1537 WORDS

11/4/03

Rabin Memorial Remarks

Yitzhak Rabin was my friend. When [we] met, he was the commander of Israel's armed forces, which had just won the 1967 war. When he was assassinated, he had become a symbol of Israel's yearning for peace and for reconciliation with its neighbors. As a military leader, Rabin overcame his nature, which was shy and somewhat reticent. As a peacemaker, he overcame his doubts in fulfilling his people's dreams. The Oslo agreement, negotiated under his aegis, is today often criticized. Rabin pursued it because of his conviction that Israel's existence in a hostile [environment] required it

JODY WILLIAMS

703 9414072

11/04/03 07:43am P. 002

to demonstrate - not least to itself - that it had missed no opportunity
for coexistence.

Yitzhak Rabin's funeral demonstrated to what extent he had
succeeded in the moral dimension of his effort. In the perspective of
the tragedy of the period, it seems almost unimaginable that two Arab
heads of state, a Russian prime minister, and the American president
would deliver eulogies to an Israeli leader in the presence of the heads
of many European governments.

[He died] two years after the Oslo agreement was signed in a
ceremony in which Rabin's reluctance to shake hands with Arafat was
palpable. Its disappointments were yet veiled by a merciful future.
But its hopes found expression in an almost biblical eloquence that
came upon Rabin with the prospect of an end to his people's bloodshed