Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin ( ; ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995 ) was an Israel i politician , statesman and general . He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel , serving two terms in office , 1974 – 77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995 . In 1994 , Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat . He was assassinated by right - wing Israeli radical Yigal Amir , who was opposed to Rabin ' s signing of the Oslo Accords . Rabin was the first native - born prime minister of Israel , the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol . He was voted number one in a 2005 Ynet poll of greatest Israelis . Personal life . Rabin was born in Jerusalem on 1 March 1922 , British Mandate of Palestine , to Nehemiah ( 1886 – December 1 , 1971 ) and Rosa ( née Cohen ) , two immigrants of the Third Aliyah , the third wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine from Europe . Nehemiah Rubitzov was born in the Ukrainian village Sydorovychi near Ivankiv . His father Menachem died when he was a boy , and he worked to support his family beginning at an early age . At the age of 18 , he emigrated to the United States , where he joined the Poale Zion party and changed his surname to Rabin . In 1917 , Nehemiah went to the British Mandate of Palestine with a group of volunteers from the Jewish Legion . Yitzhak ' s mother , Rosa Cohen , was born in 1890 in Mohilev in Belarus . Her father , a rabbi , opposed the Zionist movement and sent Rosa to a Christian high school for girls in Homel , which gave her a broad general education . Early on , Rosa took an interest in political and social causes . In 1919 , she traveled to the region on the steamship " Ruslan " . After working on a kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee , she moved to Jerusalem . Rabin grew up in Tel Aviv , where the family relocated when he was one year old . In 1940 , he graduated with distinction from the Kadoori Agricultural High School and hoped to be an irrigation engineer . However , apart from several courses in military strategy in the United Kingdom later on , he never pursued a degree . Rabin married Leah Rabin ( born Schlossberg ) during the 1948 Arab - Israeli War . Leah Rabin was working at the time as a reporter for a Palmach newspaper . They had two children , Dalia ( born March 19 , 1950 ) and Yuval ( born June 18 , 1955 ) . Rabin was non - religious ; according to American diplomat Dennis Ross , Rabin was the most secular Jew he had met in Israel . Military career . Palmach . In 1941 , during his practical training at kibbutz Ramat Yohanan , Rabin joined the Palmach section of the Haganah , under the influence of Yigal Allon . The first operation he participated in was assisting the allied invasion of Lebanon , then held by Vichy French forces ( the same operation in which Moshe Dayan lost his eye ) in June – July 1941 . After the end of the war the relationship between the Palmach and the British authorities became strained , especially with respect to the treatment of Jewish immigration . In October 1945 Rabin was in charge of planning and later executing an operation for the release of interned immigrants from the Atlit detainee camp for Jewish illegal immigrants . In the Black Shabbat , a massive British operation against the leaders of the Jewish Establishment in British Mandate Palestine , Rabin was arrested and detained for five months . After his release he became the commander of the second Palmach battalion and rose to the position of Chief Operations Officer of the Palmach in October 1947 . IDF service . During the 1948 Arab - Israeli War Rabin directed Israeli operations in Jerusalem and fought the Egypt ian army in the Negev . During the beginning of the war he was the commander of the Harel Brigade , which fought on the road to Jerusalem from the coastal plain , including the Israeli " Burma Road " , as well as many battles in Jerusalem , such as securing the southern side of the city by recapturing kibbutz Ramat Rachel . During the he participated in the altercation between the IDF and the Irgun on the beach of Tel Aviv as part of the Altalena Affair . In the following period he was the deputy commander of Operation Danny , the largest scale operation to that point , which involved four IDF brigades . The cities of Ramle and Lydda were captured , as well as the major airport in Lydda , as part of the operation . Following the capture of the two towns there was an exodus of their Arab population . Rabin signed the expulsion order , which included the following , < br > " . . . 1 . The inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age . . . . 