fresh concerns about the future of the Jewish state.
The anniversary was expected to reawaken bitter divisions in and outside Israel, with Iran calling for its destruction.
In a letter obtained by BosNewsLife ahead of Friday’s ceremonies, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told his counterparts throughout the world he was concerned about Iranian President Ahmadinejad who last month called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
"Addressing a conference in Tehran entitled "A World Without Zionism", the President of Iran yesterday spoke in praise of Palestinian terror against Israel…," Shalom said in the letter. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan meanwhile cancelled a planned visit to Iran because of ‘ongoing controversy’, his spokesman said Friday, November 4.
"Israel has for many years warned of the hostile and violent intentions of Iran’s radical regime. The attempted genocide of the Jewish people in Europe just sixty years ago has taught us always to be vigilant against those who call for the destruction of our people," Shalom stressed in the letter.
DEEPLY CONCERNED
"We have been deeply concerned about the danger – posed not only to us, but to the entire international community – of the combination of such hostile ideology together with nuclear capability," of Iran, he explained.
Shalom said President Ahmadinejad’s comments "serve once again to unmask the true nature of the threat posed by Iran, and the urgency that this threat be addressed before Iran acquires nuclear capability."
It was also another reminder of tensions in the Middle East, 10 years after Rabin was killed. The Nobel Peace Laureate had hoped his peace moves towards the Palestinian Authority would help stabilize the Middle East region and Israel.
"SECURITY FAILURE"
Former Israel security service director Carmi Gilon told Israeli media the fact that Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin is still alive is a failure of Israeli security.
On November 4, 1995, Yigal Amir shot Israeli Prime Minister Rabin twice as he left a pro-peace
rally promoting the Oslo agreements in Tel Aviv. Rabin subsequently died in hospital from hemorrhaging and a punctured lung.
Gilon, who headed the Shin Bet when Rabin was assassinated ten years ago told Army Radio that the agents on the scene should have fired at Amir to kill him, "if not after he fired the first bullet, but definitely after a second shot was fired" at Rabin.
HEATED DEBATE
His comments came in the background of a heated public debate surrounding a petition circulated by Amir’s parents, who are seeking Yigal’s release along with brother Haggai, who was detained for helping to organize the assassination.
Amir’s family said that ten years in solitary confinement is an "adequate punishment for any person." However Israeli President Moshe Katsav has reportedly said he would never pardon Rabin’s killer.
On Friday, family and friends of Rabin gathered on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, where the late prime minister is buried, for a private ceremony. Speaking at one of the ceremonies near Jerusalem on Thursday, November 3, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the Oslo agreement had sobered Israel and given Israelis a "balanced perception" of the moves it had to make for peace.
SOBER PROCESS
"From the distance of time and perspective, Yitzhak Rabin’s Oslo Agreement brought on a process of disillusionment by the Israel public and the formation of a more realistic, sober and balanced perception of the moves Israel has to make," Olmert said in published remarks.
"The Oslo agreement had its weaknesses but it was also justified. There is no doubt that it forced Israeli society to self examination that lead to the conclusion that Israel must return to its correct borders and that it should be a Jewish and democratic state," Olmert added, seen as support of the recent disengagement from Gaza, despite ongoing violence.
The first Israeli military fatality since September’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip, Sergeant Yonatan Evron, was laid to rest Wednesday afternoon, November 2, in his hometown of Rishon Letzion. Evron was reportedly killed in a pre-dawn shootout with armed Palestinians in the northern West Bank village of Kafr Mirka, near Jenin.
TEMPLE MOUNT
Olmert said Rabin took action "so that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount would remain in Israeli hands" under any diplomatic circumstance, and would have continued to do so had he been alive today. "That is part of the political testimony Rabin left us," Olmert insisted.
Dozens of private and public event were scheduled to continue around the country over the next two weeks, stretching between the anniversaries on the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars. The highlight will be a commemorative assembly next Saturday at Rabin Square, where former United States President Bill Clinton will speak.
He told Israel’s Channel Two television that he believes his wife would do a better job than he did in the nation’s highest office, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported Friday, November 4. New York Senator Hillary Clinton has not said whether she plans to run in 2008. (With BosNewsLife News Center, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Israel).
