This annual charade, this orchestrated political frenzy, of remembering Rabin, has lasted about two weeks in Israel, due to the discrepancy between his Yahrtzeit (death date in the Hebrew calendar) and the day of his murder, Nov. 4th in the secular calendar.
Education Minister, Naftali Bennett blasted the Tel Aviv rally calling it a “shameful leftist protest.” In response to the crowds loud heckling of Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi’s speech at the event, Bennett wrote: “Booing against Hanegbi. The right did not kill Rabin, Yigal Amir did.”
“As a leader on the right who opposes a Palestinian state, I am tired of the annual false accusations from the left.” Bennett added, “The lesson from the extreme left, its the right's fault.”
The Left “religiously” bemoans every year, how the “Rabin Legacy” is disappearing. There might be some truth to that. According to a recent opinion poll from the Jewish People Policy Institute, only about 15 percent of Israeli Jews planned to attend memorial events dedicated to Rabin this year. The numbers continue to decline, year after year.
But why? Maybe people are tired of being berated by the Left? Maybe the Left has a distorted memory of Rabin?
But what’s not disappearing so fast, is memory of his quick wit, foul mouth, and the vitriol he threw at his opponents regularly.
Who can forget Rabin’s diatribe against citizens living on the Golan Heights, when he started “Peace” talks with Syria, “They can spin around and around like propellers...” Imagine what the situation in the north would be like today, if Israel had given away the Golan.
Or, Rabin calling suffering Israelis, hiding in bomb shelters, “Crybabies,” because they complained about coming under Hezbollah rocket fire in northern Israel, and called on the Israeli government to put an end to the missile attacks.
Earlier in his career, Rabin called the nascent Samarian town of Kedumim “a bloated fart.” And said, “Gush Emunim [the religious Zionist settlement movement]...is comparable to a cancer in the tissue of Israel’s democratic society.”
Name calling political opponents, seems to be something, Rabin and Trump both have in common.
But, that’s probably the only thing they have in common. What they don’t have in common is drinking, smoking, and womanizing. Rabin was a chain-smoker, and evidently an alcoholic too. Ezer Weizman revealed, that Rabin had suffered a collapse on the eve of the Six Day War and was temporarily relieved of his duties. Trump never touched the stuff. But he has touched a few women in his day. Whereas, Rabin seems to have been a faithful husband.
Leah Rabin and her husband certainly were like minded,“Sometimes I think, despite the fact that we are Jewish and the right is Jewish, that it would be easier to find a common language with Palestinians and Arabs,” she told an interviewer once. “Because we [the right and left in Israel] live on two different planets.” In contrast to her rebuke of the Israeli Right, after Rabin’s murder, she said she was moved by the condolences offered by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Imagine that, good “friend,” and terrorist mastermind Arafat?
And who can forget Rabin’s disgustingly coarse description, of victims of Palestinian suicide bombings, as “Korbanot L’Shalom” (sacrifices for peace), while Jews died, and the nation screamed out in pain.
“The Peace Process must go on at all costs,” could have been Rabin’s slogan.
Contrast that, with Trump’s response to the Nazi-like slaughter of 11 innocent American Jews in Pittsburgh attending Sabbath services, recently:
“I want to address the horrible shooting that took place earlier today. The hearts of all Americans are filled with grief following the monstrous killing of Jewish Americans at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You’ve all seen it, we’ve been watching it, It’s horrible...”
“This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us. It’s an assault on humanity. It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-Semitism from our world. This was an anti-Semitic attack at its worst. The scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be allowed to continue. We can’t allow it to continue. It must be confronted and condemned everywhere it rears its very ugly head.”
“We must stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters to defeat anti-Semitism and vanquish, the forces of hate, that’s what it is. Through the centuries, the Jews have endured terrible persecution, and you know that, we’ve all read it, we’ve studied it. They’ve gone through a lot and those seeking their destruction, we will seek their [the anti-Semites] destruction.”
“And when you have crimes like this, whether its this one or another one, on another group, we have to bring back the death penalty, they have to pay the ultimate price. They have to pay the ultimate price, they can’t do this. They can't do this to our country, we must draw a line in the sand, and say very strongly, never again. Tonight, everyone in this arena and every citizen across the land sends our prayers to the victims and their families. And we all do.”
Quite a contrast with Rabin’s “Korbanot L’Shalom,” after Jews suffered from murderous Palestinian anti-Semitism.
The Talmud, Yoma 22b, can provide a framework to understand what’s going on, R. Huna explained: “Saul sinned once and it brought calamity upon him [he lost his kingship], David sinned twice and it did not bring evil upon him. What was the one sin of Saul? The affair with Agag [not killing the Amalekite king after capturing him in war]. What were the two sins of David? The sin against Uriah and that of taking a census, counting the people to which he was enticed.”
Both of David’s sins were considered personal, and he kept his right to the kingship, while Saul’s one sin was of a national-political nature, and therefor he lost the right to rule.
Similarly, Trump’s name calling is of a personal-attack nature, so too his other indiscretions were personal.
But, with Rabin, the name calling was meant to delegitimize vast numbers, whole sectors of the Israeli population, so that he could carry out his ill-conceived political policies. And so too today, the Left’s annual “Guilt-In,” which is meant to cower and shut-up, those who disagree with their delusional “peace” policies.
And, let’s not forget the “Rabin Legacy.” After firing on the ship, the Altelana in 1948, Rabin, commanding soldiers on the shore, ordered the fledgling IDF to open-fire on defenseless Irgunists in the water, fleeing the sinking ship, killing many.
Much Jewish blood was on his hands...
While Trump has sworn to protect Americans, beefing-up America’s defense posture and pursuing an “America First” agenda; in contrast, Rabin helped establish a Palestinian beachhead on the Israeli body politic, a terrorist mini-state in our midst, that has led to thousands of deaths.
So, Trump like King David, has had personal failings, but that didn’t cause either of them to lose leadership. With all that could be said against Trump, at least he has tried to defend America from external enemies, and protect Americans, from internal enemies as well.
That couldn’t be said of the “Rabin Legacy.”
Rabin’s sins were of a national-political nature, issues of war, peace, and the land of Israel, just like that of King Saul, and so too, like Saul, he fell.
Pity Yitzhak Rabin didn’t put “Israel First.”
Pity Yitzhak Rabin wasn’t Israel’s Trump!
Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.
(c) 2018/5779 Pasko