2 . Implement immediately . " Later , Rabin was Chief of Operations for the Southern Front and participated in the major battles ending the fighting there , including Operation Yoav and Operation Horev . In the beginning of 1949 he was a member of the Israeli delegation to the armistice talks with Egypt that were held on the island of Rhodes . The result of the negotiations were the 1949 Armistice Agreements , which ended the official hostilities of the 1948 Arab - Israeli War . Following the demobilisation at the end of the war he was the most senior ( former ) member of the Palmach that remained in the IDF . In 1964 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF ) by Levi Eshkol , who replaced David Ben - Gurion and , like him , served as Prime - Minister and Minister of Defence . Since Eshkol did not have much military experience , Rabin had a relatively free hand . Under his command , the IDF achieved victory over Egypt , Syria and Jordan in the Six - Day War in 1967 . After the Old City of Jerusalem was captured by the IDF , Rabin was among the first to visit the Old City , and delivered a famous speech on Mount Scopus , at the Hebrew University . In the days leading up to the war , it was reported that Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown and was unable to function . After this short hiatus , he resumed full command over the IDF . Ambassador and Minister of Labour . Following his retirement from the IDF he became ambassador to the United States beginning in 1968 , serving for five years . In this period the US became the major weapon supplier of Israel and in particular he managed to get the embargo on the F - 4 Phantom fighter jets lifted . During the 1973 Yom Kippur War he served in no official capacity and in the elections held at the end of 1973 he was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Alignment . He was appointed Israeli Minister of Labour in March 1974 in Golda Meir ' s short - lived government . While serving as ambassador , Rabin met and formed a relationship with Menachem M . Schneerson . First term as Prime Minister . Following Golda Meir ' s resignation in April 1974 , Rabin was elected party leader , after he defeated Shimon Peres . The rivalry between these two labour leaders remained fierce and they competed several times in the next two decades for the leadership role . Rabin succeeded Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel on 3 June 1974 . This was a coalition government , including Ratz , the Independent Liberals , Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers . This arrangement , with a bare parliamentary majority , held for a few months and was one of the few periods in Israel ' s history where the religious parties were not part of the coalition . The National Religious Party joined the coalition on 30 October 1974 and Ratz left on 6 November . In foreign policy , the major development at the beginning of Rabin ' s term was the Sinai Interim Agreement between Israel and Egypt , signed on 1 September 1975 . Both countries declared that the conflict between them and in the Middle East shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means . This agreement followed Henry Kissinger ' s shuttle diplomacy and a threatened ' reassessment ' of the United States ' regional policy and its relations with Israel . Rabin notes it was , " an innocent - sounding term that heralded one of the worst periods in American - Israeli relations " . The agreement was an important step towards the Camp David Accords of 1978 and the peace treaty with Egypt signed in 1979 . Operation Entebbe was perhaps the most dramatic event during Rabin ' s first term of office . On his orders , the IDF performed a long - range undercover raid to rescue passengers of an airliner hijacked by militants belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ' s Wadie Haddad faction and the German Revolutionary Cells ( RZ ) , and had been brought to Idi Amin ' s Uganda . The operation was generally considered a tremendous success , and its spectacular character has made it the subject of much continued comment and study . Towards the end of 1976 his coalition government with the religious parties suffered a crisis : A motion of no confidence had been brought by Agudat Yisrael over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base when four F - 15 jets were delivered from the US and the National Religious Party had abstained . Rabin dissolved his government and decided on new elections , which were to be held in May 1977 . Following the March 1977 meeting between Rabin and U . S . President Jimmy Carter , Rabin publicly announced that the U . S . supported the Israeli idea of defensible borders ; Carter then issued a clarification . A " fallout " in U . S . / Israeli relations ensued . It is thought that the fallout contributed to the Israeli Labour Party ' s defeat in the May 1977 elections . On March 15 , 1977 , Haaretz journalist Dan Margalit revealed that a joint dollar account in the names of Yitzhak and Leah Rabin , opened in a Washington , D . C . , bank during Rabin ' s term of office as Israel ambassador ( 1968 – 73 ) , was still open , in breach of Israeli law . According to Israeli currency regulations at the time , it was illegal for citizens to maintain foreign bank accounts without prior authorisation . Rabin resigned on April 8 , 1977 , following the revelation by Maariv journalist Shraga Mekel that the Rabins held two accounts in Washington , not one , containing $ 10 , 000 , and that a Finance Ministry administrative penalty committee fined them IL 150 , 000 . Rabin withdrew from the party leadership and candidacy for prime minister , an act that earned him praise as a man of integrity . Opposition Knesset member and Minister of Defence . Following his resignation and Labour Party defeat at the elections , Likud ' s Menachem Begin was elected in 1977 . Until 1984 Rabin was a member of Knesset and sat on the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee . From 1984 to 1990 , he served as Minister of Defence in several national unity government s led by prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres . When Rabin came to office , Israeli troops were still deep in Lebanon . Rabin ordered their withdrawal to a " Security Zone " on the Lebanese side of the border . The South Lebanon Army was active in this zone , along with the Israeli Defence Forces . When the first Intifada broke out , Rabin adopted harsh measures to stop the demonstrations , even authorising the use of " Force , might and beatings , " on the demonstrators . Rabin the " bone breaker " was used as an International image . The combination of the failure of the " Iron Fist " policy , Israel ' s deteriorating international image and Jordan cutting legal and administrative ties to the West Bank with the U . S . ' s recognition of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people forced Rabin to seek an end to the violence through negotiation and dialogue with the PLO . In 1990 to 1992 , Rabin again served as a Knesset member and sat on the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee . Second term as Prime Minister . In 1992 Rabin was elected as chairman of the Labour Party , winning against Shimon Peres . In the elections that year his party , strongly focusing on the popularity of its leader , managed to win a clear victory over the Likud of incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir . However the left - wing bloc in the Knesset only won an overall narrow majority , facilitated by the disqualification of small nationalist parties that did not manage to pass the electoral threshold . Rabin formed the first Labour - led government in fifteen years , supported by a coalition with Meretz , a left wing party , and Shas , a Mizrahi ultra - orthodox religious party . Rabin played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords , which created the Palestinian National Authority and granted it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank . Prior to the signing of the accords , Rabin received a letter from PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat renouncing violence and officially recognising Israel , and on the same day , 9 September 1993 , Rabin sent Arafat a letter officially recognising the PLO . After the announcement of the Oslo Accords there were many protest demonstrations in Israel objecting to the Accords . As these protests dragged on , Rabin insisted that as long as he had a majority in the Knesset he would ignore the protests and the protesters . In this context he said , " they ( the protesters ) can spin around and around like propellers " but he would continue on the path of the Oslo Accords . Rabin ' s parliamentary majority rested on non - coalition member Arab support . Rabin also denied the right of American Jews to object to his plan for peace , calling any dissent " chutzpah " . After the historical handshake with Yasser Arafat , Rabin said , on behalf of the Israeli people : " We who have fought against you , the Palestinians , we say to you today , in a loud and a clear voice , enough of blood and tears . . . enough ! " During this term of office , Rabin also oversaw the signing of the Israel - Jordan Treaty of Peace in 1994 . Nobel Peace Prize . For his role in the creation of the Oslo Accords , Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize , along with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres . The Accords greatly divided Israeli society , with some seeing Rabin as a hero for advancing the cause of peace and some seeing him as a traitor for giving away land they viewed as rightfully belonging to Israel . Many Israelis on the right wing often blame him for Jewish deaths in terror attacks , attributing them to the Oslo agreements . Rabin was also awarded the 1994 Ronald Reagan Freedom Award by the former president ' s wife , former First Lady Nancy Reagan . The award is given to " those who have made monumental and lasting contributions to the cause of freedom worldwide , " and who " embody President Reagan ' s