Perhaps one day soon these talks would produce a real peace.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_26: It is worth remembering the Oslo Accords as we consider peace-building efforts around the world today.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_26: Treaties, accords, and truces may frequently promise more than they can deliver.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_26: But even where they disappoint, they can frequently change the facts on the ground and create opportunities for subsequent generations to lessen, if not resolve, their differences.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_26: So here's a question to consider What does the future hold for a negotiated peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_26: And what role should the United States play in bringing it about?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_26: I encourage you to weigh in with your answers on my blog, The Water's Edge.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_26: You can find it at CFR.org.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_26: I'm Jim Lindsay.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_26: Thank you for watching this installment of History Lessons.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_19: At the beginning of these months, I became 72 years old.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_19: I was born in Jerusalem.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_19: I grew up there.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_19: Most of my life was spent there.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_19: And it happened that I, as an Israeli, as a Jew, was born to the most unique historic period in the life of the Jewish people in the last two thousand years.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_19: I belong to the generation that even though I lived in Palestine, where I was born, during the period of the Holocaust, during the Second World War, it was the most tragic event in the 2000 years of Jewish history after the destruction of the Second Temple.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_19: I belong to the generation that as a result of the tragedy and what was done by the Jewish people in a limited way in the land of Israel, then British Mediterranean Palestine had the opportunity to have the fate of the Jewish people in its hands.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_19: And therefore it was part of the struggle against the British for the creation of the Jewish state and participated in the longest and the bloodiest war that Israel has ever experienced till this moment, our war of independence.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_19: And therefore I feel that on one hand I'm really privileged to belong to the generation of Jews that can could and can take the fate of their own people in their hands.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_19: On the other hand, I'm fully aware of the unique responsibility that my generation, no doubt, a person in the position that I hold now as a Prime Minister of Israel.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_19: I believe that we today face a unique window of opportunities.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_19: The kind of unique window of opportunities that our founding father, the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben Guyon, faced at the end of the Second World War.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_19: As a result of the Holocaust, as a result of the kind of the Second World War was, the war really between evil and right.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_19: And he understood then that this is the period in which it will not achieve a statehood, even in part of former British Palestine, part of the land of Israel.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_19: As a Jewish state, we might miss the historic moment.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: The agreement wasn't popular with everybody, obviously, and that's true of the right wing in Israel, uh, led at that time by Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the now the current Prime Minister of Israel.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: And there was a lot of back and forth between the two parties, uh, and and that will show uh in in the in these two days in November of 1995, when there is a big rally that uh Netanyahu and his party, the Lakou party, have, and then this one for peace that involves Rabin.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: And Frontline did a segment on the situation uh leading up to the assassination and covering the assassination that uh I'm gonna share with you now.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I think it gives you um some perspective of uh the divisions within Israel about the Oslo Accords and about dealing with the Palestinians and and you know giving them autonomy and control of of of their parts, uh, you know, the West Bank and in Gaza and um it and you can see where we are here and it is troublesome that political rhetoric if you don't watch what you're saying sometimes, and I'm and I certainly don't blame Ben Yahoo because I think he's a great prime minister, but if you're not watching some of the rhetoric, some of these unstable people will embrace it.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I I have warned people that I was afraid of that in the United States in our time period, uh, because the only thing that we were really missing in this era was political assassinations, and as you can see, we've had that now with Charlie Kirk with three or four attempts now of President Trump.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: This uh the situation with Steve Scalise, even a little bit before that, is happening here now.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: And you you in and we I I think we need to tone some of this political rhetoric down, but that's an opinion.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: But let's go to frontline in the situation uh in Israel in nineteen in November of 1995.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_21: As head of the conservative Likud Party, Netanyahu himself became the face of the opposition to Oslo.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_30: Netanyahu saw a moment of betrayal and peril and an agreement that would never and could never work.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_17: There's a really ugly character to it.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_17: The level of vitriol, the anger, the scope of these demonstrations, the kind of incitement, the portrayal of Rabin, the dressing Rabin in Nazi uniforms or putting a kafia on him.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_17: Netanyahu found himself at the center of the anger.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_29: In most cases, he doesn't do anything about it.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_29: I think Netanyahu, even in some ways, benefits from this association with the rabble rousers on the right.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_21: The intensity grew, culminating in a massive protest.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_21: Tens of thousands crammed into the center of Jerusalem.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_15: He was genuinely outraged, but he knew how to channel that outrage, and that coincided with his uh rise to power.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_21: In Netanyahu's conservative Likud Party, there was concern about the growing tension in the crowds that night.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_30: There were moments when Netanyahu was advised that you know there are real nutcases in the national religious camp that we see that we need to calm down.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_30: Even gesturally.