15 years after Rabin's assassination, Where does israel stand?
By JAMIE ZIMMERKikar Rabbin(photo credit: Shalom)
A recent TIME magazine cover boldly stated that, “Israel doesn’t care about peace.” As a loyal subscriber, I was somewhat offended that my magazine of choice (other than D”ash, of course) seemed to be picking on me and my people; nevertheless, I was intrigued and of course, studied the article. It said something to me that wasn’t as anti-Semitic as many people made it out to be; it said to me that “we’re over it, let’s move on.”15 years after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, or as Aviv Gefen put it “we murdered peace in the square,” Israel is in entirely different shape than the somewhat hopeful mid-nineties. On the heels of another round of floundering negotiations, it would seem like Israelis actually “don’t care.” However, I would argue that the majority of Israelis do care, they simply cannot get as emotionally invested as they used to. Let’s look at why.On November 4th 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered at a peace rally at Kings of Israel Square (now Rabin Square in his honor) by Jewish extremist Yigal Amir, who wished to thwart Rabin’s efforts toward making peace with the Palestinians. Israel came to a standstill; Jews around the world mourned and commemorated. The greater Western world took a moment’s pause at the revelation of a very bitter truth; regardless of the various efforts made, they simply crumbled into dust and ashes in the hands of antipeace activists.As I watched US President Bill Clinton end his eulogy at Rabin’s funeral with the words “Shalom, Haver” I can honestly say that I knew, in my then thirteen-year-old understanding of the world, that the light at the end of the tunnel in Israel had been dimmed. I knew that Clinton wasn’t just saying goodbye to a dear friend; he was commiserating the hard work and effort that had brought together formerly sworn enemies on the South Lawn of the White House just two years earlier to sign a peace treaty. With a heavy heart, he was bidding goodbye to hope. Much has taken place since that fateful night in 1995.The Camp David talks in 2000 saw Prime Minister Ehud Barak put most of our cards on the table, to be followed later that year with the commencement of the second (Al- Aqsa) Intifada. A string of terrorist bombings throughout the early 2000’s saw a greater crackdown on Palestinian terrorist activities and the eventual construction of the security fence. In 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, famous for his hardline, hawkish policies, orchestrated and ordered Israel’s pullout from Gaza. In 2006, Gaza was the background of Israel’s war against Hamas following the kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit, who remains today in captivity. Israel fought another war in Gaza in 2008-2009 and now in 2010, following the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla which brought global public opinion of Israel to a new all-time low, we stand today in front of peace talks that are encountering major obstacles.With all of this in mind and scores of historical details unmentioned, is it any surprise that Israelis are somewhat “over it?” In Karl Vick’s article in TIME, he quotes his Israeli friend Cheli as saying, “People in Israel are indifferent… They don’t care if there’s going to be war. They don’t care if there’s going to be peace. They don’t care. They live in the day.”Most young Israelis - pre, post or mid army - will most often tell you that all they want to do is hang out with their friends on the beach or at home, go to university, start a business perhaps. To them, the Jewish State is an irrefutable fact, their place of birth and residence and language, a place they just want to live in and stop fighting for. Does that mean they don’t care? No. They care very much. They just want to get on with the act and art of living like any other teenager, anywhere else on Earth. Is there something wrong with that? Over the years the Jewish people have faced obstacles at almost every turn. Did we pack up and hide? No.We battled on. We found another way and worked with it. We have been given lemons time and time again and have always, somehow, managed to make lemonade. This generation has watched Israel offer itself at the negotiating table every other year, with very little to show in return.So when nothing is happening on that angle, the focus turns to other matters, such as education and healthcare and the environment; drinking that lemonade and improving its taste.The definition of civilization is the continual betterment of a society. The argument here is that Israelis have simply moved on past what Vick rather crudely termed as the “blood feud” with our Arab neighbors. Yitzhak Rabin himself said, “We must think differently, look at things in a different way. Peace requires a world of new concepts, new definitions.”That’s where we are, that’s what we are doing. Israelis are going about it in other ways, ways that don’t involve us being preoccupied with walls, weapons and the wails of bereaved family members, which in my opinion, is the greatest legacy that Rabin could have imparted upon our country. He too fought in Israel’s many wars, at the frontlines. What better way to honor the man and the memory than to leave behind, as he did, the wars of the past and to aspire to a greater and wholly different, future.Peace process terms
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