Yitzhak Rabin was a chief of staff beloved by his soldiers. Looking back across the decades, it's striking to see him in an old Yoman Hatzahal newsreel from just after the 1967 Six-Day War, attending an officers' graduation ceremony. As the event ended, soldiers and their parents crowded around him, forming warm circles of admiration. You could see in their eyes the affection and respect he inspired. There were no such scenes around Moshe Dayan. He commanded admiration, but not closeness.

Looking back, Rabin was a military leader whose relationship with his soldiers felt almost intimate. He studied at Kadoorie Agricultural School, on the slopes below Mount Tabor. The old Chizbatron troupe once sang about the calf stolen from Kadoorie by the guys from Sejera as a gift for their beloved Hedva. Locals still recall stories of how, in 1942, Rabin and his men from the Palmach scoured the hills near Juara in a frantic search for his lost pistol. That says it all.

There are probably Israelis today who no longer recognize his distinctive voice. Years ago, when I asked a colleague to check a recording for me, he came back puzzled: "Who's speaking on this tape?" It was Moshe Dayan. I was stunned that someone could fail to recognize such a familiar sound. Rabin's voice was equally distinctive, a firm, authoritative baritone, clipped and decisive, lending him an air of analytical intelligence.

Behind that commanding tone, though, lay shyness and vulnerability. His role in the Six-Day War was less prominent than legend suggests, and the postwar struggle over credit soon began. Within the Israeli Labor establishment, the old Palmach elite, academia, and cultural circles, a battle raged between the camps of Rabin and Dayan. Levi Eshkol, the prime minister during the war, was largely forgotten, even though he was the one who declared, "We have returned to our holiest places, never to part from them again."

Later, the group calling itself "Citizens Supporting Eshkol" became "Citizens Supporting Rabin." Along with his achievements, the war left Rabin with a scar that would follow him for life, his breakdown after a bitter meeting with David Ben-Gurion, who accused him of having dragged Israel into the war through poor judgment. Ben-Gurion, curiously, always had a soft spot for Rabin. He despised the Palmach and Yigal Allon, yet liked Rabin deeply, perhaps because of Rabin's conduct during the Altalena Affair, when he acted according to Ben-Gurion's wishes.

Because of that Oslo

For three decades, memorial ceremonies and community events commemorating Rabin have drawn their meaning largely from the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics since his assassination. Some argue that the unspoken "charge" behind the legal campaign against Netanyahu has always been his supposed moral responsibility for Rabin's death, a kind of modern blood libel that reenergized the Left.

Unlike other countries where leaders have been assassinated, in Israel an entire segment of society was blamed collectively. The tragedy is that Rabin's death enshrined the Oslo Accords as a sacred legacy of the Left, while for the Right they symbolized deception and national endangerment. Rabin himself had long resisted the idea of negotiating with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Only two months before the signing ceremony on the White House lawn did he agree to meet Yasser Arafat and accept the PLO as a partner. Until then, he remained committed to the official Washington talks with the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation he inherited from Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Many on the Right felt betrayed, that Rabin had concealed his true intentions during the 1992 election campaign. True, he repeatedly ruled out direct talks with the PLO, but he did say publicly that he planned to grant the Palestinians autonomy in the territories within nine months of taking office. That was his policy, not a capitulation to Shimon Peres or Yossi Beilin, except insofar as he later signed that autonomy agreement with Arafat.

I followed Rabin closely during that 1992 campaign as a reporter for Tel Aviv Weekly. I heard him speak about Palestinian autonomy at a house meeting in Beersheba and again at a gathering of Arab mayors in Shfaram. His spokesman, Gad Ben-Ari, who was a friend of mine from the army, got me in. Labor was betting heavily on Arab voter turnout, as Rabin was not especially popular in that sector. Four years earlier, at another rally, he had bluntly said: "No one expelled more Arabs than I did." But by 1992, he was conciliatory and pragmatic. To Tel Aviv's bourgeois voters he promised "to take Gaza out of Tel Aviv," a slogan born of the wave of stabbings that had struck the city.

"Rabinism" encouraged

Rabin's worldview embodied the spirit of the 1948 generation and the victory of 1967: peace would come, eventually, but only when the Arabs were ready. Israel would hold the territories until then. In his final Knesset speech, a month before his assassination, he insisted that "the Jordan Valley, in the broadest sense of that term, will remain Israel's security border" and that Jerusalem "will remain united under Israeli sovereignty." He declared repeatedly that Israel would never return to the pre-1967 lines.

