Peres Appeals for Unity as a Shocked Israel Mourns Rabin : Assassination: Hundreds of thousands pay last respects to slain leader. Successor calls for lifting ‘country out and away from its wars.’

Weeping quietly and leaning gently on each other for support, hundreds of thousands of Israelis filed past Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s pine-wood coffin Sunday outside Parliament where the body of the assassinated leader lay in state beneath the Israeli flag.

As military rabbis read from the biblical Book of Psalms and Rabin’s son recited the Kaddish prayer for the dead, university and Yeshiva students, soldiers and Cabinet ministers, young and old paid their last respects to the Israeli war hero who died preaching peace between Israel and the Arab world.

Rabin’s wife, Leah, dressed in black, sat with dignity and composure--the Jackie Kennedy of Israel.

Across the country, flags flew at half-staff and somber music played on the radio during an official day of mourning for the 73-year-old Rabin, who was gunned down by a Jewish law student at the end of a massive peace rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.

Addressing a nation stunned that Rabin could have been killed by one of his own people, acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres urged Israelis to unite in “a great and honest partnership. This is not the time for petty accounting and arguments. It is time . . . to lift the country out and away from its wars.”

Israelis were in a daze over a death that many had predicted but almost no one believed would come to pass. The streets of Jerusalem were somber, with men and women reading newspapers with the horrible headlines: “Rabin Assassinated.”

Those who went to their jobs passed colleagues without greeting or even really seeing each other. The murmur of conversation weaving through supermarkets and downtown streets was the same: “Terrible. . . . How could this happen? . . . Why? . . . A Jew killing a Jew. . . . Heaven help us.”

Schools opened with a minute of silence for the fallen leader, followed by discussions on democratic values and the meaning of a Jew killing the leader of the Jewish state.

“You know, when all of the [Islamic] suicide bombers exploded buses, I never felt afraid, but when a Jew killed Rabin, I felt insecure for the first time,” 18-year-old Rafi Bachar said after viewing Rabin’s coffin.

Two weeks shy of joining an army paratrooper unit, Bachar said he fears that the country’s deep political schisms over Rabin’s peace accord with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could lead to civil war.

“It’s really very dangerous. This could become a fight between the two sides--civil war,” he said.

But following the murder by an opponent of Rabin’s peace efforts, Israeli political leaders across the board spoke only of how to mend the torn country.

Opposition Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been the principal critic of the peace process and had hoped to defeat Rabin in next year’s election, said on Israel Television, “In a democracy, a government is changed by elections and not by murder.

“We must all display restraint and responsibility and calmness of spirit to maintain the unity of our people in this fatal time,” said Netanyahu, who also said he will not challenge Peres’ leadership.

President Ezer Weizman said he will decide soon after today’s funeral when to hold consultations with the Cabinet about forming a new government. The government that Peres puts together will be put before the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, for a vote of confidence.

Peres is under some pressure to form a national unity government with members of parties across the political spectrum, but he is unlikely to want any far-right members in his administration who could block his efforts to continue the peace process. He is expected to form a new coalition that is slightly broader than Rabin’s was.

Security officials briefing the Cabinet said that the assailant, Yigal Amir--tackled by police immediately after the shooting Saturday night--confessed to killing Rabin. Upon hearing that Rabin had died, he reportedly said, “I’m happy.”

Police said that Amir told them he had meant to also kill Peres but gave up on him when Peres left the stage before Rabin. Peres was a few yards away when Amir pumped the fatal bullets from a 9-millimeter Beretta pistol into Rabin’s torso at close range.

Police are investigating Amir’s claims that he acted alone.

The Cabinet met briefly Sunday to discuss the impact of the killing on the peace process that Rabin propelled by his 1993 accord with Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The government temporarily suspended the passage of 500 Palestinian police officers from the Gaza Strip to the occupied West Bank that had been planned for today as part of the expansion of Palestinian self-rule. It also delayed the transfer of the West Bank postal authority to Palestinian rule.

Government spokesman Uri Dromi said he believes the delays will be temporary--”a matter of days”--and that the pullout of Israeli troops from the West Bank will continue more or less according to the schedule that had been approved by Rabin.

