DOCSLIB.ORG

Remarks on Receiving the Peace Garden Scroll and the Shalom Chaver Award for International Leadership March 18, 1999

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Remarks on Receiving the Peace Garden Scroll and the Shalom Chaver Award for International Leadership March 18, 1999 Administration of William J. Clinton, 1999 / Mar. 18 Remarks on Receiving the Peace Garden Scroll and the Shalom Chaver Award for International Leadership March 18, 1999 Leah and Dahlia, Noa, Yuval, Tali, Rachel: Today I also thank Leah and Dahlia for re- Hillary and I are honored to welcome you here. membering our friend His Majesty King Hus- We are honored by the Shalom Chaver Award sein. In a humorous moment in an otherwise and the Peace Garden and the power of your profoundly somber day, at his funeral, I was example. Thank you, Noa, for the beautiful song. standing with another leader of the Arab world I thank the members of the Cabinet who are whom I dare not mention for fear of embar- here, the administration, especially Secretary rassing him, and we noticed standing there at Albright and Mr. Berger, and I want to say the King’s funeral Prime Minister Netanyahu, a special word of thanks to all those who have General Barak, and General Mordechai. And the been on our peace team, now and for the last leader looked at me, and he said, ‘‘This is truly 6 years: Mr. Ross, Mr. Indyk; before them, Sec- an amazing world. King Hussein is the only retary Christopher, Mr. Lake, and others. thing they agree on.’’ [Laughter] I welcome the members of the diplomatic Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin were brave sol- corps who are here. I think it would be worth diers who had the courage to tell the hard truth noting, as a particular tribute to Prime Minister that there would be no security for any in the Rabin, that the members of the diplomatic corps Middle East without fairness for all, that the who are here are the Ambassadors of Jordan, time had come to lift people’s hopes, not exploit Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Qatar, Oman, and the their fears, to reach across the divide of history and hatred, to fulfill the true promise of the PLO. Welcome. Promised Land. They knew well enough that I thank Congressmen Lantos, Lewis, and extremists would try to derail the peace accord Lowey for being here. We have many distin- by keeping fear and frustration, mistrust and guished guests from Israel, including General misery dominant in the lives of ordinary Pal- and Mrs. Mordechai and Mrs. Barak. We thank estinians and Israelis. But they were determined you for being here, all of our guests from Israel, to turn back the tide, and so they did. and all of our American guests. Thank you for How we gloried in those brilliant days in 1993 coming, in the words of Prime Minister Rabin, and 1995 when the leaders of the Middle East to make a stand against violence and for peace. gathered here to grasp hands and pledged to We are gratified to know that this Rabin Cen- build a safer and better future. How we enjoyed ter will promote Yitzhak’s legacy and his vision those first halting steps toward reconciliation. of a Middle East in a world where people do Even then there was humor: I will never forget not have to die for peace but can actually live when Yitzhak promised me in September of ’93 in peace and enjoy it. that he would shake Mr. Arafat’s hand as long I still remember quite clearly the meeting as there was no kissing. [Laughter] we had in March of 1993, when the Oslo agree- But it wasn’t long after that when they came ment was still months away, but he had already here to sign all the maps to embody in concrete foreseen the bold steps he would have to take. terms the accord which had been reached, when He shared with me his assessment of the danger a dispute arose. And it was at the last minute, posed by the adversaries in the Middle East. and no one knew how to resolve it. So I showed As I recall, he called it a marriage of extremists them back to my private dining room, and I and missiles. He understood that Israel needed said, ‘‘I believe I could find Jericho, but other- a strategic peace, a circle of peace with others wise I don’t know much about this map. You in the region to isolate and weaken extremists. guys go in that room and solve it. We’ll wait All I could say to him then and all I can until it’s done.’’ And they sat there alone and do now is to state again that as Israel takes resolved the problem. risks for peace, the United States will do every- Today, the people of the Middle East still thing in its power to minimize those risks and have a chance to build the secure peace of advance that cause. Prime Minister Rabin’s dreams, to isolate the 405 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:57 Mar 19, 2001 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00405 Fmt 1240 Sfmt 1240 C:\99PUBPAP\99PUBPAP.TXT txed01 PsN: txed01 Mar. 18 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1999 extremists, to weaken their ability to shatter the In all these places the struggle for peace con- peace with terrorism or missiles or weapons of tinues. And we must continue it in the Middle mass destruction. But it is just a chance. East, between Israelis and Palestinians and all I can still hear the strong voices of Yitzhak across the region, because every day we delay Rabin and King Hussein speaking to us today the process of peace strengthens the extremists and saying: Push ahead with the peace process. and supports their violent designs. Build on Oslo and Wye River—before it is too I would like to close with three admonitions. late. But today, their voices must be embodied We must not grow weary. The psalmist says, by others all across the Middle East. Tzarich ‘‘Do good; seek peace, and pursue it.’’ We must chaverim li-shalom. We need friends of peace. not harden our hearts in the face of all that The loss of Yitzhak Rabin, the premature has been lost. Shakespeare said it best: death of His Majesty King Hussein make it The quality of mercy is not strain’d, time—and past time—for all in the Middle East It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven to remember the wisdom of the ages: Life is fleeting. When we return to dust, our dif- Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: ferences are as nothing. All that remains is our It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. legacy. It must be an affirmation of our common Let us give it and take it. And finally, we must humanity. Why is it we can only see the human- not lose faith. Yitzhak Rabin once quoted these ity we share when we lose someone we love? words from the poet Tchernichovsky: ‘‘I believe Long ago, Leah said it very well in 1975 at in the future. That day will come when peace a women’s conference in Mexico City. She said and blessings are borne from nation to nation.’’ this: ‘‘War solves nothing. Our area thirsts for And he added, ‘‘I want to believe that that day peace, for the benefit of all peoples living there. is not far off.’’ Our true enemies are poverty, illiteracy, disease, With the help of a merciful God, we will and inequality of opportunity.’’ hasten the day of Yitzhak Rabin’s dreams. Leah, you and Yitzhak lived the history of Shalom. Salaam. Thank you, and God bless Israel together, from your marriage in the year you. of your nation’s birth, from the ashes of the Holocaust and the seeds of the Diaspora. You fought for independence and survival. You NOTE: The President spoke at 6:49 p.m. on the helped to build the enlightened, vibrant demo- South Lawn at the White House. In his remarks, cratic society that Israel is today. And I want he referred to the following members of Prime to say that we are very grateful to you for your Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s family: Leah Rabin, sacrifices, for your contributions to help build widow; Dahlia Rabin-Pelossof, daughter; Noa an Israel that is strong and free, prosperous Pelossof, granddaughter; Yuval Rabin, son, and his and at peace. We thank you. wife, Tali; and Rachel Jacob, sister. The President That is also America’s cause in the Middle also referred to Ambassadors Marwan Muashir of East; and in Central America, where I visited Jordan, Ahmed Maher El-Sayed of Egypt, last week, and where longtime adversaries in Noureddine Mejdoub of Tunisia, Mohamed civil wars now reach across great divides; and Benaissa of Morocco, Saad Muhammad al- in Northern Ireland, the land of my ancestors, Kubaysi of Qatar, and Abdallah bin Muhammad whose leaders I met with yesterday, where we bin Aqil al-Dhahab of Oman; Hasan Abdel are so close to finishing the job; and in the Rahman, the Palestine Liberation Organization former Yugoslavia, where we are determined to representative in Washington, DC; Gen. Yitzhak avoid in Kosovo a repeat of the terrible senseless Mordechai, and his wife, Cochi; Gen. Ehud Barak, bloodshed of Bosnia; and in Africa, where too chairman, Israeli Labor Party, and his wife, Nava; much blood still is being shed, but whose lead- Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel; ers came here this week in a remarkable display and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Au- of unity to seek a partnership of freedom and thority. The scroll and the award were presented opportunity with the United States.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Aliyah and Settlement Process?
    Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel HBI SERIES ON JEWISH WOMEN Shulamit Reinharz, General Editor Joyce Antler, Associate Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor The HBI Series on Jewish Women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, pub- lishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fills major gaps in Jewish Studies and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com and www.upne.com/series/BSJW.html. Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, editors, Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life History, Politics, and Culture Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Anne Lapidus Lerner, Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry Margalit Shilo, Princess or Prisoner? Jewish Women in Jerusalem, 1840–1914 Marcia Falk, translator, The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible Sylvia Barack Fishman, Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage Avraham Grossman, Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe Iris Parush, Reading Jewish Women: Marginality and Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Jewish Society Shulamit Reinharz and Mark A. Raider, editors, American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise Tamar Ross, Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism Farideh Goldin, Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman Elizabeth Wyner Mark, editor, The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite Rochelle L.
    [Show full text]
  • Yitzhak Rabin
    YITZHAK RABIN: CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATION FORETOLD Last year, architect-turned-filmmaker Amos Gitaï directed Rabin, the Last EN Day, an investigation into the assassination, on November 4, 1995, of the / Israeli Prime Minister, after a demonstration for peace and against violence in Tel-Aviv. The assassination cast a cold and brutal light on a dark and terrifying world—a world that made murder possible, as it suddenly became apparent to a traumatised public. For the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des papes, using the memories of Leah Rabin, the Prime Minister’s widow, as a springboard, Amos GitaI has created a “fable” devoid of formality and carried by an exceptional cast. Seven voices brought together to create a recitative, “halfway between lament and lullaby,” to travel back through History and explore the incredible violence with which the nationalist forces fought the peace project, tearing Israel apart. Seven voices caught “like in an echo chamber,” between image-documents and excerpts from classic and contemporary literature— that bank of memory that has always informed the filmmaker’s understanding of the world. For us, who let the events of this historic story travel through our minds, reality appears as a juxtaposition of fragments carved into our collective memory. AMOS GITAI In 1973, when the Yom Kippur War breaks out, Amos Gitai is an architecture student. The helicopter that carries him and his unit of emergency medics is shot down by a missile, an episode he will allude to years later in Kippur (2000). After the war, he starts directing short films for the Israeli public television, which has now gone out of business.
    [Show full text]
  • YITZHAK RABIN 1922–1995 Short Biography YITZHAK RABIN • 1922–1995 Short Biography
    YITZHAK RABIN 1922–1995 Short Biography YITZHAK RABIN • 1922–1995 Short Biography Braha Eshel Yitzhak Rabin Center Academic Adviser: Prof. Motti Golani .2 CHILDHOOD AND FAMILY Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem on March 1st, 1922, the firstborn child of Rosa Cohen and Nehemiah Rabin (Rubichov). Rosa Cohen arrived to Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) in 1919 aboard the Roslan, together with newcomers representing the Third Wave of Aliyah, or “ascent” to the Homeland, as Jews refer to migration to their ancestral home. Rosa immediately joined the pioneers at Kibbutz Kin- neret. Nehemiah arrived from the United States as a Jewish Legion soldier. He was a member of the Haganah Council, and joined in defense of the Jewish quarter in Jerusalem when it was attacked in 1920. Rosa was among the volunteers, as well; they married in 1921 and moved to Haifa. Rosa worked as a bookkeeper, but devoted herself primarily to protect- ing workers’ rights as part of the Histadrut. She also worked with the Haganah, the paramilitary wing of the Jewish Settlement in Palestine, during the British Mandatory period; in fact, she was in command of the city’s defense. Nehemiah worked for the Electric Corporation in Naha- rayim from the time it was founded. It was while visiting family in Jerusalem that Rosa gave birth to her son, whom they named Yitzhak. In 1923, the family moved to Tel Aviv and it is there that Yitzhak Rabin spent his childhood. His sister Rachel was born in 1925. Rosa carried on with her professional work, as well as her Rosa Cohen and her children, activities in the Haganah, the Histadrut, the Tel Aviv municipality, and Yitzhak and Rachel, 1927 the city’s education system.
