President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated (1865), and so was President William McKinley (1901). Lincoln is remembered, McKinley is not. And no one draws the bizarre conclusion that because McKinley is not remembered this somehow means that his assassination was justified, or that assassination in general is to be made light of, or that his assassin was anything but scum. Its just that McKinley did not achieve what Abraham Lincoln did, although McKinley was a perfectly respected gentlemen in his time.
The remembrance of Yitzhak Rabin on the 15th anniversary of the Hebrew date of his assassination strikes us as a bit strained. For example, according to a news report we received this week, Shimon Peres, Israels president, said at a Rabin memorial: We are holding a memorial evening because we must fight forgetfulness. If Rabin is becoming forgotten, maybe theres a reason.
To be sure, one may not compare the significance of Rabin and McKinley, since Rabin surely did have one lasting and truly important achievement: He commanded the Israel Defense Forces during the Six Day War, which saved Israel from destruction and dramatically increased the security of her borders. Rabin also, as Israels ambassador to Washington, opened many doors and helped solidify the American supply of arms to Israel. But after that, it was downhill. Read the related IJN blog posting
Rabin bequeathed to us the handshake with Yasir Arafat on the White House lawn in 1993, otherwise known as the peace process. It was anything but. Rabin pretended that arch-terrorists could make peace. All that Rabin (and Israel) got for this pretension was Palestinian-engineered bus bombings and other heinous, inhumane attacks on Israeli civilians. They went a long way to emboldening Islamic terrorism everywhere, besides the immediate suffering of the victims and their families; and to convincing many that terrorism is inevitable.
Not peace, but just the opposite, is Rabins final legacy. He seems to have lost it, what with his mantra, after each terrorist outrage, we must make sacrifices for peace. Translation:Let them slay us and we will still make concessions.
Cut to the chase: Theres a good reason Rabins assassination is harder to remember as the years go by, and as the implications of his ill-conceived policies unfold.
Contrast this with former Israeli prime ministers Golda Meir (of the left) and Menachem Begin (of the right). Their national legacies shine brighter each year. Though the politics of each was quite different, both shared a far more sober appraisal of Israels position and acted accordingly.
None of which means that anyone was anything but horrified by the assassination of Rabin, any more than anyone was anything but horrified by the assassination of McKinley.
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