As the nation struggled with the aftermath of the assassination, the first of about 60 aircraft bringing foreign dignitaries to Rabin’s funeral arrived Sunday. President Clinton, former Presidents George Bush and Jimmy Carter, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Jordan’s King Hussein, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, most of the U.S. Cabinet and dozens of U.S. lawmakers will be among about 2,500 mourners from abroad who are expected to pay their last respects to Rabin today as he is laid to rest at Mount Herzl military cemetery at the entrance of Jerusalem.

Arafat announced that he would not attend the funeral but would send a representative. Both sides reportedly decided his appearance here, when talks on the final status of Jerusalem have yet to begin, would be too politically explosive. They also were concerned about security.

Although Rabin normally would have been buried Sunday according to Jewish law, the funeral was delayed until midday today to allow for the arrival of the world leaders. His body will be taken from the Knesset in a slow-moving procession to the cemetery. As many as 10,000 police and soldiers are to be deployed throughout the city, reinforced with helicopter patrols and directed by four command centers, Israel Radio reported. It will be Israel’s largest security operation ever.

All schools will close early today for the funeral, but the cemetery and service will be closed to the general public. About 4,000 world leaders, government officials and media members will be allowed inside the cemetery.

Most of the routes from the Knesset to the cemetery will be blocked to automobile traffic for Israeli mourners and the procession. The government is providing free bus service from around the country to the procession in Jerusalem, as it did to the Knesset on Sunday for anyone who wanted to see Rabin’s body lying in state.

Crowds gathered at the Knesset throughout the day and night. First, the Rabin family, led by his wife, Leah, and taut-faced government officials made their way past the coffin clad in black. Modest wreaths from the government, army and police leaned against the platform bearing the coffin. Two memorial candles burned behind.

“This is very hard,” said Iehuda Waxman, the father of slain Sgt. Nachshon Waxman, 19, who was kidnaped by Hamas militants in October, 1994. The younger Waxman was shot to death during a failed rescue mission by Israeli commandos.

“I am broken today. My feelings are with the Rabin family. I have felt what they are feeling,” the father said.

Waxman, who is a devout Jew, dismissed the collective angst over the fact that Rabin’s killer was a Jew. “The Jew who killed the prime minister is not normal. He says he heard God. In this day, we know that people do not hear directly from God.”

He said that Rabin leaves behind the unfinished job of making peace. “We need to solve the problems we have with the Palestinians. There are two nations here that need to have their rights. We have to solve this in a peaceful way.”

Meir Itach, a 21-year-old Yeshiva student dressed in a black hat and frock coat that identifies him as an Orthodox Jew, paid his last respects to Rabin bearing a sign that said, “We are one nation.” Itach said, “I don’t think people should generalize and blame all religious groups” for the country’s polarization. “We are shocked and came to demonstrate our unity. . . . We have to bridge the gaps.”

But while Waxman and Itach spoke for peace, a few Jewish opponents of the peace process in the divided West Bank city of Hebron hailed the assassin Amir as a hero much like the Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein, who killed about 30 praying Palestinian Muslims in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron in February, 1994.

In a telephone interview, one settler who declined to be identified said: “I respect what he [Amir] did. He embodies a certain mood. . . . The reality today demands that someone has to take justice into his own hands.”

One Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Kfar Tapuah, issued a fax commending the killing of Rabin, and the Council of Jewish Settlements of Judea, Samaria and Gaza responded by expelling the enclave from its organization.

In the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, Devorah van Zoharan’s 5-year-old daughter, Nili, started the morning cheering.

“Rabin is dead, Rabin is dead,” she sang to her mother.

“They hear so much,” Van Zoharan said. “I told her that in the Torah it says even when our enemies die we should not rejoice. And obviously when it is the prime minister of Israel, who is not our enemy, we should not be happy. She got very quiet.”

Van Zoharan said, however, that many residents in her settlement had mixed feelings. They were shocked that the killing had taken place but felt no kinship with Rabin, whom they felt had written them off in the peace process.

But the stream of Israelis who lined up and passed through security checks to say goodby to Rabin felt he had represented them very well.

“We came to see our father,” said Ori Tidhar, 18. “Everyone was orphaned today.”

More Inside

* U.S. CONNECTION--Opposition to the peace process brought a flow of American contributions and moral support to the West Bank. A11

* LEGACY OF HOPE--President Clinton will lead a U.S. delegation to the funeral. Some see a chance for progress arising out of tragedy. A13

* SOUTHLAND RESPONSE--From synagogues to religious schools, many grapple with the ramifications of the assassination. A13

* ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS, COVERAGE: A10-A13