Rabin’s Legacy: 25 Years Later

Twenty-five years ago, the world was rocked by the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Just a year after winning the Nobel Peace Prize – together with Shimon Peres and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat – for his part in Oslo Accords, a landmark peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, Rabin was gunned down by a right-wing extremist who opposed the terms of the Accords. His death plunged the peace process into chaos and the international community into grief. The lacuna left in the wake of his leadership is still felt to this day, as peace seems further away than ever.

These essays represent a breadth of opinion on who Rabin was and what his memory means today. From the perspective of 25 years, our writers reflect upon the impact of Rabin’s life and work, and where we can go from here.