20 Years After Those 'Three Bullets', Peace Remains a Distant Dream

The phrase 'the three bullets that forever wounded Israeli democracy' was stated by Reuven Rivlin, the President of Israel, on Monday, October 26, during the 20th anniversary ceremony of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in Jerusalem. Rivlin referred to the three bullets fired at Rabin 20 years ago by Yigal Amir, an extremist law student and former informant for the Israeli internal security service, which not only ended the life of this statesman and senior military commander but also forever changed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Israel-Arab relations, and perhaps the fate of the Middle East. At that time, Yitzhak Rabin was the Prime Minister of Israel and was assassinated on a night he had just described as the 'culmination' of all his life's efforts and 'one of the happiest days of his life' because two years prior, he had made the unprecedented decision to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization to the Israelis and signed the Oslo Peace Accords, leading to the establishment of a self-governing authority that was supposed to result in Palestinian statehood a few years later. However, with Rabin's assassination, not only did the dream of establishing a Palestinian state remain on paper, but the long-held dream of Israelis for a peaceful life in this conflict-ridden land seems more distant than ever, 20 years after the assassination attempt on Rabin. Yigal Amir, Rabin's assassin, remains in an Israeli prison 20 years after the murder, proudly stating that he has no regrets about his actions. Amir claims that had he not killed Rabin, there was a 'danger' that he would have given all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. The President of Israel stated on the 20th anniversary of Rabin's assassination, 'I would be paralyzed if I signed a pardon for this wicked assassin during my seven years in office.' These days, Israeli media is filled with films and documents related to that historic night; it is astonishing to see documentary footage showing how Yigal Amir was positioned closest to Rabin on the night of the assassination. Why? Because he had previously been an informant for the Israeli internal security service; his mission at that time was novel for the people of Israel; he was tasked with inciting the far-right and settlers to take more extreme actions so that the security service could gather evidence against them. Using this extensive knowledge of the security service's operations, Amir was able to reach the closest point to Rabin on the night of the assassination; Rabin was coming down from a speech and singing for peace in Tel Aviv's main square, and as he often did when satisfied, a long 'Kent' cigarette was seen between his fingers; the last cigarette of a general who had turned to peace after decades of military service. A poll conducted on the 20th anniversary of Rabin's assassination among the Israeli public shows that only 65% believe that the assassin acted independently in killing this political leader, while the rest believe that such a murder and its manner could not have occurred without support from security institutions. Meanwhile, the Israeli security service had warned General Rabin months before his assassination, even a day prior, that his life was in real danger from the far-right, but Rabin always said he could never believe that in Israeli democracy, a Jew would kill a Jewish leader. Rabin was the first Israeli leader born in this land; before him, all other leaders were European Jews; Rabin's life was intertwined with the life of Israel and its crises. Yitzhak Rabin, who spent his youth in agricultural studies and his young adulthood in the struggle for independence for the Jews, participated in wars wearing a military uniform and played a key role in the Six-Day War, realizing the 'two-thousand-year dream' of Jews to return to pray at the 'Western Wall.' He also played an important role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which did not yield significant victories for Israel, and later became Prime Minister for two years. In the latter half of the 1970s and the 1980s, Rabin distanced himself from the Israeli political scene, but when the first intifada emerged in the late 1980s, Israelis felt the need for a strong leader like him. Despite the strong support Israelis initially had for peace with the Palestinians, the right-wing likened Rabin to Nazis in uniforms, suggesting he was leading Jews to the gas chambers. However, in the first election after Rabin's assassination, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was the opposition leader at the time of Rabin's murder, became Prime Minister; to this day, Netanyahu's speeches and those of his associates against Rabin are cited as one of the propaganda factors that contributed to the conditions leading to Rabin's assassination. However, in 2015, on the 20th anniversary of Rabin's assassination, Israeli media emphasized in numerous programs, books, and articles that the reason for Israel's current troubles is the absence of leaders like Rabin, who had the courage to deal with the enemy while being realistic. This year, on the anniversary of Rabin's assassination, more than many previous years, it has turned into a scene of conflict among the warring factions of Israel: the faction that strongly advocates for peace based on Rabin's path and considers a peaceful life alongside Palestinians and respecting their rights as essential has weakened, while the faction that considers ignoring neighbors' rights as even natural in the name of 'security' has been strengthened in every election cycle in Israel since Rabin's assassination. The 20th anniversary of Rabin's assassination coincides with a new round of security crises in Israeli-Palestinian relations; unrest that some Palestinians are calling the start of the 'third intifada.' The first intifada began when Rabin was the opposition leader, and he returned to political power with the slogan 'Israel is waiting for Rabin to achieve security,' shortly after shaking hands with his longtime enemy Yasser Arafat at the signing ceremony of the Oslo Peace Accords at the White House. Prominent leaders of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization, such as Jibril Rajoub, have recently stated in interviews with Israeli media that perhaps Palestinians feel Rabin's absence more than Israelis do. Jibril Rajoub, one of the leaders of Fatah, told Israeli radio that Rabin was a military man for Israelis, but for Palestinians, he was an enemy; however, he was a respected and trustworthy enemy because his word was his word, and his promise was his promise; so trustworthy that he even lost his life for it. All Arab and Palestinian leaders say that Rabin was a man of action and could be trusted. Rabin, along with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres, won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, and in one of his last speeches in the U.S. Congress, he mentioned his soldier number and said he had been a soldier for decades, but when he realized that peace had no alternative, he embarked on the path of peace. With Rabin's assassination, not only did a right-wing government come to power, but soon after, the second intifada erupted, leading to multiple wars between Israel and Palestinians; now in 2015, another crisis has manifested its effects on the lives of all residents of this land filled with suffering and blood once again. Twenty years after those 'three bullets,' not only, as one Israeli song puts it, 'those men are no longer here,' and peace has become more distant from the horizons, but also within Israeli domestic politics, extremism and deepening divisions have intensified the civil war; a society where its people live in fear between this war and that war, and this crisis and that crisis, and despite Netanyahu's claim that there is hardly an invention in today's world that does not have a piece of Israeli innovation, beneath the surface of this land, the pulse of life beats in such a way that many current leaders choose to ignore it and, hoping to maintain their current existence, are more focused on preserving their seats of power.