Yitzhak Rabin

Yitzhak Rabin was born on March 1, 1922, in Jerusalem to Nehemiah and Rosa Rabin. His father had immigrated from the United States and served in the Jewish Legion during World War I, while his mother was among the first members of the Haganah, the pre-state Jewish defense organization.[1]

Rabin grew up in Tel Aviv and studied there and in Givat Ha'Shlosha. He graduated from the Kadoorie Agricultural High School in 1940.[2] Although he had an opportunity to study water engineering in California, he instead enlisted in the Palmach.[3] In 1941 he was among its early recruits, serving in Company B at Kibbutz Hanita and later becoming deputy commander of the Palmach's first battalion.[2]

Rabin served in the Palmach and Israel Defense Forces for 27 years.[1] During the War of Independence, he served as a Palmach operations officer and commanded the Harel Brigade in the fighting for Jerusalem. The brigade participated in Operation Nahshon and fighting in the Katamonim.[3] In July 1948, Rabin served as operations officer for Operation Danny, which captured Lydda and Ramle. He later took part in planning Operations Yoav, Horev, and Uvda, and represented the Southern Command in the Rhodes negotiations that culminated in the February 24, 1949, armistice agreement with Egypt.[2]

After the war, Rabin studied at Britain's Camberley Staff College and held senior operational and training positions, including chief of the Northern Command, head of the Operations Directorate, and deputy chief of staff.[2][3] Prime Minister Levi Eshkol appointed him the IDF's seventh chief of the General Staff on January 1, 1964, with the rank of lieutenant general.[2][4]

Rabin prepared and commanded the IDF during the Six-Day War in June 1967. Israeli forces captured the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and East Jerusalem, bringing Jerusalem under Israeli control.[2] The victory established Rabin as one of Israel's foremost military figures. He stepped down as chief of staff on December 31, 1967.[4]

A recording released by the IDF Archive in November 2024 preserves a discussion held during Rabin's first premiership. He said: "In the Arab-Israeli conflict, I don't see a way to arrive at a solution through military means. If there is any chance, and I'm not sure there is, to arrive at a solution to the conflict, it is only by way of political negotiations." He added that negotiations had to rely on military power because otherwise "there will be no political negotiations at all."[5]

After retiring from the IDF in January 1968, Rabin became Israel's ambassador to the United States and served in Washington for five years.[1][6] He worked to consolidate bilateral ties and promoted what he regarded as strategic cooperation between the two countries, contributing to increased American military aid to Israel.[6] The posting also gave him diplomatic experience and extensive connections among American Jewish and Washington political circles.[7]

Rabin returned to Israel in 1973, entered Labor Party politics, and was elected to the Knesset. He became minister of labor in Golda Meir's government before the Knesset approved a government headed by him on June 2, 1974.[1] He was the first native-born Israeli, or sabra, to serve as prime minister.[8]

His government addressed economic and social problems, strengthened the military, and concluded Israel's first memorandum of understanding with the United States.[1] In 1975, Rabin signed an interim agreement with Egypt under which Israeli forces withdrew from the Suez Canal area in return for free passage of Israeli shipping through the canal. The agreement helped lay the groundwork for the Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979.[6][9]

In 1976, Rabin's government authorized the long-range rescue at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, freeing 94 Israeli passengers and 12 crew members held hostage after an aircraft hijacking.[10] Rabin prepared a resignation letter in case the operation failed, reflecting his practice of accepting personal responsibility for consequential decisions.[11]

In April 1977, disclosure that Rabin and his wife Leah had maintained Washington bank accounts in violation of Israeli foreign-currency law ended his leadership. One account contained approximately $3,000.[1][3] Rabin withdrew as Labor leader and candidate for prime minister. Labor subsequently lost the election to Menachem Begin's Likud, ending decades of Labor-led government.

After his first premiership, Rabin served on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In September 1984, he became defense minister in a national-unity government, remaining in the position until 1990. He oversaw military restructuring and the withdrawal of most Israeli troops from Lebanon.[1][10]

The First Intifada began in 1987. Rabin initially pursued forceful measures to suppress the uprising, but their failure to end it contributed to his conclusion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had no exclusively military solution.[11][7] He came to regard political engagement with Palestinian representatives as necessary, even while remaining doubtful about the prospects and risks of an agreement.

Rabin regained the Labor Party leadership in February 1992, led it to victory in the June election, and became prime minister for a second time.[1] His government authorized secret negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization. These became the first direct negotiations between the Israeli government and the PLO.[12]

The back-channel talks were conducted in Oslo after negotiations with local Palestinian representatives made little progress. Rabin monitored the talks from a distance and accepted the Oslo option after the parallel Syrian track reached a standstill.[13] His decision reflected what commentators have described as an analytical and realist approach: he weighed both the risks of negotiating with the PLO and the risks of continued inaction.[11]

At the White House on September 13, 1993, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO official Mahmoud Abbas signed the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements as Rabin, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, and U.S. President Bill Clinton attended the ceremony.[14] The agreement followed mutual-recognition letters exchanged by Israel and the PLO. It established a five-year interim process involving phased Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian population centers and the transfer of administrative authority to a Palestinian Authority. Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security, and borders were deferred to permanent-status negotiations.[15]

