Conference taveng::bagels

    I wish to express my condolences.
    

    I am deeply saddened by this loss, by this act of violence.
    
    Shalom,
    Richard
    

This is terrible.

Unfortunately, it is likely that this madman accomplished his goal.

The peace process is over for the time being, and it's very unlikely
that the next prime minister will be willing to continue the autonomy
process.

/john

Yitzhak Rabin assassinated
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(c) 1995 Copyright Nando.net
From Wire Reports

TEL AVIV, Israel (Nov 4, 1995 - 17:48 EST) -- Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin, an Israeli war hero who became one of his country's foremost
architects of peace, was shot and killed Saturday night as he left a
pro-peace rally. A suspect, a right-wing Jewish law student, was in custody.

Rabin, 73, was about to get into his car when the gunman fired three bullets
from a close distance, hitting Rabin in the back and stomach. He was taken
to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, where he died about an hour later on the
operating table.

Hundreds of people waiting outside the hospital burst into tears when
Rabin's top aide, Eitan Haber, announced that Rabin had died. In spontaneous
mourning, Israelis held up candles and cigarette lighters to express their
sorrow.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who was with Rabin at the rally and was only
yards away when the shots were fired, assumed the leadership of the
government.

By law, when a prime minister dies in office, the government is deemed to
have resigned and becomes a transitional government. The president, Ezer
Weizman, must begin contacts on the formation of a new government.

Peres convened the shaken Cabinet ministers for a special mourning session
in Tel Aviv late Saturday. One of the ministers, Yossi Sarid, vowed that the
government would carry on Rabin's peace policies.

PLO chief Yasser Arafat, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin, said
that Rabin was a "great leader of peace."

Israeli radio and TV reports identified the gunman as Yigal Amir, a
27-year-old law student from the central town of Herzliya who had been
involved in right-wing causes, including setting up illegal settlements in
the West Bank.

TV reports said Amir told his investigators he acted alone and that he did
not regret the deed.

"I acted alone on God's orders and I have no regrets," the radio quoted
Amir, a student, as telling police investigators.

Earlier Saturday, a previously unknown Jewish extremist group, identified
only as "In," claimed responsibility in an announcement given to Israeli
police reporters on their beepers.

Government spokesman Uri Dromi said that "a Jewish organization which is
anti-government and against the peace process took responsibility." He said
the group identified the gunman as acting for them.

Television footage from the rally showed a clean-shaven man with short, dark
hair being pinned to a wall by dozens of police.

Just before his death, Rabin had spoken at a rally held in Tel Aviv's Kings
Square in support of their peace policies. Some 100,000 people attended.

Noam Kedem, a 26-year-old lawyer from Tel Aviv who supports the peace
process, said he heard two or three shots and "I saw Rabin holding his
stomach. I don't know exactly where he was shot, but he was holding his
whole body and then he fell on the ground."

He said security men hovered over him and then two more shots were fired.

Avital Shahar, an official of the right-wing Likud Party's youth wing, said
the shooting was "the worst thing that has ever happened in this country."

As he spoke, onlookers shouted insults, blaming the attack on right-wing
incitement. In recent weeks, the government reportedly increased security
around Rabin and his Cabinet members after threats from right-wing groups.

"I am horrified by this terrible attack, and I am praying along with all of
Israel for Rabin's health and I wish him with all my heart a speedy
recovery," said Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

In recent weeks, Rabin had expressed concern about growing political
violence in Israel, which is deeply divided over his autonomy agreement with
the Palestinians. Under the accord, Israeli troops are to pull out of most
West Bank towns and villages by the end of the year.

At a recent anti-government rally in Jerusalem, protesters held up posters
of Rabin in a Nazi uniform and others jumped and banged on the car of
Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.

At last Sunday's Cabinet session, Ben-Eliezer brought up the issue of
growing political violence. Education Minister Amnon Rubinstein voiced
concern that many of the right-wing protesters were armed. Many Israelis,
especially Jewish settlers, are given guns by the government for
self-protection.

