Rabin Rally

A bunch of us went to the Yitzhak Rabin memorial rally held in Tel Aviv tonight, in Rabin Square, the site of his assasination 10 years ago. We arrived at 7 pm, an hour and a half before the rally began. It was supposed to be a memorial, but of course, it was very political. The banners were motly either Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) or this other group that supports Yossi Beilin's Geneva Accords, or simply for Avodah, the Labor party. It being Tel Aviv and a Rabin memorial, it was a decidedly leftist event, and this was reflected in the speakers.

The speakers spoke in Hebrew, but I understood decent chunks of what was being said. The earlier speakers were decent, said some nice things about Rabin. Things got more interesting when Amir Peretz, the new leader of the Labor party, spoke. His speech was the most political, and he specifically said that Oslo was not dead, that we must continue the path of Oslo, started by Rabin, which is the path to peace. He talked about how he first moved to Israel when he was 4, from Morocco, and lived in Sderot, and had to deal with Qassam fire. He then borrowed almost directly from MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech," saying that he had a dream that one day you will be able to travel all the way from Sderot to Beit Hanoun and little Israeli kids and Palestinian kids will play together. I guess in Israel they are not as familliar with I have a dream. Anyways, it was ok. He wasn't a great speaker.

Interesting was this woman from the Likud party, I forget her name, I believe she is justice minister. The first thing she said was that this is not a political event. She said that even though she disagreed with him on many issues, she was hurt when Rabn was killed, because he was the Prime Minister of her country, and an attack on him is an attack on all of us.

Rabin's grandson was moving, btalking about how Rabin's death affected all Israelis, left and right, secular and religious. But even more impressive was Shimon Peres. I've heard Peres speak in English, and he's totally an Israeli Grandfather: "Em, Eh, Em, Eh, Rabin wants piss in the middle isst." But in Hebrew he was incredible: fiery and dynamic. He spoke movingly to the young people in the audience, to get invovled in politics, to make peace a reality. He talked about how Rabin was ready to make peace even when the nation wasn't ready. He said that anyone who calls Rabin a traitor is committing treason against Israel and the peace process. He was really great.

Between each speaker, there were singers. David Broza was awesome, he sang "Yeheyeh Tov" (It will be alright). This was incredible, except some woman in the crowd passed out right next to us, so we were distracted by the security and paramedics who strapped her to a chair and carried her away. This was also bizarre because this was the second woman that passed out literally 4 feet away from away. I hope it wasn't cuz of some smell emanating from my body.

Aviv Geffen also sang, which was awesome. He's got the metrosexual thing down pat.

The last speaker was Bill Clinton. They pushed the memorial back one week so he could attend. I saw him speak freshman year at Harvard, and was amazed: shortly after 9/11, he talked about his dear friend Yitzhak Rabin who died for peace, and I cried. But here, he spoke slowly and without his usual drawl, perhaps catering to the Hebrew-speaking audience. He looked thin and not particularly healthy or lively. An d his comments were trite: pick up where Rabin left off. When he said that not a week goes by where he doesn't think of his dear friend Yitzhak Rabin, I could not take him seriously. Even when he's at the top of his game, he is not genuine. The man was a terrible Democrat, he moved the party to the right fiscally and instituted Don't Ask Don't Tell. But he's a great politician. Unfortunately, he didn't have it tonight, and even though Hillary and Chelsea were with him, I couldn't help but think that he was probably looking around for his next Jewish Clintern, maybe this time of the more slender, Sephardic variety. He was supposed to lead the penultimate song, "Sheer LeShalom" (song of peace) but he didn't seem to into it. He did seem to know a few words to HaTikvah, which was cool.

Overall, the rally was a great experience. Peretz was saavy to jump on the Rabin bandwagon. Hopefully, it will help him. He may not be the most charismatic, but I like his views and I think he will be good for Israel. Still, he's no Rabin. Yitzhak Rabin, Oleh B'Shalom.