    [Show full text]
  • Celebrating 20 Years of Solidarity with Israells
    CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF SOLIDARITY WITH Israel’s RABIN MEDICAL CENTER CANCER CARE & BRCA AWARENESS 20 MEDICAL AND NURSING EDUCATION YEARS LEADER IN CARDIOLOGY 20 YEARS OF AFRMC ACHIEVEMENTS SECURING RABIN MEDICAL center’S FUTURE 2016 ANNUAL REPORT ISrael’S RABIN MeDICal Center IN PetaCH TIKVAH, NAMED AFTER FORMER PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN IS THE PRIDE OF ISRAEL WITH 1,000,000 PATIENTS ANNUALLY We have always viewed the sanctity of life as a supreme value. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin AMERICAN FRIENDS OF RABIN MEDICAL CENTER MISSION American Friends of Rabin Medical Center (AFRMC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 1995. This national charity based in New York supports innovative medical treatment and healthcare at Israel’s Rabin Medical Center. Partnering with the hospital, we promote the best care, research and technology to reach new frontiers in global medicine. We facilitate international medical fellowships with individual and corporate support for the hospital. Our mission focus: • To educate the American public and encourage visitation of the hospital. • To publically promote the hospital throughout the United States. • To create joint ventures with medical institutions, foundations, corporations, and individuals. • To raise funds through a variety of programmatic efforts throughout the United States. RABIN MEDICAL CENTER MISSION Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikvah, Israel is a state-of-the-art medical center offering advanced medical services and a staff dedicated to patient care and preservation of patient dignity. Rabin Medical Center is the Middle East’s preeminent center for healthcare and research with centers of excellence including the Davidoff Cancer Center, Recanati Genetics Institute, Helen Schneider Hospital for Women, and the Jusidman Emergency Room20 and Trauma Center.
    [Show full text]
  • Remarks at a Ceremony Honoring the Memory of Yitzhak Rabin in Oslo
    Administration of William J. Clinton, 1999 / Nov. 2 2227 the cultural, spiritual, linguistic, and kinship sight of the rich history of Native Americans. bonds that have existed for millennia. Just weeks ago, the Smithsonian Institution As we reflect on the heritage of American broke ground on the National Mall for the Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawai- National Museum of the American Indian. ians, we also reaffirm our commitment to fos- This wonderful facility will preserve and cele- tering a prosperous future for native youth brate the art, history, and culture of Ameri- and children. At the foundation of these ef- ca's indigenous peoples. It is also fitting that forts is our work to provide a quality edu- the first U.S. dollar coin of the new millen- cation to all Native American children. In nium will bear the likeness of Sacajawea and particular, we have sought significantly in- her infant sonÐan image that captures the creased funding to support Bureau of Indian importance of our shared history. Affairs school construction and 1,000 new Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, teachers for American Indian youth. My 1998 President of the United States of America, Executive order on American Indian and by virtue of the authority vested in me by Alaska Native Education sets goals to im- the Constitution and laws of the United prove high school completion rates and im- States, do hereby proclaim November 1999 prove performance in reading and mathe- as National American Indian Heritage matics. And we are working to get computers Month. I urge all Americans, as well as their into every classroom and to expand the use elected representatives at the Federal, State, of educational technology.
