Remembering Rabin, a soldier for peace
China Daily  Updated: 2005-11-05 06:22

He lived as a soldier with a hawkish reputation. He died as a soldier for peace with a heart and spirit of a dove.

Ten years after he was assassinated, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is being remembered as a man of courage, vision and aspiration.

He has won respect from his countrymen, his enemies and the international community.

As Israelis remember the loss of a leader, we all grieve for his failed vision of peace.

Still, the bullet from the Jewish fanatic that killed Rabin on November 4, 1995 has not put out the belief of Israelis and Palestinians in peace.

This is a legacy he has left for the Middle East and the world as well.

Rabin had undergone an almost three-decade struggle to divert Israel's destiny from the path of war to the path of peace. In the process, he helped to alter the map of the Middle East and, just as important, the psychology of its people.

Though the peace process has been plagued by serious setbacks, and there are bound to be more, Rabin pushed open the door to Israeli-Arab co-existence with the 1993 Oslo Accords.

The agreements call on Israel to gradually give autonomous status to the Arab-inhabited territory it has occupied, in return for peace, with final negotiations to determine final borders and the degree of independence the Palestinians would enjoy.

He produced the building blocks for peaceful co-existence between the Palestinians and Israelis.

In a nutshell, no one dares to slam shut the door to peace.

From his days commanding the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, through his famous handshake with Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn in 1993, Rabin will be remembered as a heroic soldier whose greatest battle was the struggle for peace.

In a land where two peoples both deserve their right to live, violence will accomplish nothing. They have already paid a dear, painful price for it.

The enemies of peace gunned down Yitzhak Rabin, former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and many other people trying to bring peace to the region.

Rabin believed wholeheartedly that peace was possible, imperative and would ensue.

The true resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine will be attained by a fair and cogent compromise between the desires and interests of the two peoples.

This was Rabin's credo, and is still applicable in their pursuit of peace.

He told Israeli Parliament Knesset on July 13, 1992 that "there is no greater victory than the victory of peace. Wars have their victors and their vanquished, but everyone is a victor in peace."

He wanted to believe the day when peace and blessings are borne from nation to nation is not far off.

In service of peace, he travelled to the opposite of a divide, such as Amman, Damascus and Beirut for a peace deal.

Peace is the only enduring victory and best way to ensure security of his state.

This was the one interest Rabin had throughout his military and political careers.

Rabin should be given full credit for his choice of peace and vision.

He was the first Israeli leader to dare to address the real problem. He admitted that the Palestinian issue was the core of the Arab-Israeli dispute and that a solution had to be found, if the cycle of hate and violence in the region were to end.

He defied the prejudices of the past to tackle the most complicated problems in a forthright manner.

In a sense, he was like a monument for peace in the region that is far from ridding itself of the shadow of violence.

Bringing the peace process back on track is the only monument worthy of those who died trying to silence the guns.

(China Daily 11/05/2005 page4)

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