THE MAN WHO PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE FOR PEACE

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YITZHAK RABIN

Born in Jerusalem in 1922, Rabin came of age fighting in the Palmach, the elite strike force of the pre-state Jewish militia, and rose to become the chief of staff of Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War. Under his command, Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights in six days, reshaping the map of the Middle East and creating the territorial disputes that still define the region's politics. Rabin's early legacy, then, was that of a war hero, a man who had helped secure Israel's existence through force before he ever became known for pursuing peace through negotiation.

His political career, including a first term as prime minister in the mid-1970s, was solid but unremarkable by the standards of what came later. It was his second premiership, beginning in 1992, that made him historically significant. Rabin arrived in office convinced that Israel's long-term security required a negotiated resolution with the Palestinians rather than indefinite occupation, a striking evolution for a former general whose instincts had been forged in battle. That conviction led him toward secret back-channel talks with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Oslo, negotiations he initially kept at arm's length before ultimately embracing their results.

Then came the 1993 Oslo Accords, sealed with the iconic handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn, brokered by Bill Clinton. For many around the world, the image captured something unprecedented, a general who had fought Israel's wars now extending recognition to the leader of an organization Israel had long treated as its principal enemy. The accords established the Palestinian Authority and set out a framework, though incomplete, for further negotiation toward Palestinian self-governance. Rabin, Arafat, and Shimon Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for the effort.

Many Israelis, particularly settlers and the religious right, viewed the accords as a dangerous concession that endangered Jewish claims to biblical land and Israeli security alike. Rabin was subjected to incendiary rhetoric, protests depicting him as a traitor, and mounting threats in the two years following Oslo. Palestinians, meanwhile, were divided too; Hamas and other rejectionist factions carried out a wave of suicide bombings intended to derail the peace process, and doubts persisted on the Palestinian side about whether Oslo delivered real sovereignty or merely repackaged occupation.

That volatility culminated in Rabin's assassination on November 4, 1995, at a peace rally in Tel Aviv, killed by Yigal Amir, a right-wing Israeli extremist opposed to the Oslo process. His death did more than end a life; it arguably ended the peace process's best chance of success, removing the one Israeli leader with the military credibility to sell territorial compromise to a skeptical public.

365 men who changed the world.

Kamikun John, Author 366 days of wisdom.