[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 189 (Wednesday, November 29, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S17787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 LAST RESPECTS TO PRIME MINISTER RABIN

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I had the honor to speak at a tree 
planting across from the White House, a ceremony honoring the late 
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, conducted by the Jewish National Fund.
  It was the first time a tree had been planted in the area of the 
White House honoring a foreign leader.
  My hope is that all parties in the Middle East, as well as other 
nations, including the United States, will do everything we can to 
pursue Yitzhak Rabin's dream of peace, a practical peace where 
neighbors can get along and trade and have normal discourse.
  At the funeral tribute to Prime Minister Rabin in Israel, which I 
watched on television, nothing was more moving than the tribute of his 
teenage granddaughter, Noa Ben-Artzi Philosof.
  You would have to be hard-hearted indeed not to have tears come to 
your eyes as she made this moving tribute to him.
  I was proud of President Clinton's tribute, and I thought King 
Hussein and President Mubarak also did an excellent job.
  But for those who may not have heard or read the tribute of Prime 
Minister Rabin's granddaughter, I ask that it be printed in the Record.
  The tribute follows:

           [Translated and transcribed by the New York Times]

                       A Granddaughter's Farewell

                      (By Noa Ben-Artzi Philosof)

       Please excuse me for not wanting to talk about the peace. I 
     want to talk about my grandfather.
       You always awake from a nightmare, but since yesterday 
     (Sunday) I was continually awakening to a nightmare. It is 
     not possible to get used to the nightmare of life without 
     you. The television never ceases to broadcast pictures of 
     you, and you are so alive that I can almost touch you--but 
     only almost, and I won't be able to anymore.
       Grandfather, you were the pillar of fire in front of the 
     camp and now we are left in the camp alone, in the dark; and 
     we are so cold and so sad.
       I know that people talk in terms of a national tragedy, and 
     of comforting an entire nation, but we feel the huge void 
     that remains in your absence when grandmother doesn't stop 
     crying.
       Few people really knew you. Now they will talk about you 
     for quite some time, but I feel that they really don't know 
     just how great the pain is, how great the tragedy is; 
     something has been destroyed.
       Grandfather, you were and still are our hero. I wanted you 
     to know that every time I did anything, I saw you in front of 
     me.
       Your appreciation and your love accompanied us every step 
     down the road, and our lives were always shaped after your 
     values. You, who never abandoned anything, are now abandoned. 
     And here you are, my ever-present hero, cold, alone, and I 
     cannot do anything to save you. You are missed so much.
       Others greater than I have already eulogized you, but none 
     of them ever had the pleasure I had to feel the caresses of 
     our warm, soft hands, to merit your warm embrace that was 
     reserved only for us, to see your half-smile that always told 
     me so much, that same smile which is no longer, frozen in the 
     grave with you.
       I have no feelings of revenge because my pain and feelings 
     of loss are so large, too large. The ground has been swept 
     out from below us, and we are groping now, trying to wander 
     about in this empty void, without any success so far.
       I am not able to finish this; left with no alternative. I 
     say goodbye to you, hero, and ask you to rest in peace, and 
     think about us, and miss us, as down here we love you so very 
     much. I imagine angels are accompanying you now and I ask 
     them to take care of you, because you deserve their 
     protection.

                          ____________________