[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2119-E2120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN

                                 ______


                          HON. THOMAS M. DAVIS

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, November 7, 1995

  Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the late Prime 
Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin. Of the many tributes paid him, 
during the memorial service at Congregation Olam Tikvah of Fairfax, VA, 
on November 6, 1995, in my opinion Rabbi Melvin J. Glazer's was most 
poignant and moving.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that my colleagues will appreciate hearing the 
words of Rabbi 

[[Page E 2120]]
Glazer, and I am pleased to have Rabbi Glazer's tribute to Prime 
Minister Rabin entered into the Record.

                  Statement by Rabbi Melvin J. Glazer


       yitzhak rabin, memorial service, olam tikvah nov. 6, 1995

       This morning on the radio, one of those who visited the 
     Israel Embassy to pay his respects to Prime Minister Rabin, 
     was asked the question, ``why are you here?'' to which he 
     answered, with tears in his eyes and a lump in his throat, 
     ``because I care.'' And that is why we are here as well, 
     because we care. We care about the State of Israel, and we 
     care about the peace process. We care about a human life 
     being snuffed out like a candle, and we care about a grieving 
     wife and a family who have lost their husband, their father, 
     their grandfather. We care about an entire nation of men and 
     women who have lost their leader, their guide, their beacon.
       Yitzhak Rabin was not killed by one man, even though only 
     one man pulled the trigger. Yitzhak Rabin was killed by a 
     group of fundamentalist Jews who simply could not accept the 
     reality of the new world in which they lived. A little less 
     than 2 weeks ago, Yitzhak Rabin was protrayed as a Nazi; 
     several months ago a group of Orthodox rabbis said it was 
     God's will not to obey the orders of Israel's military if you 
     did not agree with them. In this week's issue of the 
     Jerusalem Report, there is an article which tells of a 
     Kabbalistic curse placed on the Prime Minister. He was cursed 
     with ``pulsa denura,'' lashes of fire, for his heretical 
     policies. And so, say these mystics, he must die. As the 
     Aramaic text stated, ``we have permission to demand from the 
     angels of destruction that they take a sword to this wicked 
     man, to kill him, for handing over the Land of Israel to our 
     enemies, the sons of Ishmael.'' This curse was issued on Yom 
     Kippur, Oct. 4, and it was to take place with 30 days. Mr. 
     Rabin was killed Nov. 4.
       The stage had been ably set for the tragedy that was soon 
     to become a reality. Violence, physical violence, was talked 
     about openly, even encouraged, and the Prime Minister of the 
     State of Israel was shot and killed.
       How do we make sense out of this act which makes no sense 
     at all? How could it happen? Our Tradition says plainly, Thou 
     Shall Not Murder. Our Tradition says plainly, ``Love thy 
     neighbor as thyself.'' Our Tradition says plainly, ``these 
     and these are the words of the living God. ``But not everyone 
     hears these words the same way. There are those who arrogate 
     to themselves the truth, those who believe that theirs is the 
     only way, the only interpretation, the only truth. There are 
     those who forget that GOD is the only truth, and when we take 
     on that role, life, all of life, is in jeopardy. Jewish 
     fundamentalists, especially those who live in the State of 
     Israel and who do not serve in the Israeli army or pay taxes 
     to the state of Israel but who insist on proclaiming that the 
     Messiah will come only when Israel gives in to their demands, 
     perhaps should not be allowed to remain in the state of 
     Israel. If these right-wing fanatics were non-Jews, we would 
     rightfully, call them anti-Semites and demand they be 
     banished.
       Those Jews who kill, they are not our people, and they 
     deserve none of our respect, only our contempt. I believe 
     they should be expelled from decent society, they have no 
     place among humanity. First we had Baruch Goldstein killing 
     Moslems at prayer and now we have Yigal Amir killing our 
     Prime Minister at a peace rally, both of them taking life 
     into their own hands. Why should they and their supporters be 
     allowed to remain? We do not need our own Jewish Hamas, they 
     are a shame and a disgrace to every decent Jew and non-Jew on 
     the face of this earth. And even worse, they are shame and 
     a disgrace to God, who surely cries at their narcissism 
     even as he deplores their violence. Yitzhak Rabin stood 
     for peace, they stand for taking human life. Yitzhak Rabin 
     preached reconciliation, they take the law into their own 
     hands. Yitzhak Rabin reached out his hand to his and our 
     former enemies, they would live in a world of hatred 
     forever. These are not our people, my friends. These Jews 
     are to be rejected and expelled and shamed by the rest of 
     us. We must not let ourselves ever become like them, 
     otherwise they will win, and we can never, ever let that 
     happen.
       That is why the peace process will go on. Rabin was a 
     warrior for peace, and now there will be others who will take 
     his place. But he was the first. He was the man who liberated 
     the Kotel, the Western Wall of the Temple in 1967, and he is 
     the man who shook Arafat's hand and began the search for 
     peace in earnest. He will be remembered not as a martyr, but 
     as a peacemaker, as a head of state, as a loving husband, a 
     caring father and a doting grandfather.
       One or two concluding thoughts. I remember where I was the 
     day President Kennedy was shot, as I suspect you do as well. 
     I look back upon the past 32 years since that terrible day, 
     and I see here in the United States the steady rise of 
     violence, political, racial and marital. Kennedy's 
     assassination made the unthinkable suddenly thinkable. I am 
     sacred, no, I am terrified that that same tolerance and 
     acceptance for violence will now come to the Jewish state as 
     it came to America. If anything could possibly be worse than 
     the death of Yitzhak Rabin, that would be it. I pray that 
     sanity will prevail, that Israelis will stop and reflect, and 
     let Yitzhak Rabin the peacemaker be their teacher in death 
     even as he was in life. He stood for peace, we can do no 
     less.
       Finally, I am touched by so many expressions of mourning 
     and sympathy shown the Jewish people and the State of Israel 
     from around the world. In Israel itself, more than 1 million 
     people came to the Knesset in Jerusalem to say goodbye to 
     their leader. That is \1/5\ the population of the entire 
     nation. I see them, and I am proud. I see them and I am 
     hopeful. Perhaps there is hope. Perhaps the good people of 
     Israel will yet rise up to support the hard choices of peace 
     rather than the easy way of killing and death. Perhaps we 
     will yet see peace in our lifetime between the children of 
     Israel and the children of Ishmael. If so, and I pray for 
     that peace daily, as I am sure you do, then once again God's 
     Chosen People will have been a light unto the nations, 
     showing the world that hatred need not last forever, that 
     peace is the handiwork of God and the gift to our children 
     and their children after them. What a fitting memorial that 
     would be for our beloved Yitzhak Rabin, to know that his 
     efforts brought the world closer to God's gift of shalom. I 
     pray that it come to pass soon.

                          ____________________