    [Show full text]
  • Contrasting Martyrdom and the Politicization of Religion in the Al-Aqsa Intifada
    Contrasting Martyrdom and the Politicization of Religion in the al-Aqsa Intifada A thesis submitted to the Miami University Honors Program in partial fulfillment of the requirements for University Honors By Sara Beth Wallace Miami University Oxford, Ohio May, 2003 Contrasting Martyrdom and the Politicization of Religion in the al-Aqsa Intifada by Sara Beth Wallace Approved by: __________________________, Advisor Dr. Adeed Dawisha __________________________, Reader Dr. Sheila Croucher __________________________, Reader Dr. Vaughn Shannon Accepted by: __________________________, Director University Honors Program ii Abstract The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sent shockwaves through the Jewish community worldwide. The seeming impossibility of a Jew killing another Jew, as Leah Rabin described, cemented a sobering truth about the peace process: that there were religious fundamentalists – on both sides – eager to derail it. This derailment has culminated in the al-Aqsa Intifada, the pre-meditated violent upsurge against the Israeli occupation to liberate Palestine, which has plagued the region and its peoples since September 2000. This paper identifies major tributaries (trends that strengthen and renew a cult of martyrdom) in Palestinian society. Specifically historical/religious tradition, indoctrination of children and the masses by the Palestinian Authority, economic disparity, reinforcement of violence based on popular support, and the nature of military occupation are explored. Special attention is also given to the role international media and other states play in preventing an organic development and solution of the conflict. When a Palestinian suicide bomber detonates him/herself, Israeli society interprets this as irrational and maniacal. However, the underlings of Palestinian martyrdom - its infusion of nationalist goals with religious tenets - distinguishes the Palestinian suicide bomber as a new political reality of the Intifada.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Title of Document: HAWKS to DOVES
    ABSTRACT Title of Document: HAWKS TO DOVES: THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY IN FOREIGN POLICY DECISION-MAKING Guy Ziv, Ph. D., 2008 Directed by: Professor Shibley Telhami Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development Department of Government and Politics Why do some hawkish leaders become doves, and what determines whether these leaders’ views affect dramatic change in a state’s foreign policy? Structural and domestic political explanations of foreign policy change tend to overlook the importance of leaders in such change. Political psychologists offer important insight into how and why certain leaders are inclined to revise their beliefs. Two psychological factors in particular hold great promise for explaining leaders’ foreign policy shifts: cognitive openness and cognitive complexity. Cognitively open leaders are receptive to new information and are thus more prone to changing their beliefs than cognitively closed leaders. Similarly, cognitively complex leaders recognize that distinct situations possess multiple dimensions, and so are more likely to engage in adaptive behavior than their cognitively simple counterparts. The primary case explored in this dissertation is that of Shimon Peres, who began his political career as a tough-minded hawk and, in mid-career, transformed into a leading dove. Peres is found to possess particularly high levels of cognitive openness and complexity, thus explaining why his dovish shift was more expansive and occurred sooner than did Yitzhak Rabin’s dovish turn. Begin and Shamir, by contrast, are found to be more cognitively closed and simple than either Peres or Rabin, thus explaining why these hawks remained hawks despite having witnessed the same systemic-structural and domestic political events as Peres and Rabin.
