[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[November 6, 1995]
[Pages 1723-1724]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1723]]


Remarks at the Funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem, 
Israel
November 6, 1995

    Leah, to the Rabin children and grandchildren and other family 
members, President Weizman, Acting Prime Minister Peres, members of the 
Israeli Government and the Knesset, distinguished leaders from the 
Middle East and around the world, especially His Majesty King Hussein 
for those remarkable and wonderful comments and President Mubarak for 
taking this historic trip here, and to all the people of Israel.
    The American people mourn with you in the loss of your leader. And I 
mourn with you, for he was my partner and friend. Every moment we shared 
was a joy because he was a good man and an inspiration because he was 
also a great man.
    Leah, I know that too many times in the life of this country you 
were called upon to comfort and console the mothers and the fathers, the 
husbands and the wives, the sons and the daughters who lost their loved 
ones to violence and vengeance. You gave them strength. Now, we here, 
and millions of people all around the world, in all humility and honor, 
offer you our strength. May God comfort you among all the mourners of 
Zion and Jerusalem.
    Yitzhak Rabin lived the history of Israel. Through every trial and 
triumph, the struggle for independence, the wars for survival, the 
pursuit of peace--in all he served on the frontlines. This son of David 
and of Solomon took up arms to defend Israel's freedom and laid down his 
life to secure Israel's future.
    He was a man completely without pretense, as all of his friends 
knew. I read that in 1949, after the War of Independence, David Ben-
Gurion sent him to represent Israel at the armistice talks at Rhodes, 
and he had never before worn a necktie and did not know how to tie the 
knot. So the problem was solved by a friend who tied it for him before 
he left and showed him how to preserve the knot simply by loosening the 
tie and pulling it over his head. Well, the last time we were together, 
not 2 weeks ago, he showed up for a black-tie event on time but without 
the black tie. And so he borrowed a tie, and I was privileged to 
straighten it for him. It is a moment I will cherish as long as I live.
    To him, ceremonies and words were less important than actions and 
deeds. Six weeks ago, the King and President Mubarak will remember, we 
were at the White House for signing the Israel-Palestinian agreement. 
And a lot of people spoke. I spoke; the King spoke; Chairman Arafat 
spoke; President Mubarak spoke; our foreign ministers all spoke. And 
finally Prime Minister Rabin got up to speak, and he said, ``First, the 
good news: I am the last speaker.'' But he also understood the power of 
words and symbolism. ``Take a look at the stage,'' he said in 
Washington. ``The King of Jordan, the President of Egypt, Chairman 
Arafat, and us, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel, on 
one platform. Please take a good, hard look. The sight you see before 
you was impossible, was unthinkable just 3 years ago. Only poets dreamt 
of it. And to our great pain, soldier and civilian went to their deaths 
to make this moment possible.'' Those were his words.
    Today, my fellow citizens of the world, I ask all of you to take a 
good, hard look at this picture. Look at the leaders from all over the 
Middle East and around the world who have journeyed here today for 
Yitzhak Rabin and for peace. Though we no longer hear his deep and 
booming voice, it is he who has brought us together again here in word 
and deed for peace.
    Now it falls to all of us who love peace and all of us who loved him 
to carry on the struggle to which he gave life and for which he gave his 
life. He cleared the path, and his spirit continues to light the way. 
His spirit lives on in the growing peace between Israel and her 
neighbors. It lives in the eyes of the children, the Jewish and the Arab 
children who are leaving behind a past of fear for a future of hope. It 
lives on in the promise of true security.
    So let me say to the people of Israel, even in your hour of 
darkness, his spirit lives on, and so you must not lose your spirit. 
Look at what you have accomplished: making a once barren desert bloom, 
building a thriving democracy in a hostile terrain, winning battles and 
wars and now winning the peace, which is the only enduring victory. Your 
Prime Minister was a martyr for peace, but he was a victim of hate.

[[Page 1724]]

Surely we must learn from his martyrdom that if people cannot let go of 
the hatred of their enemies, they risk sowing the seeds of hatred among 
themselves. I ask you, the people of Israel, on behalf of my Nation that 
knows its own long litany of loss, from Abraham Lincoln to President 
Kennedy to Martin Luther King, do not let that happen to you.
    In the Knesset, in your homes, in your places of worship, stay the 
righteous course. As Moses said to the children of Israel when he knew 
he would not cross over into the Promised Land, ``Be strong and of good 
courage, fear not for God will go with you. He will not fail you. He 
will not forsake you.'' President Weizman, Acting Prime Minister Peres, 
to all the people of Israel, as you stay the course of peace, I make 
this pledge: Neither will America forsake you.
    Legend has it that in every generation of Jews from time immemorial, 
a just leader emerged to protect his people and show them the way to 
safety. Prime Minister Rabin was such a leader. He knew as he declared 
to the world on the White House lawn 2 years ago that the time had come, 
in his words, ``to begin a new reckoning in the relations between 
people, between parents tired of war, between children who will not know 
war.'' Here in Jerusalem, I believe with perfect faiths that he was 
leading his people to that promised land.
    This week, Jews all around the world are studying the Torah portion 
in which God tests the faith of Abraham, patriarch of the Jews and the 
Arabs. He commands Abraham to sacrifice Yitzhak. ``Take your son, the 
one you love, Yitzhak.'' As we all know, as Abraham in loyalty to God 
was about to kill his son, God spared Yitzhak. Now, God tests our faith 
even more terribly, for he has taken our Yitzhak.
    But Israel's covenant with God, for freedom, for tolerance, for 
security, for peace, that covenant must hold. That covenant was Prime 
Minister Rabin's life's work. Now we must make it his lasting legacy. 
His spirit must live on in us.
    The Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for mourning, never speaks of death 
but often speaks of peace. In its closing words, may our hearts find a 
measure of comfort and our souls the eternal touch of hope: Oseh shalom 
bimromov hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu ve'al kol Yisrael, ve'imru amen. And 
shalom, chaver.

Note: The President spoke at 2:24 p.m. at Har Herzl Cemetery. In his 
remarks, he referred to President Ezer Weizman and Acting Prime Minister 
Shimon Peres of Israel; King Hussein I of Jordan; President Hosni 
Mubarak of Egypt; and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian 
Authority