The Man and The State: A Tapestry

(A "Memory Game")

EXERCISE

Educators will wish to discuss Yitzhak Rabin the man, the soldier, the statesman, the peacemaker in an open format, beyond textual analysis. To understand Yitzhak Rabin, one must place him in the context of the State of Israel and modern Jewish history. From this, we can approach his contribution, his vision, his legacy.

This would also be good preparation for the formulation of a memorial ceremony.

For younger students

One of three formats of a Memory Game with cards, using the charts provided, with some discussion.

For older students

• The complex Memory Game [optional].
• The discussion as suggested below.

Preparation

• 16 or 25 date game board [younger children]
• Date cards
• Sets of events cards in copies as suited to the game
• Copies of the date charts for everyone [older students]
• Blu-tack

Memory Games

Variation 1

1. Make a dates board and a dates card pack, using the dates in common between the chart.
2. Distribute the dates charts and allow 5-10 minutes for perusal. Collect them in.
3. The events cards are shuffled and dealt to the group until there are none left.
4. The educator shuffles the pack of date cards.
5. The educator now takes cards from the pack and calls a date, blu-tacking it to the board. The first participant to produce a card with a corresponding event is awarded a point. The card is tacked over the date.
6. Continue until the board has been filled.

Variation 2

1. Distribute the dates charts and allow 5-10 minutes for perusal. Collect them in.
2. Distribute the both packs of cards to the group until there are none left.
3. Allow participants to move freely to form groups of corresponding dates and events.

Variation 3

1. Distribute the dates charts and allow 5-10 minutes for perusal. Collect them in. Form teams of 8 or have 2 panels come out to the front.
2. The educator shuffles the pack of date cards.
3. Run as a quiz: the educator takes cards from the pack and calls a date.
4. Each team has a turn with the right to respond with an event [5 pts.]; other teams are allowed to add an event [1 pt] or to reply if the team whose turn it is is unable to answer. Each incorrect answer loses 2 pts.

The Discussion

US President Clinton at the funeral eulogy recalled this week's Torah portion, LECH LECHA, in which Abraham -- the father -- is tested by the call to sacrifice his son -- Yitzhak [Isaac] -- followed by the Heavenly reprieve. He felt moved to compare the test of the real sacrifice of a son of Israel today -- Yitzhak Rabin.

Yitzhak Rabin dreamed of becoming an engineer at Kedourie Agricultural College -- a water engineer; he became -- to quote UN Secretary General, Dr.Boutros Ghali -- an engineer of peace.

• Find events related to water in the life of Yitzhak Rabin and the history of the State of Israel.
• Find a reference to water sources in the life of our forefather Yitzhak.

HINTS:

• Jerusalem was without water during the 1948 siege
• Rabin was Chief of Staff during the period of water supply problems with Syria and when the National Water Carrier was built
• As Chief of Staff, Rabin reached the Suez Canal during the Six Day War
• See Bereishit [Genesis] 26, v13 onwards: Yitzhak sank water wells.

Boyhood & Youth

1933:
What were the major events of this year? How would these have impacted on an eleven year old boy?

1935:
Yitzhak Rabin reached bar mitzvah. What were the major processes of this period and how were they linked?

1935-41:
Describe the life of a 19-year old Jewish youth in relation to major events in:
i] Paris
ii] London or New York
iii] the Yishuv [Mandate Palestine]

Professional Life

1968-73:
On what "Front" did Yitzhak Rabin serve at this time and what is its significance?

1964-95:
Find a few connections between Yitzhak Rabin's career and Syria. What is the significance of these connections?
HINTS: As Chief of Staff, he was responsible for the capture of the Golan Heights in 1967;
As Prime Minister in 1974, he was involved in formulating Israel's disengagement agreement with Syria and returning Kuneitra; As Prime Minister in the 13th Knesset, he has been involved in the attempts to advance peace negotiations with Syria, related to the question of territorial withdrawal.

As Prime Minister and Statesman

1. Name two Prime Ministers of Israel who were also Minister for Defense for most of their period in office.
   Is there a conflict of interest or does the one position serve the other?
   Hint: David Ben Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin.
2. Name two Prime Ministers of Israel who agreed to minimize the borders of the Jewish state:
   Hints: as above; you may also refer to Rabin's Washington and Knesset speeches on the Interim agreement.
   
3. Name Prime Ministers of Israel who liked -- preferred -- to make their own crucial decisions of state and to accept full responsibility for them.
   Hint: David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin.
4. How many years did Yitzhak Rabin serve in combat -- and how many in the political arena?
   Do you find a significance in the overlaps and proportions in respect to the progression of Rabin's life and work?

