Twenty-nine years ago this month, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. In a never-before-heard recording from 50 years ago released by the Israeli military archive today in honor of his remembrance day, Rabin seems to have a message of peace through diplomacy for the politicians of today.
“In the Arab-Israeli conflict, I don’t see a possibility of coming to a solution through military means … if there is a chance at all …it is only through state negotiations,” Rabin can be heard saying in a 1974 recording of a meeting with the Israeli military’s general staff. The meeting was a reflection on the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Rabin noted the importance of combining military might with diplomacy: “State negotiations need to rely on military power, because without military power there will be no negotiations.”
His comments about the importance of military personnel later on in the recording also sound prescient. “Earlier, the chief of staff said that many reservists are called, come, and serve. I think that the atmosphere, the order, the sense of purpose of the reservists is what gives the nation confidence in the army more than anything else,” he said. “Let’s not cover it up—there has been a shock in this area. Whether it’s justified or not is not relevant at the moment. The way to restore the public's confidence, or to make it stronger, is for the reserve personnel to have the feeling.”
The Israeli military archive also released rare video footage of Rabin’s speech at the remembrance ceremony for Armored Corps soldiers. There, Rabin emphasized the sense of being a family and of unity that can result from collective pain. “What brings us here, other than the desire to remember? What brings us here is the desire to be together … in a big family without political parties, without rivalries and disputes.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Leah Schwartz.
