The office of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) released a statement on Sunday to clarify a point raised by the speaker during an interview with Army Radio in which he said that the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzḥak Rabin “had no historical influence.”
“The murder of Prime Minister Yitzḥak Rabin was a terrible tragedy for his family and friends,” read the statement. “And a shock to the State of Israel. In his speech, the Knesset speaker argued that the lowly murder did not help Yigal Amir achieve the result he hoped to achieve; on the contrary. In doing so, he prolonged the days of the Oslo Accords, which were destined to fail in the first place.”
In his interview with Army Radio, Edelstein said he had seriously considered attending the Rabin memorial rally Saturday night, despite the fact that it’s often used as a platform to attack opponents of the two-state solution.
“I thought that maybe at last there was some thought of turning the rally into something that unfortunately it hasn’t been so far, something that really makes us all think about what we’re doing and how we act so that, God forbid, such a thing won’t happen in Israel again.”
The speaker ultimately decided not to participate at the event once it became clear how politically divisive it would be.
“I’d have only scored political points from getting booed, but I didn’t go there for a simple reason, everything that happened yesterday adds to division among the people. It’s my aim and duty as Knesset speaker to defuse the rift between people, and unfortunately what happened yesterday also added to divisions between people and leads to conclusions that are contrary to my own.”
“They were saying at the rally that the political assassination was very successful,” he continued. “That Yigal Amir succeeded in his mission. So what is this if not encouraging political violence? I actually come to the opposite conclusion. I think this despicable political murder had no historical effect.”
Edelstein’s words were aimed at supporters of the Oslo Accords who make the claim that if not for Rabin’s assassination, peace with the Palestinians would have been achieved years ago through Israel being divided into two separate states.
When asked if he stood behind his statement, the Knesset speaker answered that Rabin’s assassination had “no historical effect. If he achieved any goal, then it was the opposite of what this despicable murderer aimed to achieve, and therefore I finally say and hope that today, not in decades, we’ll all understand that the only conclusion of all that’s happened is that all of us, right and left and center need together not to blur political views, but to continue the debate.”
“Also during the memorial days for Yitzḥak Rabin, I don’t change my stance. I remember people who were really close to Rabin and the Oslo Accords, such as Shimon Peres, asked me, ‘Do you always speak against the Oslo Accords on the anniversary of the assassination of Yitzḥak Rabin?’ I told him yes, that was my position and that’s exactly the point – Yigal Amir isn’t the one who determines my political positions and neither does political violence make me change my political positions.”