Conclusion

How will Yitzhak Rabin be remembered by the world at large, and the Jewish community in particular?

How will I remember Yitzhak Rabin? What has his message been to me? What were his successes and failures, strong and weaker points?

What does he leave us?

CURRICULUM VITAE OF PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN

1922:
March. Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem. His father, Nehemiah, had immigrated to Israel from the United States, and served as a volunteer in the Jewish Legion in World War I. His mother, Rosa, was one of the first members of the Haganah.

Yitzhak Rabin attended primary school in Tel Aviv, and the Kedourie Agricultural College in the lower Galilee, from which he graduated with distinction.

1941:
After completing his studies, he served in the Palmach and - from

1948:
in the IDF for a total of 27 years, including

1964-68:
as Chief of Staff from 1964-68, which was his position during the Six Day War [June 1967].

1949:
Rabin was a member of the Israeli delegation to the first negotiations with Egypt.

Military positions:

• 1941-1947 Member of the Palmach,
• 1947 -- Operations Officer of the Palmach
• 1948 -- Commander of the Harel Brigade,
• 1953-1956 -- Commander, IDF Training Branch,
• 1956-1959 -- OC Northern Command,
• 1959-1963 -- IDF Deputy Chief of Staff,
• 1964-1968 -- IDF Chief of Staff.

1968-73:
Served as Israel's Ambassador to the US.

1973:
He returned to Jerusalem and became active in the Labor Party. Yitzhak Rabin entered the Labor Party and the 8th Knesset.

1974:
He headed the new government of 2 June 1974, after the fall of Golda Meir's government.

1975:
As Prime Minister, with American mediation, he conducted the negotiations which resulted in the 1975 interim agreement between Israel and Egypt.

1976:
June, the government headed by Yitzhak Rabin ordered the Entebbe operation to rescue Jewish Air France skyjack hostages from Uganda.

1977-84:
Yitzhak Rabin was an active opposition MK.

1985-90:
Rabin joined the National Unity Government of the 10th Knesset, serving as Defense Minister until March 1990.

1989:
May. The Israeli Government adopted his plan for an arrangement with the Palestinians, in stages, which served as the blueprint for subsequent peace-making efforts.

1992:
Following his election as Chairman of the Israel Labor Party in March, Yitzhak Rabin led the Labor Party to election victory in June 1992.

1993:
As Prime Minister, he signed the Israel-Palestinian Declaration of Principles on 13 September 1993,

1994:
the Cairo Agreements with the Palestinians in May 1994, the Peace Agreement with Jordan on 24 July 1994 and

1994:
Yitzhak Rabin was also one of the three laureates awarded the highest accolade recognized by the entire world: the Nobel Peace Prize, on 10 December 1994.

1995:
the Interim Agreement with the Palestinians on 28 September 1995.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL: MAJOR DATES

1922
Beginning of British Mandate in Palestine

1933
Rise of Hitler

1934-39
Illegal boats bring fleeing Jewish immigrants to Palestine; many are returned to Germany and their death.

1935
15 September. Nuremberg Laws in Germany restrict freedom and rights of Jews to education, civil rights, employment, property, contacts, contractual relations, religious observance, citizenship, passage...

1936-39
Anti-Jewish riots in Hebron kill 9 Jewish residents and Jews are forced to leave their homes.

1938
9 November. Kristallnacht riots spread anti-Jewish violence and destruction throughout Germany.

1939
17 May. British White Paper limits Jewish immigration to Palestine, closing the gates of immigration to Palestine to European Jewry.

1939-45
Second World War and Holocaust of European Jewry

1941
1 June. The Palmach elite fighting and resistance unit of the Haganah

1942 ,
November. Zionist General Council approved Ben Gurion's "Biltmore Platform", calling for open and free immigration of Jews to Palestine.

1944
The Jewish Brigade formed in the British Army and 5,000 Jews of Palestine and from Allied countries serve with it in Italy.

1945
Opening of international court for Nuremberg war crimes trials of leading Nazis captured after the war.

1945-48
Period of "Aliya Bet" or illegal immigration of European Jewish survivors to the Yishuv [Jewish Palestine].

1947
29 November. UN General Assembly approves Partition Plan for Palestine into Jewish and Arab states with internationalization of Jerusalem. The Yishuv agrees; Arab leaders reject the plan.

1948
5 May/5 Iyar 5708. Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel and attack by Arab armies and forces launches the War of Independence. Jerusalem under siege from April.

1949
Rhodes armistice talks lead to accords with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

1948-1953
Mass Aliya of entire Jewish populations fleeing or leaving Arab countries, together with the remainder of Holocaust survivors from Europe, more than doubling the country's population and settlements.

