Dr. Aaron Lerner asks:
Does it honor Rabin to distort his message?
Well, it's been ten years. Hard to believe, but not all that long, really. Not nearly long enough to justify the memory lapses and revisionism that always seem to proliferate around the anniversary of Rabin's assassination. From Dr. Lerner, some clarity:
The positions of Rabin circa 1995 are not a matter of speculation. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made the crystal clear when he addressed the Knesset on October 5, 1995 -- a month before he was gunned down -- when he presented the Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement for ratification. [translation of the entire address]
Those positions were indeed crystal clear. And they may come as quite a shock to many who fail to realize just how far down Israel has been dragged in the past decade. Prime Minister Rabin:
We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.
And there was more:
And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution:
A. First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev -- as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty, while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths, Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths.
B. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.
C. Changes which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are in the area east of what was the "Green Line," prior to the Six Day War.
D. The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.
Like the one in Gush Katif that is no more.
Rabin's true legacy, despite attempts to besmirch it by his "friends" and enemies alike, lives on. Barely. For now.
