Rabin rally to push regional diplomatic initiative

Recent Rabin memorials have strayed from the diplomatic issue and instead focused on national unity and preventing rifts inside Israeli society.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
A MAN holds up a flag during a peace rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square (photo credit: REUTERS)
A MAN holds up a flag during a peace rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The annual memorial ceremony for former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin will try to push Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take diplomatic steps with the Palestinians, Rabin’s son Yuval said Monday.
Recent Rabin memorials have strayed from the diplomatic issue and instead focused on national unity and preventing rifts inside Israeli society. Cabinet ministers and other high profile speakers have stayed away from the annual event.
But Yuval Rabin decided that this year’s event, which will be held Saturday night November 1, will renew its previous focus on pushing a peace agreement. A cabinet minister will be invited as one of the event’s featured speakers.
“We will call upon the Israeli government to initiate a regional diplomatic agreement that will guarantee the citizens of Israel real lasting quiet, security and economic prosperity, not just between conflicts,” Rabin said.
Rabin said the rally would attempt to remind the public of what he said was the positive impact of the Oslo peace process his father initiated.
The event would try to appeal to a broad cross-section of Israelis, and would not be a rally of the Left, his spokeswoman said.
The Israel Democracy Institute’s monthly Peace Index poll has been asking Israelis for 20 years where they place themselves on the political spectrum for foreign policy and security issues. A poll taken last month found a record low in the percentage declaring themselves Left-wing.
In the poll, 34% self-identified as part of the Right, 28% as moderate Right, 22% as centrist, 9% as moderate Left, and only 3% as Left.