Rabin was born March 1, 1922 in Jerusalem into a socialist family. In high
school, he joined the Palmach underground army and as a 26-year-old
commanded the Harel Brigades that defended Jerusalem against Arab troops in
the 1948 Middle East war.

He served as army chief of staff from 1963 to 1968, followed by a four-year
stint as Israel's ambassador to Washington.

In 1974, Israel's ruling Labor Party designated Rabin, then a political
freshmen, to succeed Prime Minister Golda Meir, who had to step down after
leading Israel to the brink of disaster in the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

Three years later, Rabin himself had to resign over his wife Leah's illegal
U.S. bank account, and he also lost leadership of the party to his political
archrival, Shimon Peres.

With the 1977 election victory of the right-wing Likud party, Rabin moved to
the sidelines for seven years, but in 1984 was called back and served for
six years as defense minister in Labor-Likud coalition governments.

After his 1992 election victory, Rabin told his people it was time to
discard old fears and build a lasting peace.

"No longer are we necessarily 'A people that dwell alone,' and no longer is
it true that 'The whole world is against us'," he said.

     New York Leaders Bemoan Rabin's Loss, Urge More Peace Efforts

     Associated Press , 11/04

     NEW YORK (AP) - New York leaders expressed shock and outrage Saturday
     over the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel
     Aviv.

     ``All of New York joins with the people of Israel in shock, sorrow and
     prayer,'' said a statement from Governor George E. Pataki.

     He said the assassination was ``another signal of the dangerous times
     we live in and the importance of making every effort to bring about
     peace.''

     New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani echoed the thought, calling
     Rabin's loss ``a tragedy that shocks the entire world.''

     ``Israel has lost a patriot and great leader, America has lost a
     steadfast friend and the world has lost a unique man whose bravery and
     wisdom have become a force for peace,'' Giuliani said.

     Giuliani said that New Yorkers were praying and sending condolences to
     Rabin's widow, Leah and his family. ``We must do all that we can to
     live up to his legacy of peace.''

     Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) told The Associated Press there was a
     ``chilling parallel,'' between Rabin's fate and that of the late
     Egyptian President Anwar Sadat who was gunned down in 1981, two years
     after becoming the first Arab leader to sign a peace treaty with
     Israel.

     But Engel said he expected peace efforts to go forward, perhaps with
     more resolve, including on the part of the U.S. Congress.

     ``I think this will give impetus to the peace process,'' he said.
     ``This is going to jar a lot of people into realizing how fragile it is
     and how we need to be behind it.''

     Jewish leaders were more emotional in their response.

     The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization, an
     umbrella group of leading Jewish groups across America, expressed
     ``shock, grief, outrage and condemnation.''

     The Conference's chairman Leon Levy and executive vice chairman Malcolm
     Hoenlein called jointly for a crackdown on a recent ``campaign of
     verbal violence,''against the peace process among right-wingers both in
     Israel and the United States.

     Condemning the assassination as a ``senseless act of violence,
     completely against Jewish values,'' the Conference blamed some of the
     extreme criticism of the peace process by right-wingers for creating a
     climate for the assassination. Levy and Hoenlein called for ``an end to
     the kind of rhetoric, which when pushed to its extreme, can lead to
     terrible deeds, such as the one perpetrated today in Tel Aviv.''

     ``We are shocked and dismayed by this reprehensible act of violence,''
     Tommy P. Baer, President of the Washington-based B'nai B'rith
     International, said.

     AP-DS-11-04-95 1856EST

World Leaders Condemn Rabin Shooting, Extremist Arabs Rejoice

By CINDY ROBERTS

Associated Press Writer

Yitzhak Rabin's enemies lit up the skies over the Middle East with
celebratory gunfire Saturday, while admirers around the world mourned the
violent end to the Israeli Prime Minister's quest for peace.

In Lebanon, Palestinians in a refugee camp in Sidon danced in the streets
and fired rocket-propelled grenades into the air upon word of Rabin's
assassination in Tel Aviv.

