Friends!

Today it’s the 95th birthday of Yitzhak Rabin, a prominent Israeli politician, who was twice prime minister and even gainedthe Nobel Peace Prize.

Father of Yitzhak Rabin was Nehemiya Rabichov. He was born in the village Sydorovychy in Kiev. When he was a child, his father died, so the family lived in a quandary. When Nehemiy was 14, he started to work at the bakery, and later joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, after that he came under threat of arrest. He was forced to flee and moved to the United States. He had no friends there, nor support. He wandered through the country, worked wherever there was work until he settled in Chicago. There he became a member of the Zionist-Socialist party "Poale Zion". Then he decided to take part in the hostilities in the Middle East Front of World War I as part of the American forces. But he was not accepted because there flat. Then Nehemiya changed his surname to "Rabin" and tried again. This time it worked. He did not want to return to America so, after service he moved to Haifa where he met with the mother of Isaac and his future wife, Rosa Cohen. Together they were part of Haganah - underground military organization that later became the IDF. It was Rose, incidentally, who was the first female leader of this military underground.

Isaac was born on the 1st of March, 1922 in Jerusalem. He graduated from agricultural school "Cadours." There he met with Yigal Alon, the future head of Palmach – Haganah special unit. At the afe of 19 Yitzhak Rabin voluntarily went to serve to its ranks.

In 1944, as deputy commander of the battalion Palmach, he participated in the fights against the mandate of the regime. Two years later he was arrested, he spent six months in a British concentration camp in Rafa. After his release, he continued to serve in Palmach, participated in the War of Independence, led the forces that played an important role in the battle for Jerusalem. In 1964, Rabin became head of the General Staff, under his leadership Israel won the Six Day War.

His military career was long, there were many different operations. After its completion in 1968, Yitzhak was appointed as the ambassador to the United States. After 5 years, he returned and became the Minister of Labour. For a short time, he became prime minister. His cadence lasted three years. His wife Leah had a bank account in the US, and the Israeli law did not allow that. Imagine! Only an account caused a scandal. Then Rabin took responsibility and resigned.

And then he again became minister, this time - defense in the government of Shimon Peres. At first, he was a supporter of harsh methods to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians, and eventually he started to believe that the solution lies in a peaceful plane. This has resulted in significant advances in the international arena, which Rabin has reached as prime minister. For that he received the Nobel Peace Prize - along with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat.

But the peace did not help Yitzhak. Accords with the Palestinians did not end conflict, by contrast, it led to a new surge of terror when in two years were killed over a hundred thousand of Israelis. Since that time, Yitzhak Rabin for some has become the personification of peace, for others - a traitor. But he did not abandon his convictions and died after a rally in their support in Tel Aviv. He was killed by the extremist Yigal Amir. About this tragic event I have told you before.

Israel remembers its prominent figure, because in spite of everything, on the first-place Rabin always put the interests of Israel. Therefore, the area where Yitzhak Rabin was killed, bears his name. By the way, one of the streets of Odessa is also named in his honor.