    [Show full text]
  • Presidential Documents
    Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Monday, November 13, 1995 Volume 31ÐNumber 45 Pages 1983±1997 1 VerDate 27-FEB-98 10:43 Mar 18, 1998 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 1249 Sfmt 1249 E:\TEMP\P45NO4.000 INET03 Contents Addresses and Remarks Notices Death of Prime Minister Rabin of IsraelÐ Continuation of Emergency Regarding 1986, 1989 Weapons of Mass DestructionÐ1991 Radio addressÐ1985 Virginia, dedication of the Pan American Proclamations Flight 103 memorial cairn in ArlingtonÐ Death of Yitzhak RabinÐ1987 1983 Thanksgiving DayÐ1995 Bill Signings Fisheries Act of 1995, statementÐ1984 Statements by the President Communications to Congress See also Bill Signings Death of Prime Minister RabinÐ1986, 1987 Federal Labor Relations Authority, message transmitting reportÐ1995 Supplementary Materials International exchange and training activities, letter transmitting reportÐ1994 Acts approved by the PresidentÐ1997 Weapons of mass destruction, messageÐ1991 Checklist of White House press releasesÐ 1997 Interviews With the News Media Digest of other White House Exchange with reporters aboard Air Force announcementsÐ1996 OneÐ1987 Nominations submitted to the SenateÐ1996 Editor's Note: In order to meet publication deadlines during the Veterans Day holiday weekend, the cutoff time for this issue has been advanced to 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 9, 1995. Docu- ments released after that time will appear in the next issue. WEEKLY COMPILATION OF regulations prescribed by the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register, approved by the President
    [Show full text]
  • Pdf: Außenpolitischer Bericht 2000
    Die Politiken der Europäischen Union A. Österreich in der Europäischen Union I. Die Politiken der Europäischen Union 1. Die Rolle Österreichs in den Europäischen Institutionen Als Mitglied der Europäischen Union ist Österreich in allen Organen und In- stitutionen der Union vertreten. Mitglied der amtierenden Europäischen Kommission, die am 15. September 1999 bestellt wurde, ist Franz Fischler, dessen Portefeuille die Bereiche Landwirtschaft, ländliche Entwicklung und Fischereifragen umfasst. Beim Europäischen Gerichtshof (EuGH) und beim Europäischen Gericht ers- ter Instanz (EuGe I) stellt Österreich mit Peter Jann und Josef Azizi je einen Richter und mit Christine Stix-Hackl auch erstmals eine Generalanwältin beim EuGH. Österreichisches Mitglied im Europäischen Rechnungshof ist Hubert Weber. 1.1. Europäischer Gerichtshof (EuGH) und Gerichtshof Erster Instanz (EuGe I) Die Vertretung der Republik Österreich vor dem EuGH und dem EuGe I wird von Prozessbevollmächtigten des Verfassungsdienstes des Bundeskanzler- amtes (BKA) wahrgenommen. Im Jahr 2000 behandelte der EuGH 33 neue Vorabentscheidungsverfahren österreichischer Gerichte (Anrufung des EuGH durch ein nationales Gericht wegen Auslegung von Gemeinschafts- recht). Bis Ende 2000 waren zehn Verfahren gegen die Republik Österreich wegen behaupteter Verstöße gegen Gemeinschaftsrecht anhängig: Diese Vertrags- verletzungsverfahren betreffen Luftverkehrsabkommen mit den USA (Open Skies), die Richtlinie 95/47/EG über Fernsehsignalnormen, die Preisfestset- zung bei Arzneimitteln für den menschlichen Gebrauch, die Richtlinie 97/13/EG betreffend Lizenzen im Bereich der Telekommunikation, die Richtlinien 95/30/EG, 97/59/EG und 97/65/EG über den Schutz der Arbeit- nehmer gegen Gefährdung mit biologischen Arbeitsstoffen, das Inverkehr- bringen von Nahrungsergänzungsmitteln, das Verbot gesundheitsbezogener Angaben gemäß § 9 und § 18 LebensmittelG und die Richtlinie 96/82/EG über Unfälle mit gefährlichen Stoffen.