"Rabin is dead! Rabin is dead!" chanted one motorcyclist driving through
Beirut's Hamra district, announcing the news to the few celebrants who did
not know. Strangers handed out candy and flowers to one another.

But Middle East partners in the peace process mourned the killing.

PLO chief Yasser Arafat expressed shock and sadness, calling Rabin "a great
leader of peace."

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel just a year ago, pledged
work for peace would - and must - continue.

"There is only one way to counter extremism on both sides and that is to
press ahead with the peace process," a Jordanian government spokesman said.

President Clinton said, in Washington, "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."

Hundreds of vehicles toured Muslim west Beirut and the Shiite southern
suburbs, blowing their horns and carrying portraits of Iran's late
revolutionary patriarch Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and flags of Hezbollah.

Many in the crowd shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is Great." Others
beat drums as they sped in cars through the darkened city.

"I do not regret the death of the foremost head of terrorism in the world,"
said Ramadan Abdullah Shallah in Damascus, Syria, new leader of the Islamic
Jihad following an assassination last week that his group blames on Israel.

"What of it, if the world loses one of its killer criminals?" Shallah asked.
"It is the blessing of the blood of the leader Dr. Fathi Shakaki."

Hezbollah television broadcast chants of victory and praised the Muslim holy
war.

Iran's state-run news agency headlined: "Rabin Dead, Paid in His Own Coin."

"Rabin was an ardent advocate of state terrorism and believed that the
Zionist entity should break every international norm in the pursuit of its
sinister goals," the Islamic Republic News Agency said.

In Rome, Pope John Paul II expressed "grief and worry," Italy's ANSA and AGI
news agencies reported.

Rabin was only the latest leader in the Middle East to die for attempting to
bring together the region's people, many world leaders noted.

"It is tragic that exactly political personalities who strive for peace and
reconciliation are victims of attacks," German Finance Minister Theo Waigel
said. "This happened with Egyptian President Anwar el Sadat, and now also
with Rabin."

Rabbi had placed curse on Rabin -report
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(c) Copyright 1995 Nando.net

Reuters

JERUSALEM - A Jewish mystic opposed to Israel's giving up West Bank land for
peace placed a curse on Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a month ago, appealing
to the angels to kill him by this week.

The Jerusalem Report magazine said in its latest edition published last week
that a Jerusalem rabbi, who declined to give his name, stood outside Rabin's
house on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.

It said the rabbi, who identified himself as a member of the anti-Arab Kach
movement, cursed Rabin with a pulsa denura -- Aramaic for "lashes of fire"
-- for Rabin's "heretical" policies.

"And on him, Yitzhak son of Rosa, known as Rabin, we have permission...to
demand from the angels of destruction that they take a sword to this wicked
man...to kill him...for handing over the Land of Israel to our enemies, the
sons of Ishmael."

The rabbi said the curse generally works within 30 days. That put the expiry
date -- for Rabin or the curse -- in early November, the magazine said.

Israeli right-wingers who have demonstrated against Rabin's peace policies
view the West Bank as part of the Land of Israel given the Jews by God in
the Bible.

    
    I wish to convay my extreem regreat at the death of such a great and
    brave man. He was prepaired to standup against all that was wrong, and
    fight for peace in the region. His name will surly go down in the
    history books as one of the great leaders of the 20th Century. I still
    find it hard to believe that he is dead when I think about it. 
    
    Speaking on behalf of all the Jewish Community in Dublin, Ireland, I wish
    to send my deep regrat to all the people of Israel and all the Jews
    around the world that are comming to terms with this terrible loss.
    
    A service will take place in Stratford College (the only Jewish school)
    at 12:00 GMT, and another service will take place in Adelaide Shull on
    Wenesday at 19:00 GMT.
    
