Word: rabin
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...surprisingly, the nay-sayers spoke first and loudest. "Traitor" was the favorite word among outraged Israelis. Although Rabin's Labor government was elected 14 months ago on a platform of "land for peace," Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu called for a referendum on a deal he said would only provide ever closer launching pads for P.L.O. attacks on Israel. Rafael Eitan, a former army Chief of Staff who heads the Tsomet Party, charged the government with signing "an agreement with the greatest murderer of Jews since Hitler." In the Knesset, Peres coldly dismissed hecklers with, "You are the men of yesterday...
...part, Rabin was more muted than Peres, treating the agreement as bitter medicine that simply had to be swallowed. He told his party last week that he had no illusions about that "terrorist organization" the P.L.O. Yes, he said, "they are murderers, but you make peace with your enemies. I can't tell you that some formulas in the agreement don't give me stomach pains. But I have to see also the comprehensive picture. We have to take risks...
...stop the return of the Sinai to Egypt, this time the threat is likely to be contained by two factors -- Israel's reverence for democracy and its highly effective security forces. Once the Knesset votes to uphold the plan, only a few zealots would try to destroy it. And Rabin, a man with a deserved reputation for toughness, will not shrink from arresting violent subversives. "One should never forget that Israel is still a state, a people and a democracy," Peres warns. "Just as we defend our land and secure our people, we will protect our freedom. At the point...
...will call on the best they have. Yitzhak Rabin has said time and again that Israel must rise above its complexes and trust the world. Palestinians will have to mature politically and start taking care of business. Both partners will have to rein in their fanatics, when zealotry threatens not just their own but the other side...
What began with small-scale skirmishes, like a dispute over access to Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, escalated over time into a millennial blood feud involving the entire Middle East and turning the region into a pivot of superpower conflict. In light of that record, one of Rabin's statements last week was extraordinary. Explaining the peace formula to his government partners, Israel's Prime Minister declared, "The past no longer matters." To a nation founded on the premise that the past must be remembered so as not to be repeated, the remark verged on blasphemy. But Rabin did not forget...