But Rabin and his colleagues failed to foresee that the territories handed to the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, would become bases for rocket fire and terrorism. He dismissed warnings from Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon that rockets would one day be launched from Gaza toward Ashkelon. "From Gaza? Impossible," he scoffed.

During that same period, Meretz MK Yossi Sarid declared, "Rabin must be encouraged." And indeed, as Labor shifted leftward, the Israeli Left was already legitimizing contact with Hamas, the terrorist arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. In December 1992, Rabin's government expelled 415 Hamas leaders to southern Lebanon. The move was turned by the Left and by US President Bill Clinton into a propaganda victory for Hamas. Israel was forced to bring the deportees back, and left-wing activists, led by Uri Avnery, protested in solidarity with Hamas in Jerusalem. Avnery later boasted that their campaign had proven that Israel could never again carry out such expulsions.

That episode marked a turning point. The return of Hamas leaders from Lebanon inspired a wave of suicide bombings between 1994 and 1996 and signaled the collapse of the Oslo process. Ironically, Clinton, who sent Rabin off with the words "Shalom, chaver" – "Goodbye, friend" in Hebrew – helped undermine Oslo even before it began.

A battle over legacy

Today, Rabin's legacy has hardened into dogma. Figures like Prof. Uri Bar-Joseph, a leading voice in Israel's old defense establishment, still promote the formula of ending "the occupation" through a Palestinian state and land swaps, the same thinking that would bring Hamas tunnels within meters of Kibbutz Be'eri. To them, even the October 7 massacre was not a historical rupture but merely another large-scale terrorist attack, on a continuum with Maalot, Munich, or the 1978 Coastal Road attack.

The old Left still refuses to see the Palestinians as a jihadist, antisemitic enemy bent on Israel's destruction. Just as Rabin saw parts of the right "murderers of peace," the Left today brands "messianic annexationists" as the main problem for Israel's future.

After Rabin's assassination, the upper echelons of the IDF and the defense establishment were dominated by his loyalists, including successive chiefs of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak and Ehud Barak. They passed down a worldview that dismissed military solutions to terrorism and treated the conflict as a "manageable confrontation." Settlers were framed as obstacles to peace. In later negotiations, Rabin was even willing to withdraw from most of the Golan Heights – back to the June 4, 1967 lines – when the Assad regime still appeared powerful.

Ultimately, Rabin's true directive was not peace, but the defense of the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem, and rejection of a sovereign Palestinian state. That is the mission facing Israel's next generation of leaders: to unite the nation across political lines in firm opposition to Palestinian statehood, and to accept the price, even sanctions, that such unity may entail. In that struggle, Israel can still draw on Rabin's spirit as a source of national strength.

The post Those who knew him know: Rabin's legacy is not peace appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

As Israel marks the 29th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, the IDF Archives has released a previously undisclosed recording from a 1974 General Staff forum. In it, Rabin, then serving his first term as prime minister, addresses the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War and the prospects for regional peace.

"In the Arab-Israeli conflict, I don't see a possibility of reaching a solution through military means... if there's any chance at all... it's only through diplomatic negotiations," Rabin can be heard saying in the recording. However, he emphasized that diplomacy must be backed by military strength: "Without military power, there won't be any diplomatic negotiations at all."

In the recording, Rabin also addressed potential developments in the conflict: "A Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria would be an immediate trigger for the next war, even if other parties don't desire it. I also question whether pursuing something short of full peace – whatever we might call it – at a higher territorial cost is truly the best solution, especially when we look at the Arab reality with clear eyes. But I don't need to dwell on this question because we face a simple fact: no one is willing to talk to us about peace."

50 years later, Rabin's words resonate with Israel's current reality. Many draw parallels between the surprise attack that launched the Yom Kippur War on October 6, 1973, and Hamas' devastating assault on Oct. 7, 2023. The latter has escalated into a prolonged multi-front conflict along Israel's southern and northern borders, with additional threats from militias in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran, and a severe hostage crisis with 101 being still held in Gaza.

The ongoing campaign has necessitated extensive mobilization of reserve forces, echoing the situation Rabin described after the Yom Kippur War: "Many reservists are answering the call to serve. I believe it's the reservists' morale, discipline, and sense of purpose that, more than anything else, instills public confidence in the military. Let's be frank – this confidence was shaken," he acknowledged in the recording.