    Heath Baum. (Dublin, Ireland) 
    

the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin exposes the fragility of the peace 
process in the middle east. it does so with a most unexpected and shocking 
brutality.

i am deeply saddened by the loss of this unique, outstanding leader and 
man of peace. i am also in deep sorrow with and for my friends in israel 
and am concerned with the future of this formidable country.

my hope is that the goals of the assassin will not be met. that as we are
faced with this terrible murder, we and our leaders everywhere, in israel, 
in america, in europe and in the arab world, shakened and awakened by this
act of brutality, will rally behind the peace process with reinforced 
attention and intensified commitment. 

we cannot yield to the murderers of peace. i truly hope that the peace 
process will now be accelerated and that, inside and outside of israel, 
there will be many more men and women like Rabin. 


i send you my condolences.


shalom,

andreas.
zurich, switzerland

    This is a tragedy.
    
    Some people came down to a point where the value of land is greater than 
    the value of life. We have seen that in many other countries and 
    nations, but not yet in Israel. Fortunately very few people reached that 
    point (contrary to what some medias would like us to believe).
    
    There was a lot of oral attacks against PM Rabin and we should have 
    warned that oral attacks are not inoffensive and that eventually they 
    would become real attacks when they are misunderstood by some people. We 
    have proven it the hard way.
    
    In many countries, not enough is done to stop violent speeches and 
    violent books or articles. Just think about the disasters made by the 
    "Protocol of the wise men of Zion". This happens today all over the 
    world and it did happen all along the history.
    
    In Israel, a few months ago, there was a sticker that said "Ha am im 
    haGolan" (the Nation with the Golan) and some people changed that 
    sticker to say "Ha am im ha am" (the Nation with the Nation), i.e. we 
    should get unified first.
    
    All this issue around the peace process is very complex and it creates 
    internal divisions both in Israel and in the Arabic world.
    
    Personally I think that when we reach critical decisions for the future 
    of Israel such as giving away territories, we must have a higher 
    consensus than we used to have. For decisions of such importance we 
    probably better have a coalition of 90 (or whatever) members in the 
    Knesset.
    
    At least this would ensure that a larger part of the citizens are 
    satisfied. Maybe it would have somehow slowdown the speed of the peace 
    process, but this is a risk and it is rather difficult to say what is 
    best.
    The "third way" is maybe the way forward.
    
    Regards, Andre.
    

I am at a loss for words in the face of this tragedy, as I continue
to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, Israel, and the Middle East.

Leslie

    I was shocked when I heard the news this weekend.  My condolences to
    Jews everywhere.

    I am also shocked and saddended that this person would commit such a
    crime, and feel no regret or saddness.  I am also shocked that
    extremist religeous leaders do not actively comdenm this man.  Murder
    is never right under any circumstances.  His act was the act of a
    coward.  Forget the rhetoric of world leaders and listen to the remarks 
    of his granddaughter and know that although he was a leader he was also
    a simple man and a family man.

    The flags were at half-mast at my university today in honor of Rabin.

I too am deeply saddened.  I had and have my doubts about the "peace 
process" -- not the objective but with the actual path.  I disagree 
with John Covert, however, in his opinion that this will derail the 
process.  I think the opposite will occur.  I believe that on one 
hand the Jews will lend more support to the process and that on the 
other hand Arafat will truly realize that he has a small window of 
opportunity to make this succeed.  I hope it succeeds and more 
importantly that it SUCCEEDS.

Shelly(Sheldon)

    mir fehlen die (englischen) Worte, um meiner Bestuerzung ueber 
    diese Wahnsinnstat Ausdruck zu verleihen.
    Meine Familie und ich trauern mit dem israelischen Volk und allen 
    friedliebenden Menschen dieser Welt um Herrn Rabin.
    
    Peter Wolf
    Frankfurt / Germany
     

	Your loss is also our loss.  May his good intentions
	turn out to be fruitful ones.

	Best,
       -Sultan    

    This was a tragedy not only for Jews and Israel, but for all people
    that want and work for peace.
    
    May those that replace Rabin exact the greatest revenge on his killers,
    and that is to complete the work he started.
    
    
    My condolences to all.
    
