Customer Reviews

Rabin: Our Life, His Legacy

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Leah Rabin is tough and gentle, a good wife and a good political partner. The story of my hero, her spouse, Yitzhak Rabin, brought tears to my eyes many times. The story is told not only of a war hero and politician, but of a life long love that has been lost. Even if you could care less about Israeli poltics, Leah Rabin's story can teach you lessons that we all need to learn

I enjoyed reading this personal memoir of Rabin and his wife's life together. I liked the first half of the book better than the second half. It is tragic that the peace Rabin sought and finally signed did not last very long.

Leah writes from her personal view about Rabin and Israels History. I liked the book very much and I have Leah's signature on my Hebrew Copy. From a reader who is commited to carrying on with Rabins Legacy. We miss him.

This was a very good book. It not only told about Rabin's rise to power but also about their life together, and the founding of Israel. I didn't agree with all of her political views but she did speak very highly of their life together. I read this in one day.

Leah Rabin, at the side of her husband Yitzhak Rabin participated over a period of over 40 years in the major events of Israel's history, including the War of Independence, the Six-Day War in which Yitzhak was Chief-of-Staff, his period as Israeli Ambassador to the US, his two terms as Prime Minister and the signing of the Oslo Agreements with Arafat. The tragedy of Leah Rabin is that her narrow-mindedness brought about her psychological downfall when she failed to see how the disastrous agreement with Arafat brought massive bloodshed and war in spite of her broad experience which is outlined in the book. This was sadly demonstrated on the night in 1996 when Benyamin Netanyahu defeated her husband's successor, Shimon Peres, in the election for Prime Minister and she told a reporter that she intended "to pack up her bags and leave the country". In the end, she stayed, but this unfortunately shows the mentality of so many people on the "establishment Left" in Israel, that they consider the country to be their personal property and their loyalty to it is conditioned on their being in power. She would often state that she viewed Arafat as a "personal friend of the family" and at the same time she would denounce the opponents of her political movement (the majority of the country) as fascists, a type of political terminology that went out of style in the 1970's. She reached her nadir in her final public statement before she died which was a call for "Shimon (Peres) to sit down with Arafat and reach an agreement to stop the violence" a meeting that in the end produced nothing. This tragically shows how truly out-of-touch she was with reality. It was inconceivable to her that "her friend" who had said so many nice things to her would at the same time conduct a war against her country.
I must add, though, that the book is important to read because of her frank account of the night of Rabin's assassination in which she states how the SHABAK (Israel Secret Service) bundled her off and kept assuring her for a long time that the shooting "was not real" and that Yitzhak was all right. This certainly lends credence to those who claim that the SHABAK set up some sort of "game" in which there would be an attempted assassination as a "provocation" to make the right-wing political opposition look bad, but something went wrong and he was killed. In spite of my strong opposition to her political views, I respect her candor.

Leah Rabin died 12th November 2000 of Cancer 5 years after the Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated. This is a very good personal Story about The first 50 years of the State of Israel. This is why it should be read. In Tel-aviv and in Rabin Square You can find posters stuck up about the Intifada 2000 that say "This is not Peace, Friend". So the Incitement against Rabin and the Oslo agreements has not ended. For a academic book on the subject of Violence in Israeli Politics look at "Brother against Brother" by Sprinzak.