lifelong belief that one man or woman truly can make a difference . " . Assassination and aftermath . On the evening of 4 November 1995 ( 12th of Heshvan on the Hebrew Calendar ) , Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir , a radical right - wing Orthodox Jew who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords . Rabin had been attending a mass rally at the Kings of Israel Square ( now Rabin Square ) in Tel Aviv , held in support of the Oslo Accords . When the rally ended , Rabin walked down the city hall steps towards the open door of his car , at which point Amir fired three shots at Rabin with a semi - automatic pistol . Two shots hit Rabin , and the third lightly injured Yoram Rubin , one of Rabin ' s bodyguards . Rabin was rushed to nearby Ichilov Hospital , where he died on the operating table less than 40 minutes later due to blood loss and a punctured lung . Amir was immediately seized by Rabin ' s bodyguards . He was later tried , found guilty , and sentenced to life imprisonment . After an emergency cabinet meeting , Israel ' s foreign minister , Shimon Peres , was appointed as acting Israeli prime minister . Rabin ' s assassination came as a great shock to the Israeli public and much of the rest of the world . Hundreds of thousands of Israelis thronged the square where Rabin was assassinated to mourn his death . Young people , in particular , turned out in large numbers , lighting memorial candles and singing peace songs . On 6 November 1995 , a day after the murder , he was buried on Mount Herzl . Rabin ' s funeral was attended by many world leaders , among them U . S . president Bill Clinton , Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating , Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and King Hussein of Jordan . Clinton delivered a eulogy whose final words were in Hebrew – " Shalom , Haver " ( , lit . " Goodbye , Friend " ) . The square where he was assassinated , " Kikar Malkhei Yisrael " ( Kings of Israel Square ) , was renamed Rabin Square in his honour . Many other streets and public institutions in Israel have also subsequently been named after him . After his assassination , Rabin was hailed as a national symbol and came to embody the ethos of the ' Israeli peace camp ' , despite his military career and hawkish views earlier in life . In November 2000 , his wife Leah died and was buried alongside him . After the murder , it was revealed that Avishai Raviv , a well known right - wing extremist at the time , was in fact a Shin Bet agent - informer code - named Champagne . Raviv was later acquitted in court of charges that he failed to prevent the assassination . The court ruled there was no evidence that Raviv knew assassin Yigal Amir was plotting to kill Rabin . There are a number of conspiracy theories related to the assassination of Rabin . However , the sources of these conspiracies are predominately right - wing extreme groups who attempt to spread doubt in the guilt of the murderer , Yigal Amir . After Rabin ' s assassination , his daughter Dalia Rabin - Pelossof entered into politics and was elected to the Knesset in 1999 as part of the Centre Party . In 2001 , she served as Israel ' s deputy minister of defence . Commemoration . The Knesset has set the 12th of Heshvan , the murder date according to the Hebrew calendar , as the official memorial day of Rabin . An unofficial but widely followed memorial date is 4 November , the date according to the Gregorian calendar . In 1995 the Israeli Postal Authority issued a commemorative Rabin stamp . In 1996 Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer translated Walt Whitman ' s poem O Captain ! My Captain ! to Hebrew and wrote music for it to mark the anniversary of Rabin ' s assassination . The song is since commonly performed or played in Yitzhak Rabin memorial day services . The Yitzhak Rabin Centre was founded in 1997 by an act of the Knesset , to create " [ a ] Memorial Centre for Perpetuating the Memory of Yitzhak Rabin . " It carries out extensive commemorative and educational activities emphasising the ways and means of democracy and peace . Mechinat Rabin , an Israeli pre - army preparatory program for training recent high school graduates in leadership prior to their IDF service , was established in 1998 . Many cities and towns in Israel have named streets , neighbourhoods , schools , bridges and parks after Rabin . Also two government office complexes and two synagogues are named after Yitzhak Rabin . Outside Israel , there are streets named after him in Bonn , Berlin and New York and parks in Montreal , Paris , Rome and Lima . The community Jewish high school in Ottawa is also named after him . The Cambridge University Israel Society host its annual academic lecture in honour of Yizhak Rabin . In 2005 , he was voted the greatest Israeli of all time , in a poll by the Israeli news website " Ynet " to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis .