1 How the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 Contributed to the Political Divide in Israel

This chapter focused on the effect of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on the development of the political divide in Israel.

We suggest this citation for this chapter:

Ercolano, Dalton (2024). “How the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 Contributed to the Political Divide in Israel.” In Zeedan, Rami (ed.), Israel’s Divides Explained, The University of Kansas. https://opentext.ku.edu/israelsdivides/

1. General Introduction:

Hello and welcome to the podcast series “Israel’s Divides Explained.” This series focuses on Israel’s six major divides. The title of this podcast episode is “The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin: A Turning Point in Israeli-Palestinian Relations and the Rise of Jewish Extremism.”

This episode focuses on the political divide in Israel.

The political divide in Israel covers Zionism vs. Judaism, state security and existence, political left vs. political right, the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among other issues. This episode will examine some of these aspects of the political divide.

This podcast series episode was produced in spring 2023 as part of the course Israel: From Idea to Statehood with Prof. Zeedan at the University of Kansas.

I’m your host, Dalton Ercolano.

I would like to introduce myself as a senior majoring in strategic communications via the University of Kansas School of Journalism with a history minor.

I do not have any family ties to Israel; however, a few friends of mine from a Jewish summer camp I worked at currently reside there. In addition, I am Roman Catholic, so Israel has some religious importance to me and my family. Ever since learning about Israel from my friends, I’ve been interested in its history and current status.

2. Topic introduction:

The topic I will be talking about is the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 and how it contributed to the political divide in Israel. Yitzhak Rabin served as Israel’s 5th Prime Minister and served two terms in office. His first term was from 1974-1977, and his second term was from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Rabin was instrumental in negotiating for peace with the Palestinians. However, his assassination shocked Israel and created more tension within the state.

The question I will answer in this episode is, “How did the rise in Jewish extremism that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin decrease the chances of peace negotiations between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people?”

This question is important because ever since Prime Minister Rabin’s assassination in 1995, tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been growing exponentially. Protests and violence have continued to increase within the State of Israel, with no end to the conflict coming in the near future. In order to better understand the politics behind this deadly and complex conflict, we must explore and analyze how things took a turn for the worse following Prime Minister Rabin’s assassination 28 years ago.

The information here is based on a selection of primary and secondary sources; however, this survey is not exhaustive.

One of my primary sources for this episode is an article by BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen (2015) titled “Did the Rabin assassination kill the best chance for peace?”

I will be posting my sources online. More details will be provided at the end of this episode.

In our episode today, we will discuss four major items. Item 1 will be a short introduction to Israel. Item 2 will introduce the six divides and the Political divide in Israel. Item 3 will answer my question, and Item 4 will be about looking to the future.

Before introducing the state of Israel, did you know that all Israeli citizens aged 21 and older are eligible to be elected to the Knesset as long as they don’t hold an official position, have a criminal record, or have been ruled ineligible by a court? The youngest member to be elected to the Knesset was Stav Shaffer in 2013. She was 27 years old. This is relatively young, considering that in the United States, you must be 25 years old or older to serve in Congress and 30 years old or older in order to serve in the Senate.

3. Central Section

3.1 Introduction to Israel

The state of Israel is a small country in the Middle East. It is bordered by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The state is 8,522 square miles and has a population of about 9 million people. Israel was created on May 14, 1948, and was declared a Jewish state. Before this, the territory was called Palestine and was home to various ethnic groups, such as Palestinians and Jews.

3.2 Introduction to the Six Divides and the National Divide

In Israel, there are six major divides: the National Divide, the Ethnic Divide, the Socioeconomic Divide, the Religious Divide, the Gender Inequality Divide, and the Political Divide (Zeedan, 2024). This podcast is about the last divide, the Political Divide.

Before Israel became a state, it was under British rule via the British Mandate of Palestine, which was in place from 1918 to 1948 by the League of Nations following the end of WW1. What was formerly known as Palestine was controlled by Great Britain, and the High Commissioner was considered “the government.” Following the Holocaust in WW2, an influx of Jewish immigrants entered Palestine. Conflict between the immigrants and Native Palestinian Arabs ensued, and the United Nations planned to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Palestinian states in 1947. However, that plan was rejected. In May of 1948, Israel was officially declared an independent state.

An example of the Political Divide in Israel’s history is the First Intifada, which took place from 1987-1993. According to History.com, the First Intifada (uprising) was a result of Israeli expansion into the West Bank and Gaza Strip,

Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, lack of political rights, high unemployment rates, economic hardships, and many more grievances from the Palestinians led to the First Intifada. It ended with the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

In Israel, the political right wing believes in the sovereignty and safety of the state. They also support expansion into the West Bank and are against ceding land to the Palestinians. On the other hand, the political left wing is focused on resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict and is willing to compromise for a two-state solution.

An interesting short story that demonstrates how serious and deadly the political divide has gotten in recent years comes from The Global Conflict Tracker. According to this source, the Israeli courts made a ruling in 2020 that several Palestinian families living in Sheikh Jarrah (a neighborhood in East Jerusalem ) were to be evicted the following year. Their homes were then going to be given to Jewish families. As a result, protests and violence broke out between Israel and the Palestinians. The Israeli police used a combination of lethal and nonlethal forces against Palestinian demonstrators and militant groups like Hamas. Hamas then responded with hundreds of rockets being fired into Israeli territory. The Israeli Defense Force then launched air strikes and artillery bombardments into the Gaza Strip, where Hamas and other militant groups are based. After several days of continuous violence, a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was reached on May 21, 2021. Over 250 Palestinians were killed, with 2,000 others being wounded, and at least 13 Israelis were killed. This 11-day conflict displaced over 72,000 Palestinians and resulted in tens of millions of dollars in damage. This is just one of many examples demonstrating the magnitude of this conflict and how this conflict is getting worse and more damaging as the years progress.

3.3 The answer to my question: How did the rise in Jewish extremism that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin decrease the chances of peace negotiations between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people?

At this point in the podcast episode, we will begin answering my question, “How did the rise in Jewish extremism that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin decrease the chances of peace negotiations between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people?”

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was a major supporter of negotiating peace with the Palestinians. According to the BBC (2015), Rabin served as a leading commander in the 1948 War. He then served as the Chief of Staff in the 1967 War, where he led the Israeli armed forces in their defeat of their Arab enemies. Rabin’s successful military career garnered much support from Israelis regarding his talks about peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Rabin was a major supporter and proponent of the Oslo Peace Accords and cooperated with the Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Yasser Arafat. In a speech from 1993, Rabin stated, “I, serial number 30743, Lieutenant General in reserves Yitzhak Rabin, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces and in the army of peace, I, who have sent armies into fire and soldiers to their death, say today: We sail onto a war which has no casualties, no wounded, no blood nor suffering. It is the only war which is a pleasure to participate in – the war for peace.”

Even though many Israelis supported Rabin and his efforts, there were growing tensions amongst many right-wing Jews. In 1995, a religious Jew named Yigal Amir shot and killed Rabin. According to The New York Times (1998), this wasn’t Amir’s first attempt at killing Rabin. That same year, Amir had tried to kill Rabin 3 different times. Once at Yad Vashem, another at Nof Yerushalayim Hotel, and a third at a ceremony in Kfar Shmaryahu. Amir wanted to stop the Oslo Accords and believed that killing Rabin would achieve this goal. In addition, Amir didn’t like Israel ceding land in the West Bank to the Palestinians because he believed that the land was given to the Jewish people as a gift by God. Even when Amir was arrested and charged with the murder of Rabin, he took great joy in his actions and asked for a glass of schnapps to toast his completed objective.

Many other Israeli right-wingers portrayed Rabin as a Nazi. The current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was the leader of the opposition at the time of the assassination. He spoke at many anti-Rabin rallies and despised Rabin’s actions. In addition, Palestinian extremists like Hamas conducted suicide bomb campaigns and other violent acts in protest against the Oslo Accords, despite the fact that mainstream Palestinians hoped for peace.

The rise in Jewish extremism before Rabin’s assassination in 1995 made peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians difficult but not impossible. Prime Minister Rabin was looked at as the only prime minister who would be able to achieve peace with the Palestinians. As a result, he was killed.

Following Rabin’s death, there was a lot of public outcry from the Israeli people, and many of Rabin’s supporters felt guilty for not defending their leader when the opposition criticized him for his peace negotiation efforts with Palestine. In addition, some of his supporters developed psychological issues as a result of Rabin’s death.

According to the peer-reviewed article, The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin: Resonance of a National Tragedy in Psychotherapy, by Eli Somer and Meir Saadon (1997), some of the participants in their psychotherapy study developed psychological issues such as “Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia-mild and Personality Disorder” (Saadon and Somer, 1997) as a result of Rabin’s death.

In addition, some of their participants developed feelings of personal grief, aggressiveness, and other severe psychological disorders. This makes sense because many Israelis who were in favor of achieving peace with the Palestinians were now frightful and seriously concerned about their country’s future and its relations with their Palestinian neighbors. Rabin was on the cusp of negotiating peace with the Palestinians through his increasing cooperation with Yasser Arafat, who was once his sworn enemy.

Despite the fact that the peace negotiation talks were behind schedule, it is believed that Arafat and Rabin would be able to make the improbable probable, thus making history and changing the course of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

With Rabin out of the picture, Shimon Peres became the next Prime Minister of Israel. As a result, multiple careless mistakes were made, and the suicide bombing campaigns from Hamas continued to increase. In 1996, people believed that Shimon Peres won the election over Benjamin Netanyahu. However, Netanyahu ended up winning. Thus leading to a complete reverse in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

According to the Guardian (2020), for most of the last 25 years, the right and the center-right have been in power in Israel’s government. This source states, “At the last election, the once-dominant Israeli Labour party of Yitzhak Rabin garnered less than 6% of the vote and just seven seats.” Thus, it shows how, for the past couple of decades, the Labour Party in Israel has struggled to find an equivalent to Rabin and what he was able to offer. Now, only the Left is willing to talk about peace with the Palestinians, while the Right continues to be unwilling to negotiate with the Palestinians.

