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A number of memorial events are being held on Monday to mark the 26th anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar of the assassination of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Supreme Court Judge Anat Baron and Vice Knesset (Parliament) Speaker Eitan Ginsburg will attend an annual commemoration called “Ner Yitzhak” (Yitzhak’s candle) alongside other officials at the president’s residence.
Dalia Rabin, daughter of the late Rabin, is scheduled to speak alongside Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at this official state ceremony.
Rabin was murdered on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir, an extremist Jew, who was opposed to the Oslo Accords and the subsequent handing over of control of large portions of the West Bank to the Palestinians as part of the landmark agreements.
On Sunday, Bennett also spoke at an event in honor of Rabin that promoted national unity and the importance of respectful dialogue.
“The murder of Yitzhak Rabin was one of the most formative and difficult events in our lives as a nation and a state,” Bennett said.
“Rabin’s murder taught us more than a little and changed us more than a little,” he continued. “As a society, we learned how dangerous incitement and hatred can be.”
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will travel to Moscow on Friday for his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the former was sworn into office in June.
The central issue during talks will reportedly be Iran, with Bennett expected to push for Moscow’s help in preventing the Islamic Republic from building up its terrorist infrastructure across Israel’s northern border in Syria where Russia has maintained a presence since 2015.
Another major issue on the agenda will be Tehran’s nuclear program and the moribund 2015 multilateral deal that Russia had a hand in negotiating. While the United States is attempting to revive the nuclear agreement, Israel is vehemently against such a move.
A spokesman for Bennett’s office confirmed: “The two will discuss a series of diplomatic, security and economic issues involving both countries, as well as important regional matters, primarily Iran’s nuclear program.”
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A senior IDF official has warned that a future conflict with Hezbollah could see up to 2,500 rockets per day fired into Israel.
Home Front Command chief Uri Gordin said that while Israel does not want a war with the Iranian terror proxy based in Lebanon, it is prepared to withstand a heavy bombardment.
Discussing the 11-day war in May initiated by the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers Hamas, Gordin said: “We saw a pace of more than 400 rockets fired towards Israel on a daily basis.”
Gordin explained that in the event of hostilities with Hezbollah, he expects “more than five times the number of rockets fired every day from Lebanon to Israel.”
“Basically, we are looking at between 1,500 and 2,500 rockets fired daily towards Israel,” he added.
Gordin described the 2006 war with Hezbollah as a “wake-up call” for his civil defense division, which was heavily criticized for its response to the conflict.
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Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishanka has praised the relationship his country has cultivated with Israel, describing the Jewish state as “our most trusted and innovative partner.”
He was speaking in Jerusalem during a meeting with CEOs and government officials ahead of talks on Monday with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Energy Minister Karine Elharrar.
“The degree of trust between us is very high,” New Dehli’s top diplomat commented during the business roundtable at the King David Hotel on Sunday night.
His visit comes as Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde touched down at Ben Gurion airport on Sunday in the first visit by an official in her post since a diplomatic row was sparked in 2014 when the Scandinavian country announced recognition of a Palestinian state.
Linde will meet Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday ahead of an event hosted by the Swedish ambassador at Yad Vashem to mark 70 years of relations between the countries.
She is also scheduled to travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Recommended Reading
- Ben and Jerry’s Corporate Antisemitism (Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Washington Times)
- A New Jerusalem Consulate Will Again Proclaim: Jerusalem Is Not in Israel – Opinion (Nathan Lewin and Alyza D. Lewin, Newsweek)
- Turning Dates into Honey: How a Biblical Fruit Made a Modern-Day Comeback in Israel (Janna Gur, Tablet Mag)
- Israel: Medical Centers Under Threat of Cyber Attacks (iNews24)
