00:00:00
- Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's
fifth prime minister,
00:00:02
was a complicated figure,
both revered and reviled.
00:00:06
Ultimately, he was a man of paradoxes.
00:00:09
A war hero and a peace-making icon.
00:00:11
Hawk-ish and Dove-ish, yet pragmatic.
00:00:14
Socially awkward, yet a
dignified international statesman
00:00:17
who's credited with engineering
00:00:19
some of Israel's boldest
geopolitical decisions.
00:00:22
Now, when you think of Rabin,
00:00:24
these apparent contradictions
may not be what comes to mind.
00:00:27
It's likely you think of
his dramatic assassination.
00:00:30
But who was Yitzhak Rabin?
00:00:32
And what made him Israel's
most paradoxical and, perhaps,
00:00:36
most famous politician?
00:00:38
Let's dive in.
00:00:39
(upbeat music)
00:00:46
Rabin was born in Jerusalem
on March 1st, 1922.
00:00:49
A secular Jew, Rabin studied
00:00:51
at a prestigious agricultural school
00:00:53
where he befriended Yigal Allon,
00:00:54
a future leader of the Palmach,
00:00:56
the elite strike force
00:00:57
of Israel's pre-state Zionist militia.
00:01:00
In 1941, just shy of his 20th birthday,
00:01:03
Rabin began to transition from
farmer to the front lines.
00:01:06
That year, Rabin joined his
friend Allon in the Palmach
00:01:09
where he blossomed into
a distinguished leader.
00:01:12
In 1946, tensions were high
00:01:14
between British officials in the mandate
00:01:16
and Jewish establishment
figures and underground leaders.
00:01:19
Caught up in their
struggle for liberation,
00:01:21
Rabin was arrested during Black Saturday,
00:01:23
a massive British operation
00:01:25
to crack down on Jewish resistance.
00:01:27
He was detained in a British
prison for five months.
00:01:31
After his release in 1947,
00:01:32
Rabin was appointed chief of
operations of the Palmach,
00:01:36
setting the stage for his key involvement
00:01:38
in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
00:01:40
The war for Israel's independence
00:01:42
was where Rabin would really
make a name for himself
00:01:44
as one of the Israel
Defense Forces key leaders.
00:01:47
During the war, Rabin directed
00:01:49
Israeli operations in Jerusalem
00:01:51
and fought the Egyptian
forces in the Negev.
00:01:53
With an impressive
military resume built up
00:01:56
during Israel's fight for independence,
00:01:58
literally building and
defending a country,
00:02:00
Rabin continued to move up the ranks.
00:02:02
In 1964, Rabin was named
the IDF's Chief of Staff
00:02:06
by Levi Eshkol, Israel's
third prime minister.
00:02:08
In this role, Rabin,
along with Ezer Weizman,
00:02:11
chief of the Israeli Air Force,
00:02:13
helped build up the IDF's air fleet.
00:02:15
This was critical, as the year 1967
00:02:17
brought on unique military
challenges for Israel.
00:02:20
With the prospect of five Arab armies
00:02:22
planning to attack the Jewish state,
00:02:24
Rabin helped mastermind
1967's preemptive strike
00:02:28
that destroyed Egyptian
and Syrian airbases
00:02:30
and allowed Israel to achieve
an impressive military victory
00:02:33
in less than a week.
00:02:35
For most Israelis, the war
was cause for celebration.
00:02:38
For Rabin, though, it
was anxiety inducing.
00:02:41
On the surface, he was a
stoic, principled, bold leader.
00:02:44
He was trusted and relied
upon by top Israeli brass.
00:02:48
But dig a bit deeper
00:02:49
and you find a much more complex person.
00:02:51
He felt responsible for bringing Israel
00:02:53
into its first major war since 1948,
00:02:56
a war that saw about
4,000 military deaths.
00:03:00
During the war, and actually,
right from the start,
00:03:02
Rabin couldn't handle the pressure.
00:03:04
His anxiety and exhaustion
00:03:06
nearly caused a nervous breakdown.
00:03:08
According to historical accounts,
00:03:09
his concerned wife Leah called
the IDF's surgeon general
00:03:13
to give Rabin a sedative
to help him sleep.
00:03:16
The contradiction is striking.
00:03:17
Rabin's most brilliant military success
00:03:19
nearly wrecked him emotionally.
00:03:21
Shortly after the war, on June 28th, 1967,
00:03:24
Rabin gave a famous speech
00:03:26
at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
00:03:28
where he tried to
articulate his inner strife.
00:03:30
"The whole nation was swept by joy,
00:03:33
"and yet we encounter a strange phenomenon
00:03:35
"among the fighters," he said.
00:03:36
"The fighters in the front
lines saw with their own eyes
00:03:40
"not just the glory of
victory but also its price.
00:03:42
"Their comrades fell next
to them, covered in blood."
00:03:46
After spending a few
years in Washington, DC,
00:03:49
serving as his nation's
ambassador to the United States,
00:03:52
Rabin returned to Israel.