With Benjamin Netanyahu continuing to hold office and his right-wing Likud Party continuing to dominate in the Knesset, the hopes for peace negotiations with the Palestinians continue to decrease with each passing year and election. Netanyahu once stated, “We’re willing to make difficult and hard decisions and compromises to live in peace with our neighbors, but we’re entitled to our own country where Jews from around the world can come here, just as Palestinians from around the world can come to the Palestinian state.”

As much as this seems like a positive thing to say, Netanyahu’s unwillingness to reasonably compromise with the Palestinians and their concerns over what territory a Palestinian state would encompass makes his words meaningless. Until Netanyahu is ready to change his ideals or a leader from the Left who aligns with Rabin’s beliefs wins the election, Israeli-Palestinian relations may continue to worsen. The battle for peace between the two will continue to endure for years.

3.4 Looking to the future:

Looking to the future, there is much uncertainty on how this conflict will end if it ever ends. According to the UN (2023), “The international community’s immediate priority in the Occupied Palestinian Territory must be reversing the trends that marked 2022 as one of the deadliest years in recent history.”

Many Israeli citizens and Palestinians believe that the conflict will continue unless the government and those in power begin to make compromises. They believe that unless this happens, the conflict will continue to worsen, and more people will continue to be negatively impacted by this conflict.

I personally agree with this sentiment. As I mentioned during this podcast episode, having a right-wing prime minister like Netanyahu in power doesn’t help the conflict. It creates a further divide between the Israelis and Palestinians. As a result, I don’t see an end to this conflict coming soon. I believe tensions and conflict between the two parties will continue to increase in the coming years.

When looking at the political divide in Israel from a global perspective, this divide is very similar to the ones we see in a few other countries. For example, there are conflicts in Northern Ireland, India versus Pakistan, and Western Sahara, among many more. When political divides exist in countries where ethnic groups are clashing, it is never an easy fix. These examples from other countries are divides that continue to affect their countries today. I see the conflict in Israel to continue for the next couple of decades.

4. Wrap-up and closing remarks

Today, we covered a short introduction to Israel, an introduction to the six divides and the Political divide in Israel, the answer to my question, and what the future may hold for Israel and its relations with the Palestinians. In conclusion, with the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1996, peace negotiation efforts with the Palestinians took a turn for the worse. Rabin’s assassination will go down as a historic assassination due to the magnitude of the consequences and repercussions it caused between Israel and the Palestinians. It severely changed the history of Israel and the way it is governed.

I will be posting my sources for this episode online. Look at the online page where you are listening to the episode.

I want to extend much gratitude to those listening to my podcast episode today. It has been a fun and educational journey for me to create this podcast, not only for my own learning but for the learning of all who listen to it. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to affect the international community, and it is something that will continue to develop throughout the coming years. It is essential to stay up to date with what is transpiring between the Israelis and Palestinians because it is more than just an internal issue.

If you are interested in other episodes in this podcast series, “Israel’s Divides Explained,“ you can explore this podcast series’ website to listen to other podcasts related to the six divides in Israel. Until next time, Lehitraot.

5. Bibliography
5.1 Primary sources:

“Benjamin Netanyahu Quotes.” BrainyQuote. www.brainyquote.com/quotes/benjamin_netanyahu_598851. Accessed 12 May 2023.

“Israel – Facts, History & Conflicts.” History.Com. 2017.  www.history.com/topics/middle-east/history-of-israel#section_6. Accessed 12 May 2023.

“Murder in the Name of God.” The New York Times, 1998.  archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/karpin-murder.html. Accessed 12 May 2023.

“With 2022 Deadliest Year in Israel-Palestine Conflict, Reversing Violent Trends Must Be International Priority, Middle East Coordinator Tells Security Council | UN Press.” United Nations, 2023.  press.un.org/en/2023/sc15179.doc.htm. Accessed 12 May 2023.

“Yitzhak Rabin: ‘He Never Knew It Was One of His People Who Shot Him in the Back.’” The Guardian, 31 Oct. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/31/assassination-yitzhak-rabin-never-knew-his-people-shot-him-in-back. Accessed 10 October 2024.

Blackburn, Nicky. “Facts about the Israeli System of Government.” ISRAEL21c, 18 Jan. 2003, www.israel21c.org/facts-about-the-israeli-system-of-government/. Accessed 10 October 2024.

Bowen, Jeremy. “Did Rabin Assassination Kill the Best Chance for Peace?” BBC News, 4 Nov. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34712057. Accessed 10 October 2024.

Song: “Seize the Day” by Andrey Rossi. https://uppbeat.io/track/andrey-rossi/seize-the-day. Accessed 10 October 2024.

The Global Conflict Tracker. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict. Accessed 10 October 2024.

5.2 Secondary sources:

Somer, Eli, and Meir Saadon. “The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin: Resonance of a national tragedy in psychotherapy.” Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training 34, no. 1 (1997): 34.

Zeedan, Rami. “Social Identity and Voting Behavior in a Deeply Divided Society: The Case of Israel.” Societies 14, no. 9 (2024): 177. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14090177