I helped kill Yitzhak Rabin. Not only Yigal Amir or the movements that helped motivate him played a role. Not only the rabbis who called on Israeli soldiers to disobey orders, nor those who ruled it a halachic imperative to kill Mr. Rabin.
Not only the Likud opposition, which neglected to renounce the support of extreme anti-peace activists. Not only the Israeli expatriates who physically attacked Israeli officials overseas, nor the American activists who applauded the violence. Not only the leading rabbis who carried the flag of American Jewry to Jerusalem and proclaimed Rabin in violation of God’s laws, nor the nominal leaders who failed to restrain them.
No. We all share responsibility.
When Baruch Goldstein coolly massacred Muslim worshipers in Hebron last year, Jewish leaders – religious and secular – hastened to condemn the crime and disassociate it from the tenets of Judaism.
It was wrong to pretend Goldstein’s actions had no connection to Judaism. Goldstein was Jewish, Orthodox, Zionist and venerated posthumously by thousands of Jewish admirers. Such abdication of leadership and communal responsibility helped encourage and foster an environment in which violence became a legitimate alternative to democratic institutions, with a Jew’s hatred cloaked in religious trappings.
We were wrong to assume that “real” Jews could not act this way, and derelict to thick we shared no responsibility. We conveniently presumed the Jewish extremists to be less dangerous than their Palestinian counterparts, an increasingly tenuous prospect.
We continued dodging our responsibilities in not countering vocally enough those who contested the legitimacy of Israel’s democratically elected leaders to make peace. Religious leaders had a duty, not only to refrain from polarizing the democratic political debate along Messianic lines, but to ensure those who did.
To be silent in such times was tantamount to approving the demonization of Israel’s heroes and the champions of peaceful coexistence.
Each Jew need not support specific Israeli policies, but it is incumbent upon us to defend vigorously the right of Israel’s leaders to implement those policies. And those of us who do support the dramatic quest for strategic peace in the Middle East – whether as rabbis or common Jews – must resolve to restate unceasingly our sentiments and their justification.
The test of leadership is not to shirk but to accept responsibility for ourselves and our followers, not to shrink but to answer each offensive word and deed.
Although intensifying my personal efforts would have made little impact, encouragement all the way up the Jewish ranks might have altered the atmosphere from one of ambivalence and suspicion to one of tolerance and hope.
Maybe I could have pursued further my proposal to organize a massive pro-peace march on Washington to dispel the perception that American Jews were not interested in realizing peace – peace on Israel’s terms rather than our own. Perhaps I could have mobilized those friends who supported the peace process, convinced those who were skeptical or at least elicited support for the proposition that Israel’s democratic process must be preserved regardless of political differences.
In the desert, Moses proceeds to challenge two key backers of Korach’s rebellion against his right to lead the Children of Israel. “Moses arose and went unto Dotan and Aviram,” the Bible tells us. “And all the elders of Israel followed after him.”
They followed him rather than joined him. These 70 elders, leaders of Israel, were only too happy to help Moses confront his challengers – as long as Moses went first.
Did our elders even follow Rabin as he defended his legitimacy? He was not only the Labor Party leader, he was the prime minister of Israel. He was a fellow Jew.
For my entire 30 years, Yitzhak Rabin has been the most prominent Israeli leader – as chief of staff, ambassador to Washington and prime minister.
He ensured Israel’s future both in war and peace. When I think of the State of Israel, I think of Yitzhak Rabin. Bristly, stubborn, arrogant, shrewd, brave and proud – this was Rabin, this is Israel. Only Rabin could decide for Rabin, and only Israelis can decide Israel’s future – democratically. I was brought up to believe that Israel would make peace if only it had negotiating partners. That day has come, and as Prime Minister Rabin once quoted,” Let us rejoice on it.”
Goldstein was Jewish and Amir is Jewish, but so was Rabin and so were the soldiers who have fallen defending Israel. We cannot claim credit only for the good. The Jewish way is not to deny responsibility but to look deep within ourselves and our institutions, to consider how to improve our lives, how to actualize Jewish values rather than hide behind them.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