00:03:54
On June 3rd, 1974, he made history,
00:03:57
becoming Israel's first prime
minister to be born there,
00:03:59
and fifth overall.
00:04:01
As a leader, Rabin held
on to secular principles.
00:04:04
Still, though, he felt a
deep connection to Jerusalem
00:04:07
and understood its standing as
a historical place for Jews.
00:04:10
Take for instance his stance
on a major issue of the time.
00:04:14
What should Israel do
00:04:15
with the post-1967 war
territory it had acquired
00:04:18
that included Golan Heights,
00:04:20
East Jerusalem, and the West Bank,
00:04:22
which together doubled the country's size.
00:04:25
On April 23, 1974, Rabin was speaking
00:04:28
to a crowd of Orthodox
Zionists on the matter.
00:04:31
"On Jerusalem, I will not compromise.
00:04:33
"That is my focal point.
00:04:35
"Ramallah is not a question
of life and death for me."
00:04:38
And what about the
historical land of Israel?
00:04:41
Well, on this, Rabin was pretty blunt,
00:04:43
revealing his secular belief system.
00:04:45
"For me, the Bible is not a land registry
00:04:48
"of the Middle East.
00:04:49
"It is a book that provides
education in values,
00:04:52
"and its purposes are different."
00:04:55
Rabin's first tenure as prime
minister ended disappointingly
00:04:58
with a convoluted financial scandal.
00:05:01
An Israeli journalist broke a story
00:05:02
that Rabin and his wife Leah
00:05:04
had opened and maintained
00:05:05
a joint bank account in Washington, DC,
00:05:07
during Rabin's time serving
there as Israeli ambassador.
00:05:11
This was a breach
00:05:11
of Israeli currency
regulations at the time
00:05:14
and prompted a hefty fine
and public humiliation.
00:05:17
So in 1977, Rabin withdrew
from his party's leadership
00:05:21
and watched as his rival
Peres replaced him.
00:05:24
Following his departure,
Rabin's Labour Party
00:05:26
would go on to lose in the 1977 elections
00:05:29
to the more right-leaning Likud Party
00:05:31
headed by Menachem Begin,
who became prime minister.
00:05:34
Rabin then served as a Knesset member
00:05:36
on the Foreign Affairs
and Defense Committee
00:05:38
for seven years under Begin.
00:05:40
Then, from 1984 to 1990,
00:05:42
Rabin was appointed minister of defense
00:05:44
in several national unity governments
00:05:46
led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
00:05:48
and non other than his old buddy Peres.
00:05:52
During that period,
00:05:53
Rabin oversaw Israel's
reaction to the First Intifada,
00:05:56
a Palestinian uprising
that broke out in 1987.
00:06:00
Over the next four years, the IDF reported
00:06:02
more than 3,600 attacks
with Molotov cocktails,
00:06:05
100 with hand grenades,
00:06:06
and 600 with guns or other explosives.
00:06:09
The violence was directed
00:06:10
at Israeli soldiers and civilians alike.
00:06:12
During this period, 16 Israeli
civilians and 11 soldiers
00:06:16
were killed by Palestinians
in the West Bank and Gaza
00:06:19
while more than 1,400 Israeli civilians
00:06:21
and 1,700 Israeli soldiers were injured.
00:06:24
Approximately 1,100
Palestinians were killed
00:06:26
in clashes with Israeli troops.
00:06:28
The situation during this period
00:06:29
was untenable to say the least
00:06:32
and posed a challenging security problem
00:06:34
that wasn't going away.
00:06:36
In response, Rabin, who was desperate
00:06:38
to stop the killing of Israelis,
00:06:40
controversially authorized
the use of force and beatings
00:06:44
against violent instigators.
00:06:45
Rabin The Bone-Breaker
was a nickname popularized
00:06:49
in the Israeli and Palestinian media.
00:06:51
And this was more than a nickname
00:06:53
because he actually ordered
troops to break bones
00:06:56
as a strategy for ending
these demonstrations.
00:06:59
His reputation as a
fierce, strong military man
00:07:02
was alive and well.
00:07:04
Then, in 1992, Rabin was reelected.
00:07:08
During this second-go-round
as prime minister,
00:07:09
Rabin, a man who had seen much war,
00:07:12
appeared to have a
singular mission: peace.
00:07:15
Rabin oversaw the initiation
of the Oslo process,
00:07:18
a shaky peace proposal,
00:07:20
with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
00:07:22
The process divided Israelis.
00:07:25
Some feared that concessions
and a peace process
00:07:28
would actually lead to more
terror and war, not peace.
00:07:32
The thinking was that if the
Palestinians weren't sincere,
00:07:35
they'd ultimately use their new autonomy
00:07:37
to perpetrate more
violence against Israelis.
00:07:41
But other Israelis were optimistic
00:07:43
and saw a hope for a
brighter, more peaceful future
00:07:46
with Palestinian neighbors,
00:07:47
and potentially a separate
state for Palestinians.
00:07:51
For ardent religious nationalists,
00:07:53
giving up biblically ordained Jewish lands
00:07:56
to create a Palestinian state
was fundamentally wrong.
00:08:00
In September of 1993,
00:08:01
the Oslo process reached
a climactic point.
00:08:05
With cameras clicking, Rabin
shook hands with Arafat
00:08:07
on the White House lawn,
00:08:09
President Bill Clinton
standing between them
00:08:11
as the prospect of peace between
Israelis and Palestinians
00:08:14
appeared bright on the world stage.
00:08:17
In 1995, he gave a famous
speech to the Knesset
00:08:20
where he argued that land concessions
00:08:22
were necessary for achieving peace.
00:08:25
Also during this speech
00:08:26
Rabin even thanked Peres,
his rival and partner,
00:08:30
for his integral role in the Oslo process,
00:08:32
which was tremendous
for their relationship.
00:08:35
He did not publicly endorse
a future Palestinian state
00:08:38
and his exact feelings
00:08:39
were never actually made entirely clear.
00:08:42
The majority of the Israeli public
00:08:44
still didn't support this idea,
00:08:46
mostly out of security concerns.
00:08:48
But the natural endgame of
Rabin's Oslo peace process
00:08:51
was a potential two-state solution.
00:08:54
Sadly, though, he'd never
get to see it through.
00:08:57
Now let's break down what
was going on in Israel
00:08:59
during the Oslo peace process.
00:09:01
Not everyone was in favor
of what Rabin was up to.
00:09:04
Actually, that's an understatement.
00:09:06
Many Israelis and Palestinians
00:09:08
were fervent in their opposition.
00:09:10
Palestinian terror attacks,
especially suicide bombings,
00:09:12
were pervasive, occurring almost daily.
00:09:15
From January to August 1995,
00:09:18
40 Israeli civilians were killed
00:09:20
by Palestinian suicide bombers.
00:09:22
Widespread protest in
Israel voiced displeasure
00:09:25
with land concessions and the peace deal,
00:09:27
citing serious security concerns.
00:09:29
In some extreme cases, this
included hateful rhetoric,
00:09:33
even death threats in Rabin's direction.
00:09:35
Some right-wing Jewish extremists
00:09:37
cited misapplied religious Law
00:09:39
to radicalize young religious Jews.
00:09:42
They said that if someone is pursuing Jews
00:09:44
with the intent of harming,
in order to prevent it,
00:09:46
Jews are obligated to kill the pursuer,
00:09:49
and a young Orthodox law
student named Yigal Amir
00:09:53
was drinking the Kool-Aid.
00:09:54
In his estimation, Rabin, who
was negotiating with Arafat,
00:09:57
the mastermind behind the
murder of Israeli athletes
00:10:00
at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics
00:10:03
and countless other terrorist attacks,
00:10:05
was someone who meant Jews harm.
00:10:07
Amir believed that Rabin
giving more land to Arafat
00:10:11
would only continue to
lead to more terror,
00:10:13
as it had before.
00:10:14
He saw Rabin as a man
with a death sentence
00:10:17
hanging over him.
00:10:18
On November 4th, 1995,
00:10:20
Amir went to an enormous peace rally
00:10:22
where Rabin and the supporters
of Oslo were gathered.
00:10:25
Amir shot and killed Rabin
as he was entering his car.
00:10:28
Rabin's aids had urged him
to wear a bulletproof vest
00:10:31
but he refused, saying,
"If there comes a time
00:10:33
"when I would need a bulletproof vest,
00:10:35
"I no longer want to be prime
minister of this country."
00:10:38
It was the first political
assassination of its kind
00:10:40
in Israel, and the fact that
it was perpetrated by a Jew
00:10:43
rocked Israel's psyche,
00:10:45
not to mention, played an important role
00:10:47
in derailing the Oslo peace process,
00:10:49
which was never fully ratified.
00:10:51
Think of the event as the
JFK assassination of Israel.
00:10:55
If you walk the streets of Israel
00:10:56
and ask people to remember where they were
00:10:58
when they received news
of Rabin's assassination,
00:11:01
they'll recall it in detail.
00:11:03
Putting the kids to bed,
watching TV, out with friends.
00:11:06
Everyone remembers.
00:11:08
Rabin's funeral was
packed with world leaders.
00:11:11
US President Bill Clinton,
00:11:12
a key mediator of the Oslo process, spoke.
00:11:15
Clinton's emotional eulogy
ended with two words in Hebrew,
00:11:19
"Shalom, Haver."
00:11:20
Goodbye, friend.
00:11:22
Rabin's legacy is a
complicated profound one.
00:11:25
Paradoxes abound.
00:11:26
Savvy military man,
00:11:28
Israel's most well-known
peace-seeking icon,
00:11:30
a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
00:11:32
anxiety-ridden in private
00:11:33
but bold and respected
on the world's stage.
00:11:36
So sure, we can call him paradoxical,
00:11:38
but another way to look at Rabin
00:11:40
is as a man who evolved over time
00:11:42
and adapted to different political eras
00:11:45
to his benefit or to his detriment,
00:11:47
depending on how you look at it.
00:11:48
Thanks for watching,
see you guys next week.
00:11:51
(upbeat music)
