Israel’s forgotten Prime Minister

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 17

Israel’s forgotten Prime Minister

Rabin of Israel: A biography. By Robert Slater. Robson Books. $lB. (Reviewed by John T. Henderson)

It might be expected that Yitzak Rabin, the man who as Israel’s Chief-of-Staff oversaw the spectacular victories of the 1967 Six-Day War, and later, as Israel’s first native born Prime Minister, directed the dramatic Entebbe raid to free the Israeli hostages hijacked to Uganda, would be a modern Israeli hero. Yet, a year after resigning as Prime Minister, Rabin remains a largely forgotten figure in Israeli politics and military affairs.

Robert Slater, an American Journalist living in Jerusalem, has produced this sympathetic biography in an attempt to highlight Rabin’s achievements and, one suspects, help promote the possibility /of Rabin’s return to high political office. However, his extensive treatment of two critical events in Rabin’s career effectively explain why Rabin is likely to remain politically insignificant.

The first of these events concerns the period immediately before the outbreak of the Six-Day War when Rabin was briefly unable to carry out his duties asj Chief-of-Staff. Slater does not accept the official explanation that Rabin was suffering from “nicotine poisoning,” but maintains that for a 24

hour period Rabin was in a “state of collapse” as a result of overwork. The main point made by Rabin’s critics — that the incident demonstrated that he could not stand up to the strain of crisis situations — is not answered. It is significant that shortly after the war Rabin resigned as Chief-of-Staff to take up the less strenuous, but nevertheless key position as Israeli Ambassador in Washington. In view of the adverse publicity surrounding Rabin’s performance as Chief-of-Staff, it is remarkable that he could successfully embark on a political career, and within three years of being elected to Parliament emerge as Leader of the Labour Party and Israel’s Prime Minister. However, his achievements in fighting inflation and combating terrorism were overshadowed by financial scandals which paved the way for the election of Israel’s present Prime Minister and Leader of the Right-wing Likud Party, Menachem Begin. The immediate issue was the disclosure that Rabin and his wife had maintained a bank account in the United States in violation of Israeli currency laws. The issue appears minor, but it was made worse by the disclosure that the account had continued to be actively used, a fact which contradicted the Rabins’ explanation that they had merely

forgotten to close the account when they left the United States. Furthermore, there had also been an earlier embarrassing disclosure that, as Ambassador, Rabin had accepted $90,000 in speaking fees. He was further discredited by the fraud and bribery investigation of his nominee for the position of Governor of the Bank of Israel (who was later sentenced to a five-year prison sentence), and the suicide of his Minister of Housing, who was under investigation for embezzlement. When Rabin gave up the office of Prime Minister he remarked: “Well, now I’m a free man.” Although it is certainly contrary to the author’s intention, the impression one gains from reading this biography is that Rabin never really wanted to carry the responsibilities of his top military and political offices. As a shy, introverted personality, he did not display a driving ambition to reach the top, but seems to have been motivated more by a deep sense of duty to his country. As both Chief-of-Staff and Prime Minister he preferred the role of figurehead to that of the active decision-maker. His aloof and detached leadership style was clearly inappropriate for a country in constant crises, and deprived him of a wide political base. For these reasons Rabin is likely to remain a largely forgotten figure in Israeli history.