    
    Marilyn
    

From the Boston Globe - Nov. 7, 1995

> Rabin is not the first victim of this ancient scourge
>
>    By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Staff , 11/07
>
>
>
>        In the tear-stained history of the Jewish people, few chapters are
>        more tragic than those in which Jews turned against each other.
>
>        The worst pre-Holocaust calamity in Jewish annals - the sack of
>        the Second Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70 amid an orgy of
>        slaughter - was made vastly more deadly by the Jewish infighting
>        that preceded it. Appeasers who favored surrender to Rome warred
>        with zealots who preached resistance. The rift between the
>        factions grew deep and savage. Jewish blood flowed in Jerusalem's
>        streets long before the Romans breached her walls. The rabbis
>        would later teach that the destruction of the Temple and the long
>        nightmare of Jewish homelessness it ushered in were caused not by
>        the military might of the Roman Empire, but by [sinat chinam]
>        baseless hatred among Jews.
>
>        As the sickening murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
>        makes clear, [sinat chinam] still envenoms the Jews and politics
>        of Israel.
>
>        The Jewish fanatic who killed Rabin has plunged Israelis into the
>        same shock and grief Americans felt when John F. Kennedy was cut
>        down - a stunned agony that knows no party and suspends, at least
>        temporarily, all the polemics of politics. ``The mind cannot take
>        it and the heart weeps,'' said Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday
>        night. Netanyahu is head of the Likud Party and had been among
>        Rabin's severest critics. But in that hour he spoke for all his
>        countrymen.
>
>        Israelis are united now in mourning their leader. But there is no
>        unity in Israel. The peace process that Rabin was celebrating in
>        the hour of his death has divided Israelis more bitterly than any
>        issue in their state's 47-year history.
>
>        Just over two years ago, mutterings first began that Israel was
>        heading toward a civil war. Such talk then seemed paranoid and
>        feverish. Today, as freshly turned earth covers Rabin's grave, it
>        begins to sound almost plausible.
>
>        It is impossible to overstate how profoundly Israeli society has
>        been riven by the Labor Party's peace process. The country is
>        split in half. The split is not between those who favor peace and
>        those who oppose it. It is between those who believe that giving
>        up land to the PLO and Syria - including land on which Israelis
>        were encouraged to build homes and raise children - is the only
>        way to end Arab-Israeli enmity, and those who fear that such a
>        formula represents a mortal threat to the Jewish state.
>
>        Those fears are not groundless. In the 25 months since Rabin and
>        Yasser Arafat first shook hands on the White House lawn, scores of
>        Israelis have died at the hands of Arab suicide bombers. Among
>        radical Palestinians, the cry of ``Death to the Jews'' has only
>        intensified. Arafat himself has repeatedly made speeches (in
>        Arabic) praising terrorists and calling for martyrdom and jihad -
>        holy war - to ``liberate'' Jerusalem. No wonder half of Israel
>        thinks the Labor government's peace process has been a dreadful
>        mistake.
>
>        Only by the barest majority - 61-59 - did parliament vote last
>        month to ratify the accord with the PLO. Two weeks earlier, a
>        national poll found that 56 percent of Israelis rated the peace
>        process ``bad'' or ``very bad.'' The world applauded Rabin - as
>        now, heartsick, it eulogizes him - for his willingness to reach
>        out in peace to the Arab enemies he had fought for so long. The
>        final tragedy of this man is that he could not extend the same
>        hand of peace to his opponents at home.
>
>        Instead of allaying the fears of the many Israelis who opposed his
>        concessions to Arafat, Rabin and his ministers demonized them.
>        Settlers in the territories were ``cry babies,'' he said, not
>        ``real Israelis.'' Peaceful protesters found themselves manhandled
>        by Israeli police. Stories mounted of elderly women being roughed
>        up in the streets, teen-agers being kicked and beaten. Rarely,
>        said Ida Nudel - a former Soviet prisoner of conscience who was
>        called the ``Angel of Mercy'' for her self-sacrifice in the Gulag
>        - had the KGB treated dissidents the way Rabin's government was
>        treating its opponents.
>
>        Rabin blasted an audience of immigrants, some of them noisy
>        critics of his policies, as ``racists'' and ``an embarrassment to
>        Judaism.'' Foreign Minister Shimon Peres - now the acting prime
>        minister - spurned hunger strikers as ``undemocratic.'' Another
>        minister called opponents of the government's policy
>        ``barbarians.'' The director-general of the foreign ministry
>        excommunicated anyone who opposed financial aid to the PLO - aid,
>        yet! - as an enemy of Israel.
>
>        ``Such verbal violence tends to beget responses in kind,'' warned
>        the Jerusalem Post. ``Some settlers have shamelessly and
>        despicably taken to calling government leaders liars, traitors and
>        murderers. ... With national tensions reaching a breaking point,
>        and with anxiety exacerbated by terrorist incidents ... it can
>        trigger physical conflict.''
>
>        That warning appeared on Dec. 9, 1993. It ended thus: ``It is time
>        the government, and particularly Rabin himself, began to realize
>        that maligning the settlers may gain political points with party
>        followers; but ultimately such irresponsible rhetoric will
>        endanger the very fabric of the nation.''
>
>        And so now Yitzhak Rabin, a man of courage and patriotism and many
>        virtues, lies dead by the hand of a fellow Jew. The ancient
>        scourge of - hatred without cause - has claimed another victim.
>
>        This story ran on page 19 of the Boston Globe on 11/07.