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_30: Netanyahu never did that.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_20: He never did that, to his enormous discredit was with him as he attacked Mr.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_21: Fat.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_21: And then the government of Yitzhak Rabbeen.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_31: They have used very strong Latin language against Prime Minister Rabin.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_31: They didn't use any kind of condemnation against the violence that was starting to take place.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_21: Let me later say he never saw the ugliest moments that night.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_21: Throughout Israel, the anger born.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_15: This was such a volatile um atmosphere at the time.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_15: And the sign and the writing was on the wall.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_21: Night after night, the crowds massed across the street from Prime Minister Rabin's apartment in Tel Aviv.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_17: I'm there one spot evening.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_17: We're talking.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_17: It's just the two of us.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_17: And there's a demonstration outside.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_17: And I said to him at the time, I said, Don't you worry about some of this?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_17: He goes, No.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_17: I mean, he was.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_17: It's not that he was, you know, it's not that he was completely dismissive of it, but he took it as kind of a given.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_17: He knew, in a sense, what was coming and simply accepted it.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_21: Rabin responded with his own rally.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_21: More than 100,000 supporters singing of peace.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_21: The man in the blue t-shirt approached.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_21: Three shots from behind.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_22: The Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the architect of the Middle East peace process, is being disastered.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_21: The assassin of the right-wing Israeli Jew.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_21: You got a Lamin.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_24: Truly shocking from the Middle East Prime Minister Yitzhak.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_21: Outside the hospital, the crowd began to change.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_21: Bebe is a murderer.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_21: Someone says, Bibi, Rabin's blood is on your hands.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_21: Rabin's widow blamed Netanyahu for contributing to her husband's death.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_21: And said so on worldwide television.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_12: Your husband pointed the finger at Mr.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_12: Netanyahu and said, You must stop this incitement.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_12: To what extent do you blame Mr.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_12: Netanyahu and the Lakut for what has happened?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: I do blame them.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Mr.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: Bibi Netanyahu, now he can say from here to eternity that he didn't support it and didn't agree with it, but he was there and he didn't stop it.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_21: Netanyahu's close advisor at the time vehemently disagrees.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_10: The attempt to pin on him the murder of the Prime Minister is a cheap political propaganda trick that was taken by his political opponents, mostly from the left, in order to delegitimize Netanyahu as a political public and to delegitimize the positions of Likud in the Israeli open political debate.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_32: But if he had not been assassinated, I would have beaten him in the elections, and then he would have gone into history as a failed politician.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_32: Netanyahu was thinking, well, politically, um he's he's he was on the ropes before he was assassinated.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_27: As Israel and Hamas descend further into war, the prospects for a broader Israeli-Palestinian peace deal seem further away than ever.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_27: But 30 years ago, that peace appearing on the cusp after decades of conflict.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_27: Neighboring Arab states launching a war against Israel after it was founded, the international community envisioning a Palestinian state, too.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_27: But Israel fighting with Arab countries in conflicts like the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War, alongside clashes with Palestinians, preventing that state from fully emerging.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_27: One of Israel's fiercest soldiers in those years, Itsak Rabin, growing into a warrior of peace after being re-elected prime minister in 1992.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_14: Rabin spent many years in the Israeli Defense Forces.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_14: He knew the cost of war better than most.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_27: Rabin opening a door to negotiations with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization, or PLO.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_27: At that time, the PLO designated a terrorist group by the United States, and a tumultuous Palestinian uprising called the First Intifada in full swing.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_27: After months of preliminary talks, Rabin reluctantly met Arafat in Washington.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_14: Bill Clinton had to coach him along and say, I know this isn't easy.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_14: I know this has been your enemy for a long, long time, but here's our opportunity and we should grab it.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_19: Enough of blood and tears.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_19: Enough.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_27: Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994, and another Oslo accord with Arafat in 1995.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_06: What could be the most promising step yet toward peace in the Arab lands that Israel has occupied since the 1967 war?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_27: That November, Rabin speaking at a giant rally for peace in Tel Aviv.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_27: But just as he left the stage, tragedy.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_23: Four or five shots rang out, and Rabin collapsed into the arms of his security men.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_27: Rabin killed not by a Palestinian, but by a 24-year-old Israeli extremist who opposed the peace process.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_27: A bloodstained paper found in his jacket pocket.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_27: On it, lyrics of Sheer Lashalom, or a song for peace.