01-01 Yitzak Rabin

Chatting with dozens of Israelis a week after Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, I would judge the population was experiencing shame as much as sorrow. It was a public shame that their debate over making peace with the Palestinians was so ugly that it brought a young right-wing “nutmeg” out of the woodwork with an automatic pistol.
I was in Tel Aviv for the 22nd International Small Business Congress and had been following the Oslo Peace Process while working with the Israeli organizing committee. The Peace Accord was based on giving land captured in previous conflicts back to the Palestinians. But for the political right, the sanctity of the whole land of Israel is a matter of religion.
During my four days in Tel Aviv, I tried to understand this complex country. The news media was still completely focused during my visit on the loss of their leader, the state funeral, the thousands lined up to pass the grave at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzi cemetery and all the visiting heads of state.
But during the period of my visit, what was most significant was an effort by the Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres to bring the nation together. It was a demonstration of leadership and Politics 101.
Trying to enjoy Tel Aviv, the first thing I noticed was the road signs in Russian and Hebrew. Something like 1.2 million Russians emigrated to Israel after the break-up of the Soviet Union. And most of them were highly educated. At the Congress they mentioned that 90 Russians with PhDs that had arrived in the last year that were still looking for suitable employment. And, I met one with a PhD in electrical engineering who was making a temporary living repairing electrical appliances.
And how interesting to see young men and women everywhere in uniform and carrying a rifle. They had a form of conscription in force at the time, but about 30 percent of the population were excluded and that included Israeli Arabs and what they referred to as ultra-religious Israelis.
I thought my visit to Israel would help me understand something of my own Jewish roots. Everyone told me in Israel that with a Jewish mother I could become an Israeli citizen. But my mother had converted to Christianity on marriage and I had no real familiarity with Jewish culture. My grandparents were not a big help. One spoke Yiddish and was an atheist. The other spoke Hebrew and was the son of a conservative rabbi.
Israel, on the other hand, was more like the United Nations. Our first waiter at a Congress luncheon was French and we later met waiters from Poland, Estonia, the Ukraine and Ethiopia.
What they called black Hebrew Israelites were all from Ethiopia and were being brought in on Israeli flights at the time of my visit. They called it Operation Solomon and about 125,000 were already in the country.
There were some real joys and surprises during my short visit. I loved Tel Aviv architecture and an apartment building that was being showcased. It was on stilts with the first floor a quasi-public area with gardens and flower beds. The roof was also an open area.
And, you never go to Tel Aviv without visiting Old Jaffa on the ocean, just southwest of Tel Aviv. The harbour photo is a keeper. And I had the best fish dinner of my life in one of their famous restaurants. It was one of those large round flat fish that covered my plate. Just like the fish in the movie Chinatown in which Jack Nicholson as Jake Gitts is having lunch with John Huston as Noah Cross.
And the waiter in the restaurant boasted that all the vegetables were grown in Israel on desert lands brought back to life through irrigation. That is still happening today but on a larger scale using desalination.
But, as much as I loved my visit to Tel Aviv it was the assassination of the Prime Minister following a nasty public debate that had the lasting impact.
The lesson for anyone in positions of leadership is that what you say is just as important as what you do. It is a great sorrow for Americans that President Trump does not understand this reality.