Rabin's Memory

10 years ago, when I was living in Israel for the first time, I went to the one year memorial of the anniversary of the death of Yitzhak Rabin. It was one of the most incredible events I've ever been to -- 100,000 + people in Tel Aviv for the rally.

This past weekend, I went to the 11th anniversary rally. It was, as you can imagine, very somber. Not only was it a memorial rally, but the state of peace in Israel is at one of the lowest levels it's ever been. The memories of this summer's war still linger, cyclical violence occurs in Gaza and recently, an extreme hawk Avigdor Liberman (i even like Joe better) was appointed to serve as a member of the Government.

David Grossman, the keynote speaker at the rally and one of the star authors in Israel today said of Liberman's joining the government: "The appointment of a habitual pyromaniac as director of the nation's firefighters." Grossman, a known peace activist and celebrated writer, son died in the war in Lebanon this past July. I've linked the translation of his speech below. It's remarkable.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/784034.html

It was great to be in attendance. Also speaking was Dalia Rabin (Yitzhak's granddaughter) and performing was a who's who of Israeli musicians including David Broza and Eviv Gefen. Visibly absent were any politicians (they weren't invited) and anyone wearing a kippah (they don't agree). All in all a fantastic evening ... we can only hope that things move towards peace. Let's get back on track