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_27: One he sang on stage just moments before his death.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_22: In the days following a national moment of silence, at two o'clock this afternoon, the city of Jerusalem ground to a halt.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_08: Rabin's death shocking the world.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_14: Rabin's assassination was a tremendous blow to the peace process.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_27: Israel soon drifting rightward in the vacuum of a strong leader pushing for peace.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_14: And BD Netanyahu was at the forefront of those with those doubts.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_27: Netanyahu coming to power for the first time in 1996.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_27: Violence soon flared back up.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_27: Bus bombings as part of two more intifadas that killed thousands, Israeli settlement construction ramping up, more peace proposals falling flat, a blockade of Gaza, and now another war.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_27: But when this war someday ends, perhaps a new generation of leaders will look back at this moment, recognize how close peace felt, and be inspired by some of Rabin's last words.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_03: So you can see what an impact Rabin's death had on the region and the in the way that he was killed.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_03: And the peace process that eventually just kind of derailed.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: And now, you know, you've got war over there and chaos over there, and a real opportunity for peace was lost between Rabin's assassination and then Yasser Arafat turning down a chance to have a two-state solution that Bill Clinton had offered up.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you hear Bill Clinton, it's really interesting because here's a democratic president, one of the gr you know, a great democratic president, you know, really when you look at it, um, who is saying to people that the Palestinians turned this down.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that they just wanted to continue to kill Jews.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_03: That that that that was uh that says something, you know, because I hear a lot of the of the of the current leadership in this country uh beating up Netanyahu and beating up the Israelis for defending themselves.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_03: But in reality, in my opinion, that's what they're doing is defending themselves.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: But this assassination had a huge impact at the time, and uh we're gonna take you there to get some of the reaction uh from world leaders and from President Clinton.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_08: The world has lost one of its greatest men, a warrior for his nation's freedom, and now a martyr for his nation's peace.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_08: To Leah Rabin and her children, Hillary and I send our love and our prayers.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_08: To the people of Israel, I want you to know that the hearts and prayers of all Americans are with you.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_08: Just as America has stood by you in moments of crisis and triumph, so now we all stand by you in this moment of grieving and loss.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_08: For half a century, stock rabbin risked his life to defend his country.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_08: Today, he gave his life to bring it a lasting peace.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_08: His last act, his last word, were in defense of that peace, he did so much to create.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_08: Peace must be, and peace will be.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_08: Prime Minister Rabin's lasting legacy.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_08: Tonight, the land for which he gave his life is in mourning.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_08: But I want the world to remember what Prime Minister Rabin said here at the White House barely one month ago.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_08: And I quote: We should not let the land flowing with milk and honey become a land flowing with blood and tears.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_08: Don't let it happen.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_08: Now it falls to us, all those in Israel, throughout the Middle East and around the world, who yearn for and love peace to make sure it doesn't happen.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_08: Itzakh Rabin was my partner and my friend.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_08: I admired him and I loved him very much.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_08: Because words cannot express my true feelings.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_08: Let me just say shalom.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_08: Goodbye, friend.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_04: What's one of the toughest things that you as a president had to deal with that the average citizen just cannot understand?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_07: Well, I can give you lots of examples, but the first let me say that the bad days are good if you're president, because there's always something you can do to make a positive difference.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_07: Right.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_07: As long as you don't care if they're out to get you or whatever.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_07: You can't be paranoid about it.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_07: You just got to show up for work.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_07: But the day the Prime Minister of Israel at Sakhra bin was murdered in 1995, he was my friend.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_07: I loved him.
• 46:22
  unknown: Wow.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_07: But I also knew that he was the only Israeli leader that was totally trusted by the Palestinian leadership, Yasser Arafat and the others.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_07: And uh a young Israeli killed him because he was giving part of the West Bank over to the Palestinians.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_07: And the day he died, I was both heartbroken personally because I loved him.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_07: Like I never loved another man, I think.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_07: And I had to think as president.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_07: I also knew that in all probability this would kill the peace process.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_07: Because you can't make peace and make huge.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_07: Think about any fight you ever had with anybody, and make a huge compromise.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_07: Both sides got to make huge compromises.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_07: You can only do that with somebody you trust.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_07: You may have been in a duel with them.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_07: You may have been shooting each other's subjects, but you have to trust them.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_07: Yasser Arafat trusted Sakurabe.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_07: He knew if he said it's gonna be A, it would be A.