Yitzhak Rabin's assassination 20 years later: How it shaped the Mideast peace process

Emanuel Adler was at thefateful pro-peace rally in Tel Aviv20 years ago today, whentwo shots from the gun of a radicalright-wing Israelilaw studentended the life ofPrime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and altered the peace process for years to come.

"People started to shout, 'Somethinghappenedto Rabin,'" said Adler, theAndrea and CharlesBronfmanchair of Israeli Studies at the University of Toronto."We returnedto theparking lot and turnedon the radio and heard the news. When we got toJerusalem, we learned he was dead."

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If there was someone who could "get a two-state solution withPalestinians, that would have been him," he said.

Instead, according toDanEphron, author ofKilling aKing: The Assassination Of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel,"it's clear that the assassination set off this chain reaction that shifted power in Israel from the pragmatists to the ideologues, to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin]Netanyahu."

"But this was a moment where things could have gone differently in terms of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians,"Ephronsaidin a recent interview with NPR. "There were obstacles. There was trouble. But there was probably more hope than at any time since then. And had Rabin lived, had the peace process progressed in some significant way, I think everything would be different today."

Yitzhak Rabin assassination, 20 years later

9 years ago

Duration 0:41

Israel marks 20th anniversary of assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, CBC's Derek Stoffel reports

His death, on Nov. 4, 1995,came in the wake of the controversialOslo Accords,a landmark agreement signed by Rabinand, as Adler says, Rabin's "mortal enemy" the latePalestineLiberationOrganization chairmanYasserArafat. The agreementgave the Palestinians limited self-rule in the occupied territoriesand set up the Palestinian Authority. In turn,Arafatpledged to condemn violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.By 1999, the two sides were to have negotiated a final peace deal.

But the peace process is in limbo today. In recent weeks, for instance, clashes have flared up in parts ofthe West Bankand East Jerusalem.

"[Rabin]allowed, for a very brief period, ofimaginingaworldin whichthese two peoples got along," saidDavid N.Myers, a professor of Jewish history at UCLA.

Oslo condemned

The Oslo Accordshad been condemnedby many inthe politicaland religious rightwho calledRabin a traitorand accused him ofcompromisingsecurity andallowingPalestinians access toland some Israelisbelieved they had religious claim to.

Rabin, leader of the left-wing Labour Party,was shot dead in a parking lot moments after a rally thathad been a gathering of thousands of people in support of the Oslo Accords.

He was gunned down byYigalAmir, an ultra-nationalist Jewish extremist who opposed Rabin's policy of trading land to the Palestinians for peace. Amir, now 45,is currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison.

"Amiractually did what many thoughttheywould never do ...andeven deplored that factbut were relievedwhen thishappened becausethey understoodthat things would change," Adler said.

Certainly nopeace dove, Rabinwas aformer general and defence minister during the firstintifada(known as the Palestinian uprising), wherehe was accused of ordering his soldiers to break the bones of Palestinian militants.

Norwas hethe initiator of the Oslo Accords, as Adler points out, but felt, as a strategic move,in an effort to gain international support, that he had better try to work with it.

'He was taken by it'

"He said, 'Let's see what happens,'" Adler said. "He didn't start the process, but he gave it a try and then he was taken by it."

YossiBeilin, a former Israeli cabinet ministerconsideredone of the architects of the Oslo Accords, said Rabinhad never committed himself to the two-state solution.

"I'm sure that in a few years, he would have changed his mind, like [Ariel]Sharon would changehis mind,"Beilinsaid about Israel's prime minister from2001 to2006.

"He wasvery clear on this issue: 'We have to negotiatewith the Palestiniansas if there is no terror. Andto fight terror if we don't negotiate.' This is not easy. Easy to say, difficult to implement, but not impossible to implement.

"What happened after [Rabin's]assassinationis that whenever there was some kind of terrorism, from the Palestinian side,the talks stopped. And this is really a prize to the terrorists."

Shortly after theassassination, the militant groupHamas, also anopponentof the Oslo Accords,launched a series of deadly attacks thathad a devastating effect on the fragile Israeli psyches, Myers said.

"Fear will almost alwayswin over hope," Myers said. "Rabin's hope-filled agenda was extraordinarilypromising but quite thin and, as we saw,it really hinged on asingleindividual to carry it forward."

Since Rabin'sdeath,Israelis have made peace offers to the Palestinians that havebeen rejected, butMyerssuggested that Rabin may have been able to bringArafaton board.

"We are always awaiting the greatMandela-likefigure," he said. "I willgo out on a limb andsay Israelpresented one, and he, by the force of his personality, might have beenable to persuade his one-timeenemy to go through [with it]. That's the counterfactualcould have Rabin persuadedArafatto take a deal? And I am not prepared to say no."