Yitzhak Rabin and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Benjamin Petree The Arab-Israeli conflict has been around for nearly a century and peace is still a goal yet to be found. Former prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was the reason peace was nearly achieved in the early 90s. However, since his assassination in 1995, the whole of Southwest Asia hasn’t been close to a resolution regarding the conflict. Political unrest is reaching a stalemate with progress and the region is in desperate need for a peacemaker or compromiser. Rabin, being a peacemaker, was highly respected by most of his Israeli followers and even some Palestinians. Undoubtedly, peace was his and most other Israeli’s ultimate goal and would have been achieved if it hadn’t been for his death …show more content…
in 1941, he joined the Palmach, the Jewish Defense Forces’ commando unit. During the first of the Arab-Israeli wars, he enforced the defense of Jerusalem and fought against the Egyptians in the Negev desert. He conceived the mobilization strategies used to win the six-day war shortly following his promotion to chief of staff in 1964. However, he retired from the army in 1968 and became his Israel’s first ambassador to the United States in looking for a conclusion to the ongoing conflict. He was always the country’s primary leader in solving the issue even when he wasn’t the country’s prime minister. In 1992, he regained position as Israel’s prime minister and was able to make more progress to finding a solution to the conflict. One of the most well known events in the whole of the conflict was the Oslo Accord between Rabin and Arafat in 1993 stating that gradual self-rule for the Palestinians would return in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Although peace was on the horizon for the parties, tensions arose once more after Rabin’s assassination in …show more content…
For the Israelis, he was a leader and a beacon of hope for them to finally have a country they can call their own in the name of their religion. He was one of the few peacemakers of the time, let alone one to stand up for the cause. Because of this, it wasn’t crazy to think he was the only hope for resolution. As for the Palestinians, he was respected in the fact he was fair and just in his reasoning for progression towards peace. However, some saw his actions as biased and unreasonable due to his Jewish heritage and for the fact that some Palestinians wanted the whole land to themselves rather than sharing it. As it was holy, both sides were very passionate on their own views and biases towards Rabin and any possible compromises that would arise in regards to ownership of the land. Especially around Jerusalem. Consequently, the Palestinians were skeptical of Rabin’s ideology and political