New York Times op-ed by Bill Clinton yesterday, marking Rabin's yarzheit:
.... The story of Yitzhak Rabin and the story of Israel are intertwined. He took up arms to defend Israel’s freedom, and laid down his life to secure Israel’s future. When he came to the White House in 1993 to sign the Declaration of Principles with the Palestinians, he was a military hero, uniquely prepared to lead his people into a new era. Before shaking the hand of Yasir Arafat, a man he had long considered his mortal foe, he spoke directly to the Palestinian people:
“Enough of blood and tears. Enough. We have no desire for revenge. We harbor no hatred toward you. We, like you, are people — people who want to build a home, to plant a tree, to love, to live side by side with you in dignity, in empathy, as human beings, as free men. We are today giving peace a chance, and saying again to you, enough. Let us pray that a day will come when we all will say, ‘Farewell to the arms.’”
A decade and a half since his death, I continue to believe that, had he lived,
within three years we would have had a comprehensive agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. To be sure, the enemies of peace would have tried to undermine it, but with Rabin’s leadership, I am confident a new era of enduring partnership and economic prosperity would have emerged....
"Laid down his life to secure Israel's future"? I thought Rabin was murdered... in which case, it was not his own doing to "lay down his life," but rather someone stole that life from him. And his murder OBVIOUSLY didn't secure anything. Which brings us to Daniel Greenfield a/k/a Sultan Knish:
.... 18 years after the left illegally thrust the peace boondoggle on Israel, their rhetoric rings pathetically hollow. "They have not succeeded, and they will not succeed, to snatch away our only possession. A possession that is priceless ... This dear possession is called hope, it is called peace," Peres declaimed. There hasn't been peace in the country in a very long time. And for most Israelis, their most precious possession isn't the myth of peace, but their homes and their families in the land of Israel-- which the left has endangered in its frenzied pursuit of peace....
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