Bill Clinton: “Yitzhak Rabin of Israel October 24, 1996 Today the Yartziet candle, symbol of the anniversary of a death, burns for my…”

“Yitzhak Rabin of Israel October 24, 1996 Today the Yartziet candle, symbol of the anniversary of a death, burns for my friend Yitzhak Rabin. So often, we recognize the true measure of a person only in retrospect, when someone is gone, and his or her legacy becomes clear. But once in a long while, a figure of greatness stands before our eyes, and we recognize it in an instant. Yitzhak Rabin was such a figure of greatness. And virtually all of us who knew him during his life saw that immediately. He lived the history of his nation, from the heroic struggles of Israel's birth to the repeated defense of its existence, to the quest for peace and acceptance after decades of conflict and bloodshed. He had an indomitable will which he dedicated without hesitation to the lifelong service of Israel's security. For a people who in 2,000 years of exile were too often powerless in the face of oppression, Yitzhak Rabin embodied the independence and self-sufficiency of modern Israel. And he possessed something else: the genius to see after a lifetime of war that the greatest safety for Israel's people can be attained when peace and security are one. Through deeds as well as words, he helped bring an entire region to the threshold of a new and better day. Yitzhak Rabin was truly a light unto the nations. It was one of the great privileges of my life to know Prime Minister Rabin and to have worked with him for the benefit of the people of Israel and all the Middle East.…”