    I am happy to report that according to a news report yesterday,
    over 70% of Israelis now favor continuing with the peace process. The
    Israeli government also moved up the pullout from Jenin, originally
    set for Nov. 19th, to today "to signal its commitment to its
    agreements with the PLO."
    

By Yechiel M. Leiter

The writer is the Director of the Foreign Desk of the Yesha Council.

Now is the time for eulogies - heart wrenching eulogies which speak only of
the good - the good that Yitzchak Rabin, z'l,
brought Israel and the Jewish people.  There is an understandable tendency,
though, to go beyond that good and deify the
political leaders slain by depraved madmen.

While all, supporters and critics of Mr. Rabin alike, mourn the senseless and
tragic loss of Israel's Prime Minister, many of
the believers in Mr. Rabin's policies are using this period of national
mourning to indict Mr. Rabin's opponents as his
crucifiers.  It is not the lone assassin but the words of Mr. Rabin's
political opponents which killed him, they are suggesting.

Were it not for the blood libel being created against Israel's entire
opposition in general and the Jews of Yesha in particular, I
would not write these lines.  Certainly not now.  But I cannot allow this
charge to go unanswered.  Our accusers would have
everyone believe that in order to sincerely mourn the loss of Yitzchak Rabin
one must believe in his policies.  And what's
worse, one who doesn't agree with his policies, is in some way an accomplice
to his murder.

I have spent the last three and a half years of my life contesting Mr.
Rabin's policies.  It was, and continues to be, my
democratic right. war - the government has found it easier to negotiate with the Palestinian
Arabs that maintain a dialogue with its Jewish
opponents.  Every Palestinian Arab violation was overlooked or explained
away, but every Jewish criticism was denounced
as anti-democratic or as warmongering.

"They mean nothing to me", or literally translated, "They don't move me", Mr.
Rabin frequently said of the masses
demonstrating against his policies.

If climate is to blame then could we not have anticipated that there would be
those who would feel they were suffocating as
government ministers unabashedly spoke of "choking" them?

Menachem Begin, z"l, did not speak of "choking" his opponents, did not embark
on a policy of squeezing the kibbutzim,
and did not indulge in character assassination of his opponents.  He did
listen and was "moved" by those demonstrating
against him.

When the protesters demanded a commission of inquiry over the Sabra and
Shatilla massacre they got it.  And if we are to
accept the argument that it was "climate" which led to this horrific tragedy
then it was Menachem Begin's being "moved"
and showing the left that he listened and cared about their position too,
which prevented the same type of heinous crime
from being committed when he, Sharon and Eitan were at the helm and being
vilified.  Our demands were not for a
commission of inquiry but a national referendum, new elections, or anything
which would have led to a consensus in the
pursuit of peace.  Had our pleas been heeded perhaps the unthinkable would
never have become reality.

