[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16757-S16758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE ASSASSINATION OF YITZHAK RABIN

 Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to express my deep 
sorrow, my shock, and my anger over the cowardly assassination of Prime 
Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
  Yitzhak Rabin will be remembered as a man of extraordinary courage 
and unusual vision who lived in a time when both of these traits were 
scarce.
  I first met Yitzhak Rabin when I called on Prime Minister Golda Meir 
during my first visit to Israel in 1973. As two individuals who shared 
a commitment to Israel's well-being, our paths crossed on numerous 
occasions over the course of the next 23 years. I saw him for the last 
time in October when he came to Washington to commemorate the 3,000th 
anniversary of King David's entry into Jerusalem.
  Yitzhak Rabin was a man who did not mince words--a quality which 
earned him the respect and trust of a country which has a reputation 
for toughness. To anyone who encountered 

[[Page S 16758]]
him, it was immediately evident that his overriding concern was for the 
security of his fellow countrymen.
  He was born into the small community of Jews in Palestine, which 
later formed the core of the nascent State of Israel. He went on to 
play a key role in the war of independence; commanded the army that 
unified the city of his birth; served in key Government posts; and, in 
perhaps his finest hour, he drew upon the lessons of half a century of 
defending his people to pursue the path of peace which promises to 
secure the future of the nation he helped create.
  Yitzhak Rabin's ability to distill the fundamental choices facing his 
nation was a quality born of his unique experience as a soldier and a 
statesman. He articulated in stark terms the reasons why Israel's long-
term security hinged on the success of the peace process. He viewed the 
status quo as unacceptable, because it meant continued violence into 
the indefinite future and possibly the eventual loss of Israel's Jewish 
character. He saw that possibility clearly and he believed Israel had 
to reject it in favor of a path of enlightened self-interest--pursuing 
an agreement on the basis of land for peace, preserving Israel's Jewish 
character, achieving normalcy with long-hostile neighbors, and securing 
Israel's long-term survivability.
  Mr. President, many are now suggesting that this terrible 
assassination was the isolated act of a madman. I wish it were true. 
But I think that all of us know better.
  This act was not perpetrated in a vacuum. It occurred against a 
backdrop in which a culture of hate and violence was being promoted 
actively by people who should have known better and behaved more 
responsibly. The extreme rhetoric was not confined to Israel. 
Unfortunately, some in this country added their voices to the alarmist 
cries.
  There is a lesson in this for all of us. For while words alone do not 
kill, they can encourage others to do so. Those who employed hyperbolic 
rhetoric for the sake of political gain must bear some measure of 
responsibility for creating a climate in which a cold-blooded 
assassination could be contemplated as a patriotic and pious act.
  I hope that those who irresponsibly stoke the fires of hatred will 
use this slaying of a great man to look deeply within themselves and 
change their ways.
  Mr. President, this is in many ways Israel's most difficult and 
emotionally wrenching hour since here creation 47 years ago, because 
the assassin's bullet was aimed not only at Yitzhak Rabin but also 
directly at the very heart of the democratic process in Israel. It is a 
commitment to democracy that has distinguished the Israeli nation from 
its neighbors in the Middle East and has been the enduring foundation 
of the long, traditional friendship between Israel and the United 
States.
  As one of the founders and defenders of the independent State of 
Israel, as its Prime Minister, and most of all as a devotee of 
democracy, Yitzhak Rabin personified the process that made possible the 
progress toward peace in the Middle East. He also understood how 
violence could threaten both the process and the peace--just moments 
before he was shot he spoke against violence, which he said had 
recently taken, in his words, ``* * * A shape which damages the 
framework of fundamental values of Israeli democracy.''
  It was that framework of democratic values the assassin was out to 
destroy--and it is designs of just such antidemocratic violence which 
Israel and the friends of Israel must deny in memory of Yitzhak Rabin.
  I believe that we have already begun to erect that memorial. I 
believe that this assassination, as deeply as it has shaken us 
personally, will serve to reinforce the bonds of friendship between 
Israel and the United States. I believe that we will summon the resolve 
to successfully complete the unfinished journey on the path of peace 
embarked upon by Yitzhak Rabin. I believe that his last and greatest 
gift to his people, to all the peoples of the Middle East, and to the 
entire world will come to pass, and he will not have died in vain.
  And I will remember him as a friend, as a great soldier and 
statesman--and not as a man who lost his life to violence, but as a man 
of peace who renewed the life of his Nation.

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