Addressing Palestinians at the ceremony, Rabin said: "We say to you today in a loud and a clear voice: Enough of blood and tears! Enough!" He continued that Israelis had no desire for revenge or hatred and wanted to live beside Palestinians "in dignity, in empathy, as human beings, as free men."[16]

The Gaza-Jericho Agreement was signed in Cairo on May 4, 1994. Oslo II, formally the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, was signed in Washington on September 28, 1995.[14] Presenting Oslo II to the Knesset on October 5, Rabin described it as a 300-page agreement covering security, elections, water, electricity, safe passage, holy places, archaeological sites, redeployment, policing, bypass roads, and protection for Israeli communities.[17]

Rabin also outlined his vision for a permanent arrangement. He said Israel would not return to the June 4, 1967, lines and called for a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty, settlement blocs including Gush Etzion, Efrat, and Beitar, and an Israeli security border in the Jordan Valley. He envisioned a Palestinian entity that would manage Palestinian affairs independently but would be "less than a state."[17] He also stated that Areas A and B comprised less than 30 percent of the West Bank, while Area C, including Jewish communities, IDF installations, and the Jordan border area, comprised more than 70 percent and would remain under IDF control during the interim period.[17]

On October 26, 1994, Rabin and Jordanian Prime Minister Abdelsalam al-Majali signed the Treaty of Peace between Israel and Jordan. The treaty followed the Washington Declaration of July 25, which had ended the formal state of belligerency between the two countries.[14] Rabin, Peres, and Arafat jointly received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Oslo process.[12] In his acceptance speech, Rabin declared: "We will pursue the course of peace with determination and fortitude. We will not let up. We will not give in. Peace will triumph over all our enemies, because the alternative is grim for us all."[9]

On November 4, 1995, Rabin attended a peace rally at Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv under the slogan "Yes to Peace, No to Violence." More than 100,000 people attended, and Rabin joined singer Miri Aloni in singing Shir LaShalom, the Song of Peace.[18] When aides urged him to wear a bulletproof vest, he reportedly replied: "If there comes a time when I would need a bulletproof vest, I no longer want to be prime minister of this country."[19]

As Rabin walked toward his car, Yigal Amir, a 27-year-old religiously observant law student opposed to Rabin's peace policies, fired three shots with a Beretta 84F pistol. Two struck Rabin, while another slightly wounded security guard Yoram Rubin.[18][20] Rabin was taken to Ichilov Hospital, where he died from blood loss and a punctured lung. He was 73 and became the first Israeli prime minister to be assassinated.[18]

Rabin's funeral was held at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on November 6, 1995, and attended by world leaders including U.S. President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Jordanian King Hussein. Amir was convicted of murder in March 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with an additional six years for wounding Rubin. Kings of Israel Square was renamed Rabin Square, and Israel observes Rabin's memorial day on 12 Heshvan.[18]

The government appointed a commission of inquiry chaired by Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar. It began work on November 19, 1995, heard 72 witnesses in 61 meetings, and compiled a 6,385-page report.[20] Its conclusions, issued on March 28, 1996, criticized the Shin Bet for failing to respond adequately to the threat from Jewish extremists and for allowing the prime minister to remain in a dangerous situation.[19]

Rabin's career extended from the pre-state Palmach through the War of Independence, the Six-Day War, diplomacy in Washington, and two premierships. His governments produced an interim agreement with Egypt, Operation Entebbe, the Oslo agreements, and the peace treaty with Jordan. Few Israeli leaders occupied such a broad range of military, diplomatic, and political roles.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described Rabin as "a brilliant soldier who hated war" and "a man of battle who longed for peace." Sacks invoked the Hebrew concept of gevurah, defining it as both the courage to wage war when necessary and the courage to make peace when possible.[21] This combination of military strength and political negotiation also appears in Rabin's recorded 1974 remarks, in which he rejected a military solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict while insisting that meaningful negotiations depended on military power.[5]

The Oslo process established mutual recognition and direct negotiations between Israel and the PLO, while the Jordan treaty established peace and full diplomatic ties between Israel and Jordan.[15][14] Rabin's assassination became a watershed in Israeli national memory. The square where he was killed bears his name, and an annual national memorial is observed on the Hebrew anniversary of his death.[18]

The Oslo Accords, their implementation, and their subsequent breakdown remain deeply contested. Rabin's final Knesset speech is central to competing interpretations of his intentions: it affirmed territorial redeployment and Palestinian self-government while rejecting a return to the June 4, 1967, lines and describing the proposed Palestinian entity as "less than a state."[17] Accounts of the negotiations also emphasize his ambivalence toward the PLO and his decision to accept Oslo after other diplomatic tracks stalled.[13]

The political climate preceding the assassination remains another subject of debate. Anti-Oslo demonstrations included images of Rabin in an SS uniform and a keffiyeh, while some ultra-nationalist rabbis argued that territorial concessions made him a rodef, or pursuer, whose killing could ostensibly be justified in self-defense.[19] Debate continues over the responsibility of political rhetoric, religious extremism, security failures, and broader social divisions. The Shamgar Commission concentrated principally on failures in the prime minister's protection.[18][20]

The statement "We will break their bones" is commonly attributed to Rabin in connection with the First Intifada. Leah Rabin denied that he said it, while other accounts interpret the phrase, if uttered, as an instruction to avoid shooting stone-throwing Palestinians. The attribution should therefore be treated as disputed.[3]