
Publish Date: Nov. 13, 1995
Cover Story: Soldier of Peace
How TIME Covered the News: The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was a blow to peace in the Middle East. In his second term as Prime Minister, he had signed a historic—now largely ill-fated—piece of legislation, the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian National Authority and gave it control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. His efforts to usher in a two-state solution, though, would prove fatal: on Nov. 4, 1995, he was killed by a right-wing radical opposed to reconciliation with the Palestinians.
“But if there is a paradox of war, there should be no paradox of peace. Peace should beget peace; through life we should bring more life. Then how can we explain to ourselves the death of Rabin? How can we understand fate’s logic, when an assassin slays a man who has abandoned the methods of war, precisely because he has abandoned those methods? “