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Remembering Yitzhak Rabin
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| Last
uploaded : Friday 1st Nov 2002 at 22:38 |
| Contributed
by : Sheila Raviv and Thomas O'Dwyer |
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In commemoration of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, we referred our readers to this link to a highly controversial commentary by Thomas O'Dwyer of Ha'aretz, , 'Where the wild weeds flourish.'
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/
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This prompted a reply from Sheila Raviv:
Carol Dear,
I must tell you that I have never read such a load of ****! Mr O'Dwyer has absolutely no feel for the problems of the country and should understand that the appointment of the Director of the Rabin Institute has absolutely nothing to do with the PM. The Rabin Institute, like all NGOs has to get out there and appoint its director and fundraiser!!!
I loved Yitschak Rabin, but he was not a lefty. He hated Arafat and never trusted him. He cared deeply for this little beleaguered country. He was a soldier from start to finish and never be fooled into thinking otherwise.
Why does he say that Sharon is the worst? Sorry but he isn't. Peres was worse. Barak, whose greatest sin was giving half the country away, is also up for disdain? The bad guy is Arafat who reneged on yet another Israeli attempt at peace. Yigal Amir is considered public enemy number one here, by all but the lunatic fringe, and most certainly enemy number one in Sharon's terms. One may not agree with him, but don't vilify a democratically elected leader for crimes committed by others (the Lebanese Christian Falangists) after the destruction of their country and their right to religious practice.
When Ehud Barak left office he claimed that Ariel Sharon was among the only genuine, caring people left in the Knesset.
I am sick of journalists being so self righteous while looking through blinkers. If Mr O'Dwyer would check his facts before spouting off his words would carry far greater weight.
Best wishes
Sheila
Jerusalem
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and from Sheila Raviv on
15th October, 2002
Incredible. It is incredible to realise that seven years have passed since my last hug, since I last heard him speak, since he last made me smile. Seven years since I watched him walk, head tilted to one side, a half smile touching his
lips, blushing, staring at the floor, avoiding the eyes of the crowds. Seven years since Yitschak Rabin was murdered. Murdered by a fellow Jew.
The final memory of him singing, or rather growling off key, the song Shir HaShalom, song of peace, at a huge rally celebrating the advances in the peace process. Kings and Presidents cried at their loss, and ours.
Many people have tried to rewrite the character of the man. Yitchak Rabin was not a left wing radical, nor was he a politician, he was, however an Israeli and a General. The left calim that if he were only alive we would have closed all
the settlements, given away half of Jerusalem and lived in harmony with our neighbours. Tosh and nonsense. In papers recently brought to light by Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff, her father Yitschak had no intention of leaving Lebanon without Syrian withdrawal. A thoroughly loyal man, he knew the debt he owed to the South Lebanese Army, the last remaining remnants of the Christians of
Lebanon, and he would never have abandoned them.
It was Warren Christopher, a man Rabin despised, who went ahead with the unplanned withdrawal that allowed the flowering of Hisbollah and the occupation of Lebanon by Syrian armed rule.
Settlements? Yitschak Rabin spoke every day to Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, begging him to start building Har Homa before the"lefties" of the Supreme Court banned it. In fact, Yitchak Rabin and Ehud Olmert talked almost every day, each acting in concert with the other, in total agreement on the status of Jerusalem.
Yitschak Rabin would never have taken it on the chin for so many horrific months of terror before reacting. He had the measure of Arafat and would never have fallen for his ploys as did Peres, Barak, Netanyahu (yes, Netanhayu who gave Hebron over to Palestinian rule) and even Ariel Sharon.
Yitschak Rabin, the ultimate Israeli in so
many ways, would never have allowed any tinpot tyrant to terrorise Israelis.
Yitschak Rabin would also never ever have accepted the fact that Jews claim to be scared to visit their homeland, he would have given you hell!!!!
Yitschak Rabin, far too honest for politics, loathed politicians, but cared deeply about
every one of his people, his Israelis, and if you weren't with us you were against us.
I miss him so very much. A rare man, an honest politician, he always made me feel safe, because I knew he cared.
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