Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

What he had worked for all his life, what he had achieved, not only for Israel, but for the entire region in this unstable world, makes Yitzhak Rabin a paragon of peace, one of the most outstanding visionaries of our time.

Prime Minister Rabin was a figure of biblical stature, an archetypal politician whose vision for Middle East peace was an extraordinary act, and it will take quite some time for Israel to find someone of his caliber, his courage.

I lived in Israel in 1973 and was an eyewitness when that nation went to war, on Oct. 6, the day of the Yom Kippur. I remember how most Israelis were talking about him then, with pride and courage, some even calling him to return from Washington and lead the army as he had in the Six Day War in 1967. Israel has lost one of its best soldiers, its hero, and my heart goes out to that nation and his family.

The world has lost an irresistible force of peace, and we are all shocked by this senseless butchery. It is time for Israel to root out these extremist elements and pursue peace with the robust energy that Rabin had started.

DANIEL GIZAW

Tustin

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On Saturday, we learned that a bullet can kill a man. That a coward can destroy with impunity. Let us hope that the Israeli people will prove, once and for all, that a madman with a gun cannot stop a dream as powerful as Rabin’s.

CHAD OLSON

Santa Barbara

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Like many of us in the Jewish community, Rabin came to embrace the peace process with caution and trepidation. As the soldier and commanding general who heroically helped lead Israel in its defensive struggles with its aggressive Arab neighbors, and as the Israeli minister of defense who confronted the violence of the intifada in the West Bank and Gaza, Rabin understood the danger and depth of anti-Jewish sentiments in the Middle East and the compelling and continuing need of the Jewish state for strong security measures.

Rabin was brave and hard-headed enough to understand that for Israel to remain both a Jewish homeland and a democracy, it had to purchase a divorce of territory and authority from at least a portion of its reluctant Palestinian Arab population. As a soldier in the lifelong defense of his native country and the Jewish people, and as a pragmatic politician with no reputation for naivete about his Arab interlocutors and no illusions about their intentions, Rabin had the credibility to persuade most Israelis to compromise for the sake of their own security.

Such credibility is irreplaceable in the person of any one Israeli leader. However, all Jews, and all persons of tolerance and goodwill, must continue Rabin’s unfinished enterprise of Tikkun Olam, the renewal and repair of an imperfect world, the only one we know, and the only one we have to call home.

BRUCE J. EINHORN

Agoura Hills

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Many compare the assassination of Rabin to that of President Kennedy. Certainly, for those of us who remember, the physical and emotional pains are the same. Yet, in historical perspective, it is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln that comes to mind.

Both occurred in young countries full of immigrants eager to establish new societies. Both societies were struggling with building new codes of civic behavior while quickly discarding the ways of the old worlds that they left behind. Both leaders were assassinated while being engaged in massive battles to change the course of their nations’ histories. And, just like Lincoln’s assassination did not stop the emancipation for which he fought, neither will Rabin’s death stop the peace process between Israel and its neighbors.

HANNA HILL

Irvine

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Rabin’s death is one more stunning reminder that we urgently need not only to preach but teach nonviolent ways to solve problems.

ROBIN WHITE

South Pasadena

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The tragic killing of Rabin should warn all of us how dangerous hate-filled words can be. Every time we use them or remain silent when they are used, we give the more extreme among us reason to think that we might condone violent action.

Let us, as decent citizens, turn away in disappointment from our own political leaders of whatever party, if they use extremist rhetoric, or even if they fail to condemn it in others.

Let us similarly shun those who speak of ethnic, religious or cultural differences with intolerant, degrading words. Let us watch the words we use in front of our children and toward each other.

All of us should be able to criticize others, protect ourselves and struggle for what we believe is right without hating or demeaning those with whom we disagree. And none of us should find books, films or programs crammed with hatred in the least amusing or entertaining.

WALTER JANSEN

Riverside

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The alleged assassin of Rabin has been quoted as saying that God told him to commit the shooting. God is obviously a very astute politician. The assassin is not. Rabin has been made a martyr along with his cause. Rabin’s quest for peace will be bolstered, not diminished, by his death. Like the Kennedy assassination and the space program in this country, Rabin’s program for peace will be carried out with a religious zeal in his name. All of the assassin’s efforts have gone toward defeating his intent.

JOHN C. HATT

Riverside

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In his commentary, “Israel, the Morning After” (Nov. 6), Rabbi Shlomo Riskin ends with an ambiguous sentence: “If the unspeakable trauma of assassination will make us realize the necessity of unity, if at last we will gain the insight that we can only hope to overcome our enemies.” In my mind I add, “We have met the enemy, and it is us.”

JUDITH V. ARONSON

Woodland Hills