If anything is to be learned from this tragedy, it is that the pursuit of
peace necessitates a consensus no less than the waging
of war.  If something must change it is the notion that peace can be achieved
with our enemies before we learn to live with
each other.  Rather than pointing fingers of accusation, it is now the time
to extend hands in the pursuit of peace - peace
between Jewish brothers and sisters.


Much to the consternation of our critics I will, together with my family,
friends and colleagues, continue to mourn Yitzchak
Rabin.  I will mourn him not as the deity of peace but as a mortal man who
defended Jerusalem in the War of Independence,
led Israel to the magnificent victory of the Six Day War, helped to forge a
strategic alliance with the United States and who
altruistically sought peace, but made terrible mistakes in trying to achieve
it.  And it is those mistakes which I will continue
to oppose as I grieve his loss.




[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

    Does anyone have an English translation of the Song for Peace that they
    would consider posting?  Thanks.
    

    The Song is available at http://www.netking.com
    

For the WWWeb challenged:

	Let the sun rise
	and light the morning
	even the purest prayer
	will not bring us back

	Bitter tears will not revive
	will never wake up
	those whose candles were turned off
	and in dust were buried

	No one will bring us back
	from the darkness of our pit
	not the joy of victory
	nor praise hymns

	  That's why you should just
	  sing a song for peace
	  don't whisper your prayer
	  sing out loud the song of peace

	Let the sun shine
	through the flowers
	don't look back
	let the goners go

	Look up in hope
	not through gun sights
	sing a song for love
	and not for war

	Don't say "one day"
	bring that day
	because it is not a dream
	and in every corner
	cheer for peace.

Lyrics: Yaakov Rotblit   Melody Yair Rosenbloom

On http://www.netking.com/hrabin.html it also appears in Hebrew.

(Re: .4 ) 
>At a recent anti-government rally in Jerusalem, protesters held up posters
>of Rabin in a Nazi uniform ...

Following the Rabin assassination, the above incident served as a
rallying point of the Israeli left in their unprecedented campaign to
deligitimize the right-wing groups in general and the religious community
in particular.  The incident was broadcast far and wide and for weeks was
the object of commentary and analysis in the Israeli media.

Then some embarrasing facts began to emerge. Rabbi Beni Alon, a prominent
spokesman of the Yesha settlers, announced that he had irrefutable
evidence exposing Avishai Raviv as a GSS (General Security Services)
agent. Raviv had been identified by a reporter as the person responsible
for distributing the nazi posters mentioned above. At first this was
officially denied but today it is a generally accepted fact that Raviv
was indeed an 'agent provocateur' implanted by the GSS for the purpose of
defaming the right-wing groups.

The following article appeared recently in the Jerusalem Post. In
contrast to the nazi-poster incident, this story has received little or
no coverage in the Israeli Hebrew media.
==========================================================================
[From the Jerusalem Post Web page]

Schoolgirls speak up 

by URI DAN and DENNIS EISENBERG 

(The writers are authors of The Mossad: Secrets of the Israeli Secret
Service and other books on the Middle East.)

(February 1) - A small group of schoolgirls aged 14-17 from Kedumim recently
appeared before a private sitting of the Shamgar Commission. No TV cameras
or journalists recorded their discreet entry into a quiet room where they
were greeted by the recorder of the committee looking into the security
lapse on the night of Yitzhak Rabin's murder. 

Their teacher, Sarah Eliash, had already appeared voluntarily before the
commission and related how her pupils had run to see her on the night of the
killing. In tears they said they knew Yigal Amir, and had recognized him on
their TV screens. 

They had met both Amir and Avishai Raviv, the GSS agent, at the new
settlement of Ma'aleh Yisrael near Barkan in Samaria last summer. So
startling was Eliash's evidence that Shamgar requested that the girls give
their account of events to the commission personally. 

Initially, the girls refused to do so point-blank. They were terrified of
being harassed by police, as had happened to other girls who had been
slapped and beaten in Hebron and forced to come to Jerusalem. They feared
arrest, as had happened to so many others who had known both Amir and Raviv.
The last thing they wanted, they said, was to be put into prison without
trial and not be able to see their parents. 