1950
The Law of Return. Israel's Basic Law recognizing the right of all Jews to immigrate to Israel and acquire citizenship and the duty of the State to assist them.

1956
July. President of Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal. France and Britain allow Israel to conquer the Sinai [later relinquished] in the "Sinai Campaign" and Israel's only gain is freedom of navigation from Eilat.

1960-62
Adolf Eichmann is captured by the Israeli Mossad in Argentina and tried in Jerusalem.

1960-65
Germany provides secret military aid to Israel.

1960-64
Syria tries to control and even block flow of water into Israel via the Yarmuk

1965
Israel's National Water Carrier is completed.

1965
Creation of El Fatah, a Palestinian terrorist organization.

1966
10 December. Shmuel Yosef Agnon is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1967
5 June. The Six Day War, a preemptive attack by Israel against massing Arab armies along its frontiers, in which Israel regains Jerusalem's Old City after destroying the Egyptian Air Force on the ground and conquering the Sinai peninsula; she also captures the Golan Heights from Syria. Euphoria in Israel and the Jewish world. The Knesset extends Israeli sovereignty to all of reunited Jerusalem.

1967
22 November. UN Resolution 242.

1968
17 July. Cairo. The PLO formulates the Palestinian National Covenant with amendments.

1968-79
The first signs of Jewish awakening in the USSR grow into active core groups campaigning for freedom of emigration to Israel, with aliya peaking in 1973 and 1976. Some 650,000 Soviet Jews came on aliya, with a smaller number going "West". The Soviet authorities persecute and repress all Jewish and Zionist activism, using show trials and labor camps to discourage affiliation.

1969-70
Beginning of skyjack terrorism by Palestinian and Islamic groups, in conjunction with Bader Meinhof, Carlos etc.

1969-70
War of Attrition with Egypt over the Soviet SAM3 missiles in the Canal zone.

1971
Israel's population reaches 3 million.

1972
Killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games by Palestinian terrorists.

1973
Yom Kippur war: coordinated, simultaneous Egyptian/Syrian attack on Israel's frontiers, with the USSR supplying arms to Cairo and Damascus. Israel loses and recaptures the Sinai and the Golan at heavy cost in human lives.

1973
22 October. UN Resolution 338.

1974
Disengagement agreement with Syria. Israel returns the city of Kuneitra to Syria.

1974-75
Disengagement and territorial agreements with Egypt.

1975
UN Resolution 379 condemns Zionism as racism [annuled December 91].

1976
French aeroplane hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda; all Jewish passengers held hostage regardless of nationality by terrorists with Idi Amin's support. Rescue operation successfully mounted by the Israeli army and air force, 3 July.

1977
November. Sadat comes to Jerusalem at the invitation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Beginning of Camp David Process.

1978
15 March. Litani Operation in S. Lebanon against terrorist camps.

1978
10 December. Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979
26 March. Camp David Accords signed: normalization of relations for the return of the Sinai and the initiation of the Palestinian autonomy process.

1980
Egypt and Israel open diplomatic relations.

1980
30 July. The Jerusalem Law officially reunifies the entire city of Jerusalem under Israeli law.

1981
7 June. Israeli Air Force attacks and destroys Iraw's nuclear reactor before it enters production of weapons' materials.

1981
6 October. Assassination of Egyptian President, Anwar al-Sadat.

1981
14 December. The "Golan Law" extends Israeli jurisdiction to the Golan.

1982
6 June. Lebanon War to secure Israel's northern border leads to 3 years of embroilment with Lebanon and Syria as far as Beirut. The IDF continues to patrol the 40km security zone in southern Lebanon together with the Christian-controlled South Lebanese Army to the present day.

1984
November. Operation Moses brings 7,500 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

1987
December. Start of the intifada in the territories; escalation of violence against the Israeli public in the streets and against Jewish organizations worldwide.

1990-91
New mass immigrations to Israel: the CIS, 800,000 by 1995 and the clandestine Operation Solomon airlift from Ethiopia, May 1990.

1991
16 January-28 February. The Gulf War: the pan-Arab/Western coalition against Iraq's Saddam Hussein and his incursion into Kuwait; Israel comes under Scud missile attack and the threat of chemical and biological warfare. Sets the tone for US leadership in international policy-making, a realignment of forces towards Middle East peace settlements as a whole.

1991
30 October. Beginning of Madrid Middle East Peace Conference and framework.

1993
13 September. Signature of the Declaration of Principles between the PLO and Israel in Washington.

1994
26 October. Signature of Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan in Washington.

1994
10 December. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Chairman Arafat receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

1995
Israel's population passes the 5 million mark.

1995
28 September. Signature of the Interim Agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Autonomy in Washington.