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_07: He knew he didn't have to have it in writing.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_07: If he shook his hand, it would be true.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_07: We somehow have to recover that.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_07: Our differences are healthy.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_07: Nobody's right all the time.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_07: These debates can be good, but where there's no trust, it's almost impossible to have an effective agreement over anything.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_07: And so I sat there that day wanting to just cry and indulge myself in my grief.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_07: And I said, no, no, no, no.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_07: You first have to be president.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_07: You got to figure out how to try to keep this thing alive.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_07: Right.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_07: And it's hard.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_07: It's hard when you want to be a human being and your job won't let you be.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's deep.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_04: That's deep.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I thank you for your sacrifice because you would want to just feel.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_04: But thank you for leading us in those difficult times.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_11: But it was a I'm afraid that the Palestinian people will pay the price of this terrorist action among the Israelites.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_28: But for us, Rabinu is the Prime Minister, who was the Prime Minister.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_28: And a Kir Mopsut.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those who belong to the peace camp and those who oppose it.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've known him over to ELF and have uh worked with him very hard to achieve a common objective.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: And to me he was uh a brother and a friend.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_09: I am very sad and very shocked for this awful and terrible crime against one of the brave leaders of Israel and the peacemakers.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_09: I hope that they will have the ability, all of us, the Israelis and the Palestinians, overcome.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_09: Will we or have the ability to overcome the this tragedy against the peace process and against the whole situation in the Middle East.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_09: I am offering my condolences to his wife, to his family, to the Israeli government, to the Israeli people.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_09: And uh it's not only my condolences, it's condolences of all the Palestinian people.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_03: Bob Dole, in the videos that you would see, was right there with Bill Clinton as part of the kind of a joint leadership uh representation there.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_03: So he had from both parties.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_03: But that flight back there and back would lead to some controversy concerning Newt Gingrich as the 1995 year comes to a conclusion.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_03: Gingrich apparently got very upset about where he was placed on the plane and that and that the president had come back and talked to him, and uh it turned into a pretty little minor petty scandal that will affect some of the of what was getting ready to happen after these events, which was the federal first federal government shutdown.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and um that's for another show, but I just wanted to kind of let you know that Bob Dole played a big part in this.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_03: I couldn't find anything with him speaking, uh, but he is almost every time you see Bill Clinton, you'll see Bob Dole and New Gingrich, for that matter, and some of the other leadership with him throughout this couple days that they are in Israel for the funeral.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_08: First, let me uh let me just uh say how pleased I am to have had the opportunity to uh come here for a second time to visit with President Weizman on this very, very sad day for Israel and for the United States.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_08: Uh I want to emphasize today uh the support of the American people, for the people of Israel.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_08: Uh it is evidenced by our delegation here.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_08: We have three American presidents, three American Secretaries of State, almost 40 members of our Congress, including the leadership of both parties and both houses of our Congress, and a very distinguished group of American religious and business leaders, all coming here to express our support and our solidarity, our grief over the death of Prime Minister Rabin and our support for the process of peace.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_08: But for me, this is not a day to discuss the future or our policies beyond what I have already said.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_08: I think you can see by the the kind of delegation that came from the United States how strongly we feel about our support for Israel and how strongly we feel about our support for peace.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_08: Leah to the Rabin children and grandchildren and other family members, President Weizman, Acting Prime Minister Perez, members of the Israeli government and the Knesset, distinguished leaders from the Middle East and around the world, especially His Majesty King Hussein for those remarkable and wonderful comments, and President Mubarak for taking this historic trip here.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_08: To all the people of Israel.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_08: The American people mourn with you and the loss of your leader, and I mourn with you for he was my partner and friend.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_08: Every moment we shared was a joy because he was a good man and an inspiration because he was also a great man.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_08: Leia, I know that too many times in the life of this country, you were called upon to comfort and console the mothers and the fathers, the husbands and the wives, the sons and the daughters who lost their loved ones to violence and vengeance.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_08: You gave them strength.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_08: Now we here and millions of people all around the world, in all humility and honor, offer you our strength.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_08: May God comfort you among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_08: Itztak Rabin lived the history of Israel through every trial and triumph, the struggle for independence, the wars for survival, the pursuit of peace, and all he served on the front lines.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_08: This son of David and of Solomon took up arms to defend Israel's freedom and laid down its life, his life, to secure Israel's future.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_08: He was a man completely without pretense, as all of his friends knew.