Yitzhak Rabin’s peace vision remains undimmed 12 years after his death, Bill Clinton said.
Clinton, who as U.S. president helped Rabin try to make peace with the Palestinians — only to see the Israeli prime minister assassinated by a fellow Israeli in 1995 — published a memorial essay in the Middle East Bulletin.
“My friend knew that the Middle East is highly interdependent, that there could be no final military victory: it would come only through peace and reconciliation based on our shared humanity,” Clinton wrote.
Though many blame the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2000 on Rabin’s failed diplomatic strategy, Clinton described the fighting as an aberration.
“While the events of the last several years have delayed the dream for which Yitzhak Rabin sacrificed his life, they in no way undermine the logic of his vision, the power of his faith, or the beauty of his gifts to us,” he wrote.
On Sunday, Israelis marked the 12th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert used the event to highlight his current efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians under U.S. auspices.
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