Rabin’s Widow Defends Arafat Against Charges

Yitzhak Rabin’s widow defended Yasser Arafat on Sunday against allegations that he was responsible for a recent Tel Aviv bombing and other violence.

“There are two sides to the coin,” Leah Rabin told Israel TV when asked about claims that the Palestinian Authority president gave militant groups a “green light” to stage attacks to protest Israel’s construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli military leaders say Arafat approved the March 21 suicide bombing, which killed three Israeli women.

“There is a need to understand who you are dealing with,” the late Israeli premier’s widow said. “The Arabs are perhaps more sensitive. You shouldn’t provoke them.”

Rabin spoke fondly of Arafat as “almost” a member of her family.

But she had scant praise for Netanyahu, whom she blames for fomenting the atmosphere of hatred that culminated in her husband’s 1995 assassination by a religious Jew who opposed trading land for peace.

Netanyahu, Rabin said, has created “an accumulation of disappointment and bitterness” among Palestinians with his policies--especially building in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their future capital.

Pressed repeatedly for a kind word about the prime minister, she said: “I think he loves his kids.”