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_08: I read that in 1949, after the War of Independence, David Ben Gurion sent him to represent Israel at the armistice talks at Rhodes, and he had never before worn a necktie and did not know how to tie the knot.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_08: So the problem was solved by a friend who tied it for him before he left and showed him how to preserve the knot simply by loosening the tie and pulling it over his head.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_08: Well, the last time we were together, not two weeks ago, he showed up for a black tie event on time, but without the black tie.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_08: And so he borrowed a tie, and I was privileged to straighten it for him.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_08: It is a moment I will cherish as long as I live.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_08: To him, ceremonies and words were less important than actions and deeds.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_08: Six weeks ago, uh, the king and President Mubarak will remember we were at the White House for signing the Israel-Palestinian agreement, and a lot of people spoke.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_08: I spoke, the king spoke, Chairman Arafat spoke, President Mubarak spoke, our foreign ministers all spoke.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_08: And finally, Prime Minister Rabin got up to speak and he said, First, the good news.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_08: I am the last speaker.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_08: But he also understood the power of words and symbolism.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_08: Take a look at the stage, he said in Washington.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_08: The King of Jordan, the President of Egypt, Chairman Arafat, and us, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel, on one platform.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_08: Please take a good hard look.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_08: The sight you see before you was impossible, was unthinkable just three years ago.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_08: Only poets dreamt of it, and to our great pain, soldier and civilian went to their death to make this moment possible.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_08: Those were his words.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_08: Today, my fellow citizens of the world, I ask all of you to take a good hard look at this picture.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_08: Look at the leaders from all over the Middle East and around the world who have journeyed here today for Yzakrabin and for peace.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_08: Though we no longer hear his deep and booming voice, it is he who has brought us together again here in word and deed for peace.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_08: Now it falls to all of us who love peace and all of us who loved him to carry on the struggle to which he gave life and for which he gave his life.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_08: He cleared the path, and his spirit continues to light the way.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_08: His spirit lives on in the growing peace between Israel and her neighbors.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_08: It lives in the eyes of the children, the Jewish and the Arab children, who are leaving behind a past of fear for a future of hope.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_08: It lives on in the promise of true security.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_08: So let me say to the people of Israel, even in your hour of darkness, his spirit lives on, and so you must not lose your spirit.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_08: Look at what you have accomplished.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_08: Making a once barren desert bloom, building a thriving democracy in a hostile terrain, winning battles and wars, and now winning the peace, which is the only enduring victory.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_08: Your Prime Minister was a martyr for peace, but he was a victim of hate.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_08: Surely we must learn from his martyrdom that if people cannot let go of the hatred of their enemies, they risk sowing the seeds of hatred among themselves.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_08: I ask you, the people of Israel, on behalf of my nation that knows its own long litany of loss, from Abraham Lincoln to President Kennedy to Martin Luther King, do not let that happen to you.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_08: In the Knesset, in your homes, in your places of worship, stay the righteous course.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_08: As Moses said to the children of Israel, when he knew he would not cross over into the Promised Land, be strong and of good courage.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_08: Fear not, for God will go with you.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_08: He will not fail you, he will not forsake you.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_08: President Weizman, Acting Prime Minister Perez, to all the people of Israel, that you stay the course of peace.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_08: I make this pledge.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_08: Neither will America forsake you.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_08: Legend has it that in every generation of Jews from time immemorial, a just leader emerged to protect his people and show them the way to safety.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_08: Prime Minister Rabin was such a leader.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_08: He knew as he declared to the world on the White House lawn two years ago that the time had come, in his words, to begin a new reckoning in the relations between people, between parents tired of war, between children who will not know war.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_08: Here in Jerusalem, I believe, with perfect faith, that he was leading his people to that promised land.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_08: This week, Jews all around the world are studying the Torah portion in which God tests the faith of Abraham, patriarch of the Jews and the Arabs.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_08: He commands Abraham to sacrifice Itzak.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_08: Take your son, the one you love, Itzak.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_08: As we all know, as Abraham in loyalty to God was about to kill his son, God spared Itzak.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_08: Now God tests our faith even more terribly, for he has taken our Itzok.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_08: But Israel's covenant with God for freedom, for tolerance, for security, for peace, that covenant must hold.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_08: That covenant was Prime Minister Rabin's life's work.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_08: Now we must make it his lasting legacy.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_08: His spirit must live on in us.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_08: The Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for mourning, never speaks of death, but often speaks of peace.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_08: In its closing words, may our hearts find a measure of comfort, and our souls the eternal touch of hope.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_08: Oh say shalom Bim Romov who Yah say Shalom Al Yenu the Al Cold Israel, the Imru Amen.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_10: And Shalom Have Amish Mal, Yawo Dom, Mishmau Dom Amish Mal, Yawo Noch, Amod Noch.