Rabin served two terms as Israel's prime minister, first in 1974 and again in 1992. Known for his progressive stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he pursued peace initiatives during his second term, most notably the Oslo Accords. This peace process sparked intense opposition from right-wing groups in Israel, culminating in his assassination by Yigal Amir on November 4, 1995.

The post 'No one is willing to talk peace': Newly uncovered Rabin recording appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Twenty-six years removed since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a piece of memorabilia from his early days in the Palmach, the underground pre-state fighting force of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization that was the precursor to the IDF, will be publicly auctioned by Pentagon – Auction house on Sunday, October 3.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The extremely rare item is a personal notebook that belonged to Rabin, containing the signature of his code name at the time – "Amiram."

In 1941, while still a student at Kaduri Agricultural High School, Rabin was among the first to join the Palmach, which was established that same year. Four years later, in 1945, he was appointed deputy commander of the organization's first battalion. In 1946, then-Palmach commander Yigal Allon tabbed Rabin to lead another battalion, and a year later the young officer was appointed to head the Palmach's operations branch.

The notebook presently up for auction, which despite the many years that have passed is still in extraordinarily good condition, is a rare copy of a weapons instruction manual issued to Palmach members. The notebook, as stated, was signed by the future Israeli premier with his underground code name, Amiram.

According to the auction house, Rabin's signature likely makes the manual a one-of-a-kind.

"This is an extremely unique item, which came from an estate left behind by a friend of Yitzhak Rabin," said Eyal Ilya, the owner of Pentagon – Auction house. "What's special is that this is the first time we see the name 'Amiram,' Rabin's code name. This is an unmatched historical item – the only one in the world."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Rare Rabin notebook signed with code name 'Amiram' up for auction appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Well-known Israeli singer and actress Miri Aloni was rushed to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Tuesday after developing a severe infection in her leg.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

She is known, among other things, for having sung the "Shir Lashalom" (Song for Peace) minutes before the assassination of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

Aloni was immediately taken to surgery due to the life-threatening infection she had developed, resulting in her  right leg being amputated, according to the hospital.

In a message Aloni sent after the operation, she assured her well-wishers that "everything will be alright. I thank the hospital for saving my life … My vocal cords will forever remain with me."

Prior to the medical emergency, Aloni was at the height of rehearsals for a production at the Haifa Theater.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Israel's iconic singer has leg amputated after emergency hospitalization appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The mudslinging between Blue and White and Likud continued unabated Wednesday.

In an interview with Israel Hayom that will appear in full over the weekend, Likud MK Osnat Mark castigated Blue and White leader and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, saying: "The prime minister didn't foresee the magnitude of their craziness. They entered the government to topple [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu]. Israel above all else wasn't really what they cared about. They fight against him all day long. The only thing that interests them is protests. Nothing else. These are our [coalition] partners? These are leftists."

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

According to Mark, "Finding an exit ramp [from the coalition deal] is important. The prime minister must not pass the baton to Gantz. It would be a tragedy for generations to come. Gantz isn't capable of being prime minister. He doesn't feel like getting up for school. It's madness. If there were elections today, he wouldn't pass the electoral threshold."

Mark claims that Netanyahu "feels that if heaven forbid he passes the baton to Benny Gantz, a disaster could happen. Gantz doesn't have an understanding of basic things. The job is too big for him. This isn't a regular country."

She adds: "We are on the way to elections. Not now. In March, the Knesset will be dispersed and in June-July there will be elections."

Touching on the right's improvement in the polls, Mark says, "[Yamina Chairman] Naftali Bennett is one of the people the State of Israel will be disappointed by if he reaches a key position. He seems impulsive to me. I see him speaking before the Knesset plenum and throwing tantrums like a child whose toy was taken away. Buddy, stop for a second. You wrote a book so now you can be prime minister?"

As for the government's handling of the coronavirus, "it's not a catastrophe," Mark argues. It's a bad situation. A catastrophe would be if the prime minister, finance minister were sitting in the ivory tower, not doing a thing."

Addressing the recent dispute over marking the anniversary of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, Mark says: "The Rabin murder was a despicable murder and there's no disagreement on that. But they took it too far. [Actress and comedienne] Orna Banai said, 'You murdered and inherited.' The gall of her; what do you mean inherited?! We went to the ballots and voted. Who did we murder?! We murdered Rabin?! The nerve. They own the story. Everywhere you go, they changed the name to Rabin. There are other people who did things for the country."

