Election night at Labor headquarters: Yitzhak Rabin proclaims victory to jubilant supporters in June, ending 15 years of Likud dominance in Israel.
Rabin Leads Israel Toward The Center
Israelis were fed up with Shamir, but is the new prime minister moving too fast?
fter 15 years of Likud
leadership, with its ter-
ritorial ideology, Israel
voted to change course
in June, putting Yitzhak
Rabin at the helm of a
new government which has taken a
sharp turn toward the political center, if
not left.
The national political campaign was
characterized by periods of ennui and
short bursts of nastiness, with Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Likud party
alleging that Mr. Rabin, 70, a former
military hero as well as former prime
minister, suffered a nervous breakdown
before the 1967 Six Day War and is
prone to alcoholism.
But the election results were sober-
ing for Likud, indicating that Israelis
were fed up with Mr. Shamir's hunker-
ing-down, status-quo form of leadership
in the face of American pressure to be
more forthcoming in peace negotiations
with the Arabs. Voters saw in Mr. Ra-
bin a pragmatist straddling the center
in Israeli politics. Considered a hawk
within Labor, he was able to instill a
sense of security (he was, after all, a mil-
itary man and former defense minister)
as well as a willingness to compromise
with the Arabs — up to a point.
In his first major address to the Knes-
set after his election, Mr. Rabin ac-
knowledged to Palestinians that their
lives have been difficult and urged them
to take seriously Israel's offer of limited
self-rule rather than following the ad-
vice of the Palestine Liberation Orga-
nization and holding out for the
"delusion" of statehood.
He also warned Israelis not to con-
tinue their belief that "the whole world
is against us." He called on his coun-
trymen to "overcome the sense of iso-
lation that has held us in its thrall for
almost half a century."
President Bush, whose relationship
with Mr. Shamir was cold and dis-
trustful, wasted no time in showing his
pleasure with Mr. Rabin, inviting him
to his summer home in Maine in Au-
gust. There the two smiling men an-
nounced an agreement on the $10 bil-
lion U.S. loan guarantee (see separate
story), which had been used effectively
in a carrot-and-stick manner by the
Bush administration over the course of
the last year.
Many American Jews were enthusi-
astic about Mr. Rabin and his attention
to warming U.S.-Israeli relations, giv-
ing him high marks for the speed in
which he turned the tables on the Arab
states. Through a series of confidence-
building gestures toward the Palestini-
ans and a swift halt to much of the
settlement building that characterized
the Likud government, he managed to
put the onus on the Arabs for delays in
the peace process.
But some U.S. Jewish leaders were
concerned about Mr. Rabin's scornful
attitude regarding the importance of
American Jewry in effecting Mideast
policy. A former Ambassador to the
United States in the 1970s, he believes
that the key to the Jerusalem-Wash-
ington relationship is on the executive
level and he reportedly chastised the
American Israel Public Affairs Com-
mittee, the pro-Israel lobby in Wash-
ington, for mishandling the loan
guarantees.
At home, Israelis felt the government
Mr. Rabin formed is a bit schizophrenic.
Arch-enemy Shimon Peres is foreign
minister, Aryeh Deri, an Orthodox Shas
party leader facing legal troubles is in-
terior minister, and the controversial
Shulamit Aloni, considered anti-reli-
gious and in favor of a Palestinian state,
heads the education and cultural min-
istry.
Settlers in the Golan as well as the
West Bank are fearful that, in the course
of the peace talks, he may be willing to
give up land in hopes of achieving peace.
But for the most part, Israelis feel that
Yitzhak Rabin has their best interests
at heart and that he will continue to
walk that fine line that got him elected.
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September 25, 1992 - Image 24
- Resource type:
- Text
- Publication:
- The Detroit Jewish News, 1992-09-25
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