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The Rabin Memoirs, Expanded Edition with Recent Speeches, New Photographs, and an Afterword
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in November of 1995―one year after he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Yasir Arafat―sent shock waves around the world. Known as both a man of war and of peace, the Jerusalem-born Israeli prime minister played a key role in developing the Jewish state and was instrumental in establishing peace in the Middle East. Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs, first published in 1979 but long out of print, are now available in this expanded edition. They provide a candid appraisal of significant events in Israeli history, and passages censored when the memoirs were first published have been restored. The addition of an afterword by Rabin's political advisor, Yoram Peri, and his most important speeches given after 1979 round out Rabin's life and show the evolution of his beliefs.
Rabin writes of his years in the Haganah (the independent Jewish military) and gives a controversial account of the War of Independence. He details the tactical moves that made him a hero in the Six Day War and recalls his years as ambassador to the United States. He tells of his difficult decision to authorize the 1976 rescue of hijacked hostages from the Entebbe airport. Rabin describes the conflicts that eventually led to his party's defeat after thirty years in power, and he concludes with a shrewd assessment of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and of prospects for peace with Israel's other neighbors, including the Palestinians.
Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs are important not only for the insider's view they offer about Israel and the Middle East, but also for providing a very human portrait of a heroic world leader.
From the book :"Most of you watched that ceremony on the White House lawn with mixed emotions, many of you grinding your teeth. I knew that the hand outstretched to me . . . was the same hand that held the knife, that held the gun, the hand that gave the order to shoot, to kill. Of all the hands in the world, it was not the hand that I wanted or dreamed of touching. . . . On that world stage, I stood as the representative . . . of a state that is willing to give peace a chance. As I have said, one does not make peace with one's friends. One makes peace with one's enemy."―Jerusalem, December 1993
Rabin writes of his years in the Haganah (the independent Jewish military) and gives a controversial account of the War of Independence. He details the tactical moves that made him a hero in the Six Day War and recalls his years as ambassador to the United States. He tells of his difficult decision to authorize the 1976 rescue of hijacked hostages from the Entebbe airport. Rabin describes the conflicts that eventually led to his party's defeat after thirty years in power, and he concludes with a shrewd assessment of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and of prospects for peace with Israel's other neighbors, including the Palestinians.
Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs are important not only for the insider's view they offer about Israel and the Middle East, but also for providing a very human portrait of a heroic world leader.
From the book :"Most of you watched that ceremony on the White House lawn with mixed emotions, many of you grinding your teeth. I knew that the hand outstretched to me . . . was the same hand that held the knife, that held the gun, the hand that gave the order to shoot, to kill. Of all the hands in the world, it was not the hand that I wanted or dreamed of touching. . . . On that world stage, I stood as the representative . . . of a state that is willing to give peace a chance. As I have said, one does not make peace with one's friends. One makes peace with one's enemy."―Jerusalem, December 1993
468 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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About the author
Yitzhak Rabin
19 booksIsraeli military and political leader Yitzhak Rabin, or Itzhak Rabin commanded forces in the six-day war of 1967, served as prime minister from 1974 to 1977 and from 1992, and shared the Nobel Prize of 1994 for peace; someone assassinated him in 1995.
Yasir Arafat shared the Nobel Prize for peace of 1994 with Rabin and Shimon Peres.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak...
Yasir Arafat shared the Nobel Prize for peace of 1994 with Rabin and Shimon Peres.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2020
I have read the early sections of Rabin's memoirs, up to 1948 and the War of Independence ... later I will read more ... Rabin writes with passion and clarity ... his descriptions put me into some of Israel's most dire moments ...
I am reading about Israel because (1) there is much I want to learn and (2) I have an idea for a new novel (now that A Promise Kept: 1934 to 1946 as been published). In 1946, Berthold was convicted at Nuremberg and sent to Spandau Prison for 20 years. What will Anna do? Going to Palestine, soon to be Israel, seems the logical as well as emotional choice. So I'm reading to learn facts and to stimulate my thoughts about possible story lines.
I must also brag that once I actually met Yitzhak Rabin ... he was the Israeli Ambassador to the UN and I was part of a program which brought him to speak at our synagogue in Cherry Hill, NJ ... After he spoke, I had the privilege of driving him (and his one security person) to 30th St Station in Philadelphia, where he caught the train back to NY
two excerpts from Rabin's memoir ...
... World War II ended … illegal immigration became a top priority … I commanded an assault force that liberated 200 illegal immigrants from a camp at Athlit, on the Mediterranean shore south of Haifa
... When the war of Independence broke out in May 1948 … there were 90,000 Jews in Jerusalem … the city was all but isolated from other centers of Jewish settlement in Palestine … the main road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem ran through Arab populated areas … the Village of Latrun was the key and the Arabs held it ... (Where Joshua had commanded the sun to stand still) ... Bab el-Wad was a steep narrow gorge ... I was given responsibility to maintain the route to Jerusalem
I am reading about Israel because (1) there is much I want to learn and (2) I have an idea for a new novel (now that A Promise Kept: 1934 to 1946 as been published). In 1946, Berthold was convicted at Nuremberg and sent to Spandau Prison for 20 years. What will Anna do? Going to Palestine, soon to be Israel, seems the logical as well as emotional choice. So I'm reading to learn facts and to stimulate my thoughts about possible story lines.
I must also brag that once I actually met Yitzhak Rabin ... he was the Israeli Ambassador to the UN and I was part of a program which brought him to speak at our synagogue in Cherry Hill, NJ ... After he spoke, I had the privilege of driving him (and his one security person) to 30th St Station in Philadelphia, where he caught the train back to NY
two excerpts from Rabin's memoir ...
... World War II ended … illegal immigration became a top priority … I commanded an assault force that liberated 200 illegal immigrants from a camp at Athlit, on the Mediterranean shore south of Haifa
... When the war of Independence broke out in May 1948 … there were 90,000 Jews in Jerusalem … the city was all but isolated from other centers of Jewish settlement in Palestine … the main road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem ran through Arab populated areas … the Village of Latrun was the key and the Arabs held it ... (Where Joshua had commanded the sun to stand still) ... Bab el-Wad was a steep narrow gorge ... I was given responsibility to maintain the route to Jerusalem
March 19, 2018
one of the most charismatic figures of israeli politics.an architect of war and peace.
what a good read!
what a good read!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews