USA/FILE: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton remembers his friend former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 15 years after he was assassinated

Record ID: 394206

  • Title: USA/FILE: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton remembers his friend former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 15 years after he was assassinated
  • Date: 5th November 2010
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 4, 2010) (REUTERS) GUESTS AT EVENT CHELSEA CLINTON, DAUGHTER OF FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, AT EVENT FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON AND DALIA RABIN-PELOSOFF ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DALIA RABIN-PELOSOFF, DAUGHTER OF YITZHAK RABIN, SAYING: "Today, November 4th, 2010, marks 15 years since the assassinati
  • Embargoed: 20th November 2010 12:00
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  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVABQM5G60CVGH9P5M1ZT1SMRGR6
  • Story Text: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton remembers his friend, Yitzhak Rabin, on the 15th anniversary of the former Israeli leader's death.
    Fifteen years after the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a memorial event was held in New York on Thursday (November 4), hosted by his daughter and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
    "Today, November 4th, 2010, marks 15 years since the assassination of my father, Yitzhak Rabin. Three bullets and he was gone. Three bullets and our world is not and will never be the same," Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff told those gathered.
    Clinton, who knew Rabin well, and who was pivotal in facilitating peace negotiations between the Israeli leader and then-Palestian leader Yasser Arafat, recalled the day in September of 1993, when the two signed the landmark Oslo Accords agreement.
    "I still think about the heroic argument I raised to get him to shake Yasser Arafat's hand in September of '93 on the White House lawn and he said he would do it as long as he didn't have to kiss him," Clinton said.
    "After we signed the peace agreement in September of 1993, we went back in alone to the White House and he was exhausted and I said: 'I just can't believe you did this. Why?' He said: 'Because it is very important for Israel to be a democracy. It is very important for us to remain a Jewish state. We must give the Palestinians their state in order to be both a democracy and a Jewish state,'" he added.
    After the speeches, Clinton and Rabin-Pelosoff then threw a wreath into the Hudson River, from the deck of the Intrepid.
    Rabin was assassinated at a rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir, a right-wing Orthodox Jew who was opposed to the Oslo Accords.
    Amir is serving a life sentence.
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