Having received a firm commitment by the commission that the girls' safety
would be guaranteed, their teacher suggested to them that it was their civic
duty to relate what had happened. Although still nervous, they finally
agreed to be brought from their homes to Jerusalem. 

"We used to see Raviv and Amir on Saturdays during last summer," they
related. "These gatherings were arranged by Yigal. We would sit out on the
hilltop there. There was no demonstrations or any violence. They were
basically study groups. We met like that several times." 

It was then that one of the girls told the recorder: "Raviv was real macho.
He kept saying to Yigal: 'You keep talking about killing Rabin. Why don't
you do it? Are you frightened? You say you want to do it. Show us that
you're a man! Show us what you're made of!' "

The other girls present corroborated the evidence. How did Amir react to the
goading by Raviv? they were asked. All replied in roughly the same way: "He
didn't react. He just sat there and said nothing, or he changed the subject." 

The Amir trial reveals details of events on those Saturdays, and much of the
evidence given at the Shamgar Commission covers a great deal of the same
ground. But one vital matter seems not to be getting any attention at all.
We know that Raviv was an agent for the GSS, whose task it was to penetrate
the settler and right-wing religious student organizations. To do so he had
even set up his own Eyal extremist group at a demonstration right in front
of Rabin's home in Ramat Aviv. It was a legitimate action, the kind in use
by secret services the world over. 

But at what point did Raviv cross that crucial and dangerous red line to
become a full-blooded agent provocateur, as the Kedumim girls so graphically
described? 

This is a technique which was cultivated in an amateurish way by the Russian
czars, and turned into a chilling, brutal science by the Bolsheviks and
Stalin. Such an act is anathema to any democracy. And Israel has, rightly,
always proudly claimed to be the only democracy in the Middle East. 

What happened to the upper echelons in the GSS to mar this image? Not to put
too fine a point on it -- to order provocative actions is grossly immoral
and corrupting. 

We believe this matter should not be swept under the carpet. There are
important questions which must be answered. No agent works on his own
initiative. Raviv had handlers and case officers -- at least 10, as revealed
to the writers of this column. And doubtless there were others like Raviv in
operation. 

To become an agent provocateur had to have had the blessing of the very top
echelon. GSS boss Karmi Gillon must have been aware of it, for no underling
would have dared take such a drastic step on his own initiative. 

And if Gillon knew, it raises this question: Did Gillon's boss, the prime
minister, know anything about the astonishing operation going on in
democratic Israel? Or was he kept in the dark? 

We know, furthermore, that the GSS turns to the legal authorities of the
country for permission to carry out special acts of controlled force against
suspected terrorists. The legal authorities, rightly so, give the GSS such
permission in the interests of its citizens' welfare. 

Which legal authority did Gillon or his deputies turn to in order to obtain
the law's blessing for an act normally practiced in only the most brutal
dictatorship regimes? 

These questions are not being posed out of mild curiosity. They are vital
matters which the new boss of the GSS, the strongly independent naval hero
Ami Ayalon, will certainly look into as he begins to revitalize the secret
service. 

Ayalon will certainly want to know the answers, and we believe he will make
it his business to uncover the unsavory agent provocateur business unfolded
by the young girls who saw it function at close quarters. 

He has the courage to do it. If ever a man has proved himself, it is Ayalon.
In the epic battle to capture the Green Island Egyptian sea base during the
War of Attrition in 1969 he was wounded three times, first in the hand, then
the neck, and finally in the chest before seeking medical treatment. 

Ayalon may well need all his determination to sweep away the labyrinthine
political games GSS chiefs are playing instead of focusing on their key role
in the months ahead: The danger of terrorism facing the country from the
areas under PLO control now so desperately close to the heartland of major
Israeli cities. 

And Avishai Raviv? What has happened to him? The last time he was seen, he
was being driven off in a GSS vehicle with the words "Shalom haver" on its
rear window.