Q: Are you talking about naming squares and streets after him?

"Yes. There are other people who have done things. [Former prime minister Menachem] Begin did more than a little for the people of Israel and doesn't even have a tree named after him."

Q: You're saying there's too much memorialization?

"Obviously. Hospitals have become Rabin, squares have become Rabin, streets have become Rabin. Enough, we get the idea."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Likud MK: Gantz as PM would be a tragedy for generations appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"Do you take your tea with sugar? Honey?" Noa Rothman asks me in her kitchen in Ramat Hasharon.

"We don't use sweetener during the week of the Rabin yahrtzeit," I blurt out. Noa bursts out laughing, and I heave a sigh of relief.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

I ask her why she laughed.

"When it's obvious it wasn't meant to offend, I laugh," she says.

Q: And when they refer to the days before the memorial ceremony as the 'Rabin festival'?

"Once it hurt me, at the beginning. Not anymore."

Q: What does hurt you, 25 years after the assassination?

"My wound is the cries of 'Traitor.' One of the hardest nights my grandfather had was the night of the [failed] mission to rescue [kidnapped IDF soldier] Nachshon Waxman, when Nir Poraz was killed, and the meetings that were hardest for my grandfather were the ones with Batia Arad [the wife of MIA navigator Ron Arad]. But he never avoided responsibility. Ideologically, there's no problem with debating a move, but to take it to places of terrorist attacks and talk against my grandfather with people screaming 'Rabin is a traitor!' in the background, is infuriating. And to think that's where our current leadership came from is a real slap in the face. People didn't realize how hurtful calling him a 'traitor' was.

"In our family, because my grandfather was murdered in a political context, we needed to represent him. But we weren't representing or admiring a living leader, we were upholding the name of someone who was dead … Our experience was life in a political home, and in a certain sense, the murder didn't change how we had behaved before it. It changed the way I looked at things and the desire to get justice for Grandpa. To get justice every time he was insulted."

Q: After his death?

"Yes. For example, when Bibi stood with [former PLO leader Yasser] Arafat a few years after criticizing Rabin for doing the same, and upheld the Hebron Accord – Oslo III – in a faulty manner, he didn't say, 'Forgive me, Rabin, you're not a traitor,' or 'I'm doing this because I have no choice.' Netanyahu opted for Oslo even though Rabin himself said that part of the Hebron accord would be implemented only if the Palestinian side made guarantees. And no one on the Right stood up and told Netanyahu: 'There are holes in your deal.'

"[Arik] Sharon asked to have the picture of the signing of the Oslo I Accord taken down from the wall of the Prime Minister's Office after he bombed the Muqata during the Second Intifada. That was cynicism. After that, he carried out the disengagement from Gaza, which was considered a left-wing model, the model of the Lebanon security zone. Do we have that model now? No. There is no security."

'Oslo is still in effect'

Q: If we're discussing left-wing models, what do you see as the reasons for the failure of the Left?

"Leaders' egos, atrophied systems, and the fact that there is a constant attempt to disguise themselves as 'Right' rather than being on the Left."

Q: What does the Left have to offer?

"Reality is left-wing. With all the happiness about peace with Khartoum, the PLO's three 'nos' were cancelled in the Oslo Accords: No to recognizing Israel, no to negotiations, and no to peace. There is no Arab boycott."

Q: They were cancelled at a time of terrorism. So maybe the Left's historic role is over.

"Oslo came before the Intifada. There was a blood-soaked reality, terrorist stabbings, and demonstrations all over the country. Oslo didn't come after a time of peace. The moment [Anwar] Sadat got on a plane the terrorism began, as did the realization that we couldn't defeat it militarily. Every attempt to form a Palestinian leadership failed. At the Madrid conference, Yitzhak Shamir and Netanyahu laid down the framework for a state against a state. My grandfather didn't wait to be elected in 1992 to release the doves of peace. He saw that as the jewel in the crown of a life spent serving his people. So for him to end that stage of his life with three bullets in his back and being accused of treason is not something that can be overlooked by anyone who was close to him and knew him. And it hurts."

Q: But he wasn't really accused of treason.

