What If Rabin Hadn't Died

(Visit the JPOST Yitzhak Rabin memorial section to remember one of Israel's true heroes.)

Friday 4th November marked the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Commemorating this event, it was reported in the Israeli media on Saturday that former American President Bill Clinton remarked that had Rabin been alive there would be peace today between Israelis and Palestinians and the Middle East would be a very different place. Clinton is not the first to put forward this position. PLO Chairman Arafat at the height of the Intifada almost always complained that if his partner in ‘the peace of the brave’ had been alive none of the violence would be taking place.

While I do not claim to be a prophet, science fiction has always been a weakness of mine. So I have decided to go back in my time machine ten years to that horrific night in Tel Aviv when Rabin was assassinated. I will change the time line and show how truly "prophetic" Clinton and Arafat were.

Due to the conspiracy theories surrounding the involvement of the Shin Bet (Israeli internal security) in the assassination plot, I have decided not to inform them. Instead I have decided that I personally will take the bullet for Rabin (leaving nothing to chance). What could be better than to die as a martyr in the cause of Middle East peace I ask you?

And so as it happens Rabin is not killed on 4th November 1995 at a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Three shots are fired by a right wing religious gunman, Yigal Amir, but a brave South African tourist happened to dive in front of the bullets and saves the Prime Minister. This Zionist hero is given full military honours and buried on Mount Herzl. But enough about me, you interested in how Rabin not dying that night creates an entirely new Middle East. So hear goes …

Shocked by this attempt by a Jew to kill the democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel, the entire country, no the entire Jewish world, is galvanised behind Rabin and the ‘peace camp’. Bibi Netanyahu’s (then leader of the opposition Likud party) significant lead in the polls plummets. Arafat too is shaken by the possible dead of his partner in the peace of the brave. So much so that he makes every effort to stop the suicide bombing campaign that has been causing so much carnage in Israeli streets. He bans Hamas and Islamic jihad, arrests their leaders and confiscates their weapons. The disgust for the right wing coupled with the calm allows Rabin and his Labour party to achieve an impressive victory in the election, achieving an unheard of 70 seats in the Knesset.

Rabin sees this remarkable victory as a mandate for greater concessions to the Palestinians. No need for the detailed Wye river accord, Rabin happily hands over large chunks of the West Bank to Palestinian control. So pleased by this gesture Arafat this time really does delete the call in the PLO charter to destroy the Jewish State; he transforms the anti-Semitic Palestinian school text books and Israel is now shown on official PA maps.

International donations from all over the world pour into the territories. Fiscal accountability rather than martyrdom is held out by Arafat to be the highest virtue. There is no corruption in the new PA, none of the Palestinian cabinet ministers has ever heard of a foreign bank account let alone possessed one. And so the money is used to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians. Hospitals, schools and even jobs become common place. Prosperity reigns.

The 50th anniversary of Israel comes and goes. Arab and Muslim leader from around the world (even Iran) send congratulations. Arafat makes a special trip to Jerusalem to join in the Independence Day rallies. He is even more popular than Rabin.

The time for final status negations has arrived. Off to Camp David Rabin and Arafat go. President Clinton is hardly involved he is too preoccupied with a certain intern in the Oval Office. (In this fairy tale Hilary still hasn’t found out about Monica). The summit is characterised by the international press as truly remarkable. Rabin agrees to evacuate all settlements, and shares sovereignty in Jerusalem. Arafat agrees to relinquish the Palestinian ‘right of return’ acknowledging that it was only a ploy to demographically destroy the Jewish State. On 14th May 1999, the state of Palestine is declared with Jerusalem as its capital and the conflict is over.

The entire Arab and Muslim world almost immediately normalise ties with Israel. Even the journalist Robert Fisk is forced to complement the Israelis. A few months later, Iran and Israel sign a nuclear free Middle East treaty and IAEA confirms that all nuclear weapons have successfully been destroyed.

Clinton leaves office a hero. The elderly Jews of Florida, now much less preoccupied with Middle East peace, remember to bring their spectacles to the polling booths and vote Gore. He defeats Bush by small but comfortable margin. His first act as president is to sign the Kiyoto Protocol on Climate Change. This commitment to multilateralism is applauded by the international community. Even Osama bin Laden realises that he has made a mistake and America really is not the great Satin. He returns from his cave in Afghanistan to his family mansion in Saudi Arabia and become a world renowned expert in Paper Mache.

But what of Bush, Netanyahu and Sharon? Sharon has retired from public life spending his last days milking cows on his ranch. Bibi’s lovely wife Sarah finally came to her senses and divorced him and he has been forced to take up employment as a radio talk show host for a right wing Evangelical Christian station in the Bible belt. And Bush? He has been committed to a mental institute. Despite the heavy meds and shock therapy he still believes God promised him he would be president of America … or was it King of Iraq.

Yes...if Rabin hadn’t died that fateful night ten years ago, what a wonderful world it would be.

Update: In case you didn't get it...I was being totally sarcastic :)

Comments

[David Gerstman]

You assume that Arafat would change. But that misunderstands him.
But it also mis-reads the situation. If the shock of an assassinated Prime Minister didn't change Arafat (and everyone else) why would an almost miss have a more significant effect. Arafat was just as committed to Israel's destruction (and his own power) while Rabin was alive as he was after.
I don't buy this scenario at all.

[mike]

It was meant to be sarcastic. I agree with you Arafat wouldn’t have changed. Just like the U.S. signing the Kyoto Protocol wouldn’t have made Osama Bin Laden give up his Jihad. I think Clinton and Arafat's contentions are ridiculous. Was trying to make a mockery of them. I think in the future i will stay away from humour.