Israel’s Embassy in Washington commemorated the tenth anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee, delivered the keynote address Monday evening at the commemoration for the late Israeli prime minister. “He devoted his life to Israel and to the Jewish people and he believed passionately that the best Jewish state is a democratic state,” Lantos said. “In his final speech, at the peace rally in Tel Aviv — aware of foreboding intelligence reports — he warned that ‘violence undermines the very foundations of Israeli democracy. Controversies may arise in a democracy, but the decision must be reached through democratic elections.’ Moments later, he became a martyr to that very idea.” A pro-settler extremist gunned Rabin down.
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