Perhaps the greatest similarity between Abraham Lincoln and Yitzhak Rabin is that both men’s assassins succeeded in altering history. Following Lincoln’s death the reconstruction of the American south was abandoned and the Supreme Court accepted the notion of 'separate yet equal.' Following Rabin’s assassination, the occupation of the West Bank and the Palestinian people has deepened as Israeli settlements continue to grow. By Ilan Manor It was Ernst Lubitsch, an American filmmaker of Jewish decent, who used his 1942 classic comedy To Be or Not to Be to remark on the fate of dictators saying that "if they named a brandy…

Veteran Israeli negotiator Shaul Arieli discusses the failure of the Oslo Accords, various Israeli prime ministers' commitment (or lack thereof) to ending the occupation, and the only solution he believes both sides could live with, however unsatisfied they might be with it.  Shaul Arieli is a man on a dual mission: educating Israelis about the conflict and diplomatic process with the Palestinians, and making the point that the two-state solution is both possible and necessary. His latest publication in Hebrew, A Border between Us and You (Yeditoth Ahronoth Books 2013), is a 500-page handbook to the history of the conflict, with an emphasis on…

As Benjamin Netanyahu rakes in endorsement after endorsement, first from Donald Trump and later today from Chuck Norris, his rival in the right wing bloc, Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) scored a huge run by getting the support of no other than Yigal Amir, the man who murdered Yitzhak Rabin. Lately, his brother Hagai (whom +972 interviewed here in the first - and only - interview he gave since his release from jail earlier this year) has been fooling around on Facebook, holding joking discussions about the murder and other topics. Many of the people he talks with, most of them…

Twenty-five years ago this past weekend, a large-scale popular uprising by Palestinians began against Israel's then 20-year-old military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Sparked by an incident in which four Palestinians were hit and killed by an Israeli driving in Gaza on December 8, 1987, Palestinian frustration at living under repressive Israeli military rule and Israel's growing colonial settlement enterprise erupted, grabbing international headlines and drawing attention to the plight of Palestinians living in the occupied territories. On this 25th anniversary, the IMEU offers the following fact sheet on the First Intifada. By The Institute for…

Netanyahu didn't invent the E-1 dealbreaker that's got the world so mad at him; it goes back to Rabin and reflects overwhelming Israeli opinion. Except for right wingers, people look at the outrage over Bibi's revival of the E-1 plan, which would connect Jerusalem and the eastward Ma'aleh Adumim settlement with thousands of new homes, and say: Well, that's Bibi for you, picking fights for no good reason. Who needs more settlement construction? But if you ask them - "them" meaning all but the left-wing fringe among Israeli Jews and the country's supporters abroad - whether they're willing to give…

A page has emerged from Haaretz's daily op-ed pages, printed before the murder but never distributed; strangely enough, the coverage of GOP-Likud relations in a piece in the page remains as relevant as ever. Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin's right-wing assassin, a law student from Bar-Ilan University named Yigal Amir, shot him at close range following a peace rally in Tel Aviv. It was Saturday night, at 9:42 p.m. Papers print many of their pages in the afternoon and early evening, as did Haaretz that day. Naturally, when news of the…

Hagai Amir, accomplice in the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was released in May after serving 16 years in jail. He discusses with +972 Magazine his pride in the assassin, his brother Yigal; his contacts with Hamas representatives in prison; his views on a binational state; and more.  My connection with Hagai Amir began in late July when I attempted to befriend him on Facebook. I wrote in this post about my deliberations over connecting with someone who had committed such a crime. A few days later, Amir accepted my request. Along with other people from the left, including mainstream media…

Remember a few weeks ago when I sent a friendship request to Hagai Amir, the brother of Rabin’s assassin Yigal Amir, on Facebook? Here’s what I wrote about it back then. Well, a few days later he accepted and we’ve been pals ever since. OK, not really. We haven’t spoken. Was never inclined to. But last night something happened. I posted a small photo album of pictures I took the night before. They were from the anti-war-with-Iran demonstration under Ehud Barak’s luxury apartment in central Tel Aviv. Not long after I posted the album, Hagai Amir left a comment on…

Every once in a while I decide to follow or “friend” a right wing politician or group on Facebook and Twitter. You know, to see what they’re up to. It’s not a big deal, I just press the button and - voila. But for the past few days my cursor has been hovering ever so gracefully over the name of a certain person on Facebook: Hagai Amir, the brother of Yigal Amir, who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin. Hagai recently got out of jail after serving 16 years on a conviction for helping his brother do the deed. One of the first…

The Americans are convinced Pollard - who spied on behalf of Israel in the 1980's - didn't act alone, and have made it clear that if Israel gives up the other name(s), he can go free. It's been a mystery for many years why Jonathan Pollard is still in prison, why U.S. president after president refuses to pardon him. The reason in the minds of his hardcore right-wing supporters, those who see him as a Jewish hero, is anti-Israeli/anti-Semitic feeling high up in Washington, which is too stupid and rotten a claim to bother refuting. No, it has to be an American belief that freeing Pollard could do further damage to U.S. security, because…

What does Eitan Haber's Yedioth Ahronoth column, 'And the president of France will be named Mohammed,' say about the political mentality in Israel?   Eitan Haber is a consciously "representative" Israeli. In his Yedioth Ahronoth columns, he's cultivated himself as a "voice of the people" - centrist, patriotic, worried about security, wishing for peace. He was Rabin's spokesman and speechwriter, the impressario of those spectacularly un-Rabinesque speeches by his boss after the signing of the Oslo Accord and the peace treaty with Jordan. More than anyone except for Rabin's family, Haber embodies the memory of grief over the assassination; his announcement that Rabin had died in the hospital is to Israel what Walter Cronkite's announcement…

An excerpt of Gershom Gorenberg's book published on Slate promises to shed more light on the Palestinian refugee question, but ends up blurring Israel's part in creating it Slate has published a few experts of Gershom Gorenberg's book, "The Unmaking of Israel." I like Gorenberg very much, and I think he is doing a very important job regarding the Israeli settlements (check out his excellent blog for more). Still, I haven't read his book yet (I hope to review it here sometime in the future), so I don't know if the provocative title of the published piece, The Mystery of 1948:…

In defending their hold on the West Bank, the Israeli government and public often present arguments relating to its purported religious significance or to security considerations. A historical and pragmatic analysis of those arguments prove they fail to stand the test of reason. By Lorenzo Kamel Ramallah -- With settlements in the West Bank expanding continuously, any vision for a feasible agreement in the region is fading. The solution of the settlement issue would not automatically bring about a full-fledged peace, but it is a necessary step in that direction. And even though no state recognizes Israel beyond the 1967 “lines,”…