Excerpt
SUMMARY: Twenty years ago Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin addressed an evening rally in Tel Aviv in support of his peace accords with the Palestinians. Moments later he was fatally shot by a Jewish ultra-nationalist who opposed the peace initiative. Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner looks back at events leading up to the assassination.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Now, the elusive goal of peace in the Middle East.
Two decades ago, there was a moment of hope.
But, as chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports, the assassination that shattered that momentum still resonates today.
MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour): One hundred thousand people swelled the crowd at a Tel Aviv peace rally 20 years ago tonight, as Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin took the microphone to speak.
YITZHAK RABIN, Prime Minister, Israel (through interpreter): We know how to make peace, and not just sing about peace.
MARGARET WARNER: But minutes later, he was fatally gunned down by a 27-year-old Jewish ultra-nationalist opposed to his peace efforts with the Palestinians.
Rabin was nearing the end of a reelection campaign and pressing forward with peace initiatives on several fronts. He’d already signed the historic Oslo accords in Washington in 1993, famously shaking hands with Yasser Arafat, head the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO.
For the first time, Israelis and Palestinians agreed to acknowledge each other’s right to exist.
"How 20 years since Rabin’s death has changed peace prospects" PBS NewsHour 11/4/2015
Excerpt
SUMMARY: What would have been different if Israeli Minister Yitzhak Rabin hadn’t been murdered 20 years ago? Gwen Ifill gets reflections on the late leader and the peace process then and today from former Middle East peace negotiator Dennis Ross, Israeli columnist Ari Shavit and Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab.
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