����ֱ��

The three gunshots that struck Yitzhak Rabin on Nov. 4, 30 years ago, not only killed the Israeli prime minister, but also fatally wounded the peace process that was then barely two years old. The tragic irony was that the assassin chose to target Rabin as he left the stage of a peace rally in Tel Aviv — the Israeli leader’s final act singing what has since become the anthem of the peace camp “Shir LaShalom” (A Song for Peace).

Those who personally worked against Rabin knew that this statesman and former Israeli military chief was an irreplaceable figure in the cause of peace. For many Israelis, he was still the hero of the Six-Day War, which ended with Israel occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. However, Rabin was prepared to cede much of these territories for the sake of peace. In a nutshell, the magnitude of the tragedy of his murder is encapsulated in the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu, a leading voice in the incitement against him, has replaced Rabin at the helm for most of the past 30 years since the assassination. The enemies of peace benefited most from Rabin’s death.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to delink this tragic moment all these years ago from the collapse of the peace process, which has resulted in the current lowest point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ceasefire in Gaza is very much welcomed, but peace based on a two-state solution seems further away than ever. However, it must be emphasized that it is not impossible and remains highly desirable.

For a brief moment, when Israel was stricken by the grief and shock at the loss of its leader — one who had already signed the Oslo Accords and a peace agreement with Jordan — there was a flicker of hope that this would bring the nation together. At least there was a sense that the country must agree on the boundaries for the political and social debate.

That unprecedented act of political violence also scared the extreme nationalistic-messianic elements on the right, many of them from the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. It was not as if they were lamenting the violent demise of Rabin, but the fear that since the assassin came from their ranks, it would lead to their marginalization. They feared being exposed for what they really were along with their dangerous agenda. Tragically for the country, not only did they quickly recover from their shock, they also used it as a lever to gain power for most of the next three decades, and the current government represents the worst version of them.

Reflecting back, with the perspective of 30 years, it was wrong to think that justice was done merely by locking up the lone gunman who pulled the trigger. Those who created the atmosphere, the conditions, for the killing, bear a heavy responsibility, but have never faced justice. Whoever designed and distributed posters of Rabin wearing an SS uniform, knowing what it means in Jewish history, were either dull-witted, to put it mildly, or wanted Rabin to be harmed. Some rabbis passed a religious ruling against the Israeli leader, claiming that “anyone ceding parts of the land of Israel to gentiles is, from a halakhic point of view, subject to din rodef,” which suggested that killing him could be interpreted as an act of self-defense.

Rabin’s assassination should have served as a warning to Israeli society.

Yossi Mekelberg

Bringing to justice the rabbis who passed this ruling, even though it had no legal standing, and those who incited feelings against Rabin and other members of the government who negotiated the Oslo Accords, was not solely about ensuring that justice be done, but also sending an uncompromising message that political violence, verbal as much as physical, would not be tolerated.

The peace-liberal-progressive camp has yet to fully recover from the shock of Rabin’s assassination — and many will never do so. As a group, they have not been robust enough in demanding accountability and following his path toward peace. On the other hand, the opposing camp of the right, and especially the settlers’ movement, moved quickly from defensive mode to what they do best — going on the offensive, creating facts on the ground by building and expanding settlements, and successfully distorting the views of the peace camp.

Rabin’s assassination was not the first act of political violence or terrorism motivated by the right. This was also the case in the mass killing in 1994 by Baruch Goldstein at the Cave of Patriarchs in Hebron, or even before that, the plot by a Jewish underground to blow up the Dome of the Rock and instigate a religious war. The ideologues who legitimized these acts do not recognize the authority or legitimacy of those who oppose their endgame of annexing the entire occupied territories and marginalizing, if not expelling, the Palestinians who live there, while burying the idea of the two-state solution.

The ascendency to power of this ideology, and the failure of the peace process to reach its ultimate conclusion, can be to a large extent attributed to the assassination of Rabin, which left the peace camp without a leader possessing broad appeal and trust beyond his own constituency, especially on security issues.

Rabin’s death should have served as a warning to Israeli society that the occupation and settlement project had released anti-democratic forces in their most poisonous form — one that follows rabbinical guidance and not the law. For them, the assassination of a war hero, successful diplomat, and prime minister was nothing more than removing someone who dared challenge their greater Israel aspirations. They showed no remorse for that deed, instead exploiting it in order to claim the ascendency in Israeli politics.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg