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Elusive Peace: Unvarnished Look at Israeli PM Rabin's Legacy

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel is marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, an Israeli leader who was earlier interviewed by CBN founder Pat Robertson.

Rabin is remembered for being the first Israeli leader to “make peace” with the leader of a terrorist organization.

Saturday evening November 4, 1995. Rabin had just sung "Shir l'Shalom," (Song for Peace) with a crowd of some 100,000 Israelis at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

Shortly after he left the podium, Rabin was gunned down by a Jewish extremist.

Murder of a Hero

Middle East expert Michael Widlanski told CBN News Rabin's murder was not just a political assassination.

"He was a man of the left who was respected on the right. He was a man who was cautious who made bold decisions," he explained. "It was not just a political assassination; it was the murder of a hero and a grandfather."

Rabin's murder stunned the nation and the world. Leaders from some 40 countries traveled to Jerusalem for his funeral.

"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," then President Bill Clinton said at the funeral.

Just eight years earlier in 1987, then Defense Minister Rabin told Pat Robertson Israel must remain strong in the face of threats.

"Does it seem like Syria, possibly any of the other Arab states, might want to move in some kind of a jihad against Jerusalem, against Israel, or is that likely?" Robertson asked Rabin.

"I was born here, in Jerusalem. I fought in the two wars that decided the fate of Jerusalem to become the capital of the State of Israel," Rabin responded. "And I believe that they'll never be able to fulfill what they try to achieve as long as we'll keep our powder dry, our belief unshaken, and we'll have the patience to do what our heritage, religion call us to do."

A Beloved Leader Who Made Mistakes

Widlanski, author of Battle for our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat, says the problems in the world were the same decades ago as they are now.

"Some of the world's leaders don't interpret events correctly," he explained. "Rabin was genuinely loved in Israel, but even at the time of his death, many Israelis thought that his bold actions toward peace [were] a mistake."

On September 9, 1993, Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and his representatives signed the Declaration of Principles (DOP) on the White House lawn with Clinton looking on.

The agreement created the Palestinian Authority and put it in charge of the Palestinian Arabs, much to the horror of many in the local population.  In it, Arafat renounced the use of terrorism and other acts of violence. Israel recognized the PLO (a terrorist organization) as the sole representative of the Palestinians in peace negotiations.

"The agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization did several things. First of all it saved the Palestine Liberation Organization," Widlanski explained.

"The second thing is it brought in an era of terror unmatched in Israel's history," he continued. "And the third thing is it taught Israelis that to build peace required more than just hoping for peace. It meant building security."

Rabin: Peacemaking Falls to the Parties Involved

In 1975, 18 years before Prime Minister Rabin shook Arafat's hand, he told Dr. Robertson superpowers could play a role in Arab-Israeli peacemaking, but they could not replace the parties themselves.

"Any peace negotiations have to start on the assumption that the purpose of the exercise, the purpose of the negotiations, is to make peace and to make peace between whom? -- between the Arab countries and Israel," Rabin said.

Robertson asked, "Mr. Prime Minister, if the Arab countries are not truly willing to accept peace negotiations with Israel, do you feel that the efforts of the superpowers, either the United States or Russia, will bring anything good toward peace?"

"I think that the major powers can create conditions, can create the environment that would lead the Arab countries on one hand and Israel on the other hand to make peace," Rabin responded. "But the peacemaking is the responsibility of the parties to the conflict."

In 1979, Israel signed its first peace treaty with Egypt and in 1994, its second peace treaty with Jordan. Both agreements have had their ups and downs but they've held for decades.

"The peace agreements that Israel made prove several things," Widlanski continued. "First, Israel wants peace. Secondly, Israel can make peace with real countries when there are real joint interests, but third, Israel should not try to make peace with make-believe organizations, of make-believe minorities, with make-believe national movements."

Rethinking 'Rabin's Law'

Clinton spoke to a Tel Aviv rally marking the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination.  He urged Israelis to finish Rabin’s legacy and give peace a chance. He said Rabin refused to give up his peace dream even in the face of terror.

“Whenever there was a terrible incident here, and I would call him, he simply repeated what we in the White House came to know as 'Rabin's law' -- "We will fight terror as if there were no negotiations, but we will negotiate as if there were no terror,” Clinton told tens of thousands gathered in the same square where Rabin was killed 20 years earlier.

But Widlanski says if Rabin were alive today he’d be rethinking the path to so-called peace that he took.

"I think he would be very disappointed with his own endeavor and say Israel has to rely upon itself, upon God, and upon its own better judgment to survive and to thrive," he concluded.

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