Yitzhak Rabin

February 1, 2017
A political biography of a pragmatic centrist who paid with his life when the center could not hold.It is almost impossible to write anything about the Middle East in general--and Israel in particular--that is not contentious, and this biography of Israel's first native-born prime minister, however measured its tone, necessarily has its own perspective and point of view. Israel Institute president Rabinovich (Israel and the Arab Turmoil, 2014, etc.) served as Israel's ambassador to the United States, just as his subject had before him, and was appointed by Rabin to be chief negotiator with Syria. He plainly sees the rise of the radical right as responsible both for Rabin's assassination and for his succession by the still-controversial (and still-in-power) Benjamin Netanyahu, though he stops short of implicating the latter in the former. Rabinovich does his best to elucidate the complexities of his subject, "a political dove and a military hawk," amid the political complexities of Israel and the United States as well as the relations between the two. He also shows how any sort of peace or reconciliation within Israeli politics alone may be difficult to achieve, let alone sustain. Of Rabin's relationship with the more conservative Shimon Peres, whom the prime minister felt compelled to appoint as his Minister of Defense, the author writes, "this was the first round of a joint journey between two political Siamese twins that would last for twenty-one years--twins who both disliked and appreciated each other, competed and partnered, eventually realizing they were joined at the hip and bound to collaborate with each other." Rabin's rise to power also found him navigating bumpy relationships with David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan (both subjects of previous biographies within the publisher's Jewish Lives series). Ideologues may well find reason to argue with the biography's analysis of its subject's life and death, but it puts the complexities of his career and achievement in fresh perspective.

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Starred review from March 1, 2017

Rabinovich, president of the Israel Institute and Israel's ambassador to the United States from 1992 to 1996, has written a highly readable, insightful biography of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (1922-95), from the vantage point of a colleague who knew and worked with him as one of his aides. The author starts with Rabin's role in the military as a commander in the Palmach, a standing Jewish military force created in opposition to the prospect of a German invasion of Palestine in the 1940s, and narrates the politician's life until his assassination in 1995 at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords. The narrative traces the political and diplomatic vicissitudes of the first native-born and youngest prime minister in Israel's history. While Rabin's accomplishments as a soldier were exemplary, his reputation as a leader and statesman, including his disputes with previous prime ministers David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir are discussed in more nuanced terms. Rabin should be remembered as a peacemaker, Rabinovich maintains, for his role in seeking to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his accomplishments such as the Oslo Accords. VERDICT This work is a valuable addition to collections in modern Israeli politics, biography, and diplomatic history. Highly recommended.--Herbert E. Shapiro, Lifelong Learning Soc., Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton

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