    [Show full text]
  • November 16, 1995
    1111111111111•111115-D!G!T 02906 2239 11/30/96 ~* 25 R.I~ JEWISH HISTORICAL ASSOCIA 130 SESSIONS ST. PROVIDENCE RI 02906 Rhode I_ 1s1-and-Jewi-Sh Remarkable Jews HERALD PAGES 12 & 13 The Only English-Jewish Weekly in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts VOLUME LXV, NUMBER 52 CHESHVAN 23, 5756 / THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1995 35,PERCOPY Rabin Assassin Fits the Profile by Jacob Schreiber death of a man wh~ dared trade JERUSALEM (JTA) - For parts of the Holy Land for peace? weeks, Israel's security services Even Amir's friends are per­ had been warning that the prime plexed by his actions. minister or another high-rank­ "He was a wonderful per­ ing government official might be son," Avner Goldshmid t, a per­ the target of a political assassin. sonal friend, told reporters. "I According to media reports, don' t understand how he could the profile they provided of the do this. I'm stunned." potential assailant was that of "Yigal was quite, sensitive an unassuming, right-wing, re­ and very smart," said Yaron ligious, Israeli Jew. Yehoshua, a fellow student at Yigal Amir, the law student Bar-Ilan who grew up near from Bar-Ilan University who Amir. "We would have some confessed to shooting Prime political arguments, but the Minister Yitzhak Rabin Nov. 4, never seemed radical." fit the profile exactly. But, according to police re­ So how did Rabin's security ports of statements given them agents allow an assassin to get by Amir, he was patient - and near their charge? calculating. Apartfromanapparentlapse Amir reportedly surprised in the security forces' vigilance his interrogators by telling them - which will be the subject of that his decision to assassinate Placing With Pumpkins an official investiga lion - most the prime minister was made Students at the Wheeler School had a pumpkin decorating contest recently.
    [Show full text]
  • Portrayals of First Ladies in the Israeli Press
    ‘All the Time His Wife’: Portrayals of First Ladies in the Israeli Press BY DAFNA LEMISH AND GILI DROB ‘ALL the time his wife’ reads the title of Leah Rabin’s autobiography.1 The internationally recognised widow of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated in 1995 for his efforts on behalf of peace, chose to frame herself in a highly dependent role. The book title inspired us to investigate the role First Ladies play in the highly conflictual Israeli public sphere and consequently examine what they reveal about the status of women in Israel in general. Our point of departure assumes that images of women in the press reflect society’s ideological stance toward them and at the same time perpetuate world views, granting them further legitimisation. We assume that this perspective has particu- lar significance for portrayals of First Ladies, since they symbolically represent the glorified characteristics of contemporary ‘womanhood’, being both a ‘Lady’ and the ‘First’ one at that. The concept of a First Lady is rooted in the history of the United States and has always been treated with ambivalence by the public and the media. The new vision of the First Lady offered in the 1990s by Hillary Rodham Clinton elicited a host of empirical studies as well as biographies attempting to come to terms with the significance of this particularly visible female public role.2 Analysis of the news coverage of American First Ladies suggest that they are framed in traditional gender roles, including that of a supportive and nurturing partner, a ceremonial and fashionable escort, and a volunteer for charitable activities.
    [Show full text]
  • Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold Interview with Amos Gitai
    YITZHAK RABIN: CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATION FORETOLD INTERVIEW WITH AMOS GITAI You directed last year a film-investigation into the political circumstances that led to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize winner, on 4 November 1995, in Tel-Aviv. You then presented a multimedia installation at the MAXXI in Rome on the same subject. Today, you’re creating for the Festival d’Avignon a show dedicated to that political assassination. Why choose to represent this historical event through three different forms of artistic expression? Amos Gitai: I believe that the best way for an artist to pay homage to his own culture is to be critical towards it. The assassination of Rabin twenty years ago was a turning point in contemporary Israeli history. And we’re still living through the consequences of that brutal act. The dialogue between Israel and Palestine, which is crucial for the Middle East, has been progressively stopped and made impossible. In such a context, the problem of the artist, of the filmmaker or writer, is this: what to do when you live right next to a volcano? What artistic form can you offer? A few years ago, we decided to work on this project about the assassination of Rabin as a gesture of remembrance, and even with the hope that… Sometimes, when you resurrect memory, it can lead to change. But you have to remain modest: art isn’t the most efficient way to change reality. Politics and machine guns have a much more direct effect. But sometimes, art has a delayed effect, for it preserves memory at a time when those in power would like to erase it, because what they want is obedience, they don’t want to be disturbed or contested.
    [Show full text]