"There was focus on 'din rodef' [pursuing a person for crimes]. These questions were asked and there were rabbis who discussed the issue, and I don't think it will bring him back, but it has to mark the boundaries of discourse for us all. I remember the day when [Yigal Amir's ex-girlfriend] Margalit Har-Shefi was applauded in Beit El, it was a knife to my heart."

Q: Why do you think they applauded? They were happy she was back home.

"No, they were happy about the murder. You can't be that happy when we were so sad."

Q: The same could be said of the Rabin family, who weren't sad when people in Beit El were sitting shiva for those murdered in terrorist attacks.

"Maybe. There is a social gap. You understand it one way, and I in a different way. With us, when you're sad, you can't all of a sudden be happy about something else. I remember the demonstrations, the pictures of him [Rabin] with a keffiyeh. They hurt – not because I have a problem with a keffiyeh, btu because the intent was to insult. The day the peace agreement with Jordan was signed in 1994, I was on TV for the first time in my life. It was me, the daughters of Shaul Mofaz and Ehud Barak, and a boy from Ofra and a boy from the Golan Heights. I remember that the boy from Ofra didn't know me. They were standing next to me and he said, 'Have you seen Rabin's kid?' I shriveled. They were expecting to see someone with a devil's tail. Today, I'd introduce myself. But then? I froze."

Q: It's not certain he was looking for a tail.

"There was incitement."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

Q: Did Bibi call Rabin a traitor?

"He said once that he [Rabin] is not a traitor. I remember Bibi's hysterical cries the night of the murder. He came to the studio and said, 'You're not Likud, I don't want your votes, I'll support Shimon Peres because government is changed in an election, not through murder.' He hasn't said that since. In other words, he knows when to call the extremists to order, but he wakes up too little and too late."

Q: Might violence against Netanyahu be on the way?

"I'm not a prophet of violence. I'm a victim of the last round of it … Rabin was of evil intentions, but his intentions were good. What you have as a public servant are the purity of your intentions. It's a little like modern-day high priests. I'm more biblically-minded that you are, hon," she says with a smile.

"It's the way I was brought up. No home had more pathos than mine. My father wrote the anthem of the Sayeret Matkal unit. For anyone who spent their life in public service, as a teacher or a police officer or as prime minister, the accusation of treason is the worst one there is."

Q: Netanyahu is a public servant, too.

"But there is no faith in him. If I look at the number of Netanyahu's policy decisions and you had to characterize them, they'd fall in the center-left. But the terminology incites against the Left, and spurs on the other side. We are drowning in the gap between reality and the text. As a society, we've fallen into that abyss, because he [Netanyahu] speaks against the Left and implements policy of the Left and then the Left loses out. It's not that the Left has nothing to offer, it's that Netanyahu expects huge praise for every little thing he does. And then the Left is always at fault, even though they're not in power."

Q: So the Left would go along with Bibi, but the terminology prevents them from doing so?

"No, there are two aspects to it. One is the style, the other is like what happened with Oslo III. You can't promote a plan and at the same time complain that it's a bad one."

Q: But it was a long time ago.

"Oslo is still in effect. And the only thing that still works there is them [the Palestinians] threatening to cut off security coordination, and are afraid it will happen … So Oslo still works, even though the Likud denigrates it. Bibi could have cancelled it long ago, but the fact is, he didn't."

After years of being involved in politics from the personal angle, Rothman jumped in and ran for the 22nd Knesset on Ehud Barak's Democratic Camp list, which started off promisingly and wound up as a joint list with the ruins of Meretz and Labor. Rothman was ninth on the list and did not make it into the Knesset.

Q: What did you learn from your experiment with politics?

"I realized that what the right-wing side has and we don't is an elite that they can recruit. With us, there is no high-level education about involvement, so it's very easy to frighten and deter people. Because wealth, power, and elite sound similar to them. They don't realize that it is vital for an elite to enlist. That exists in my parents' generation. The big donors and manufacturers are people who make a contribution to Zionist and combine responsibility for the community and society with their patriotism. In my generation, something in the illusion of universalism and globalism freed us of our obligation. Maybe COVID has shed some light on the part we have to play, because you couldn't escape to the Maldives. For you, everyone is an elite that takes part. Once a year, I do reserve duty at the Yitzhak Rabin Center, but that's it. I'm the daughter of a generation that was abandoned in terms of values."  

Q: What you're describing can be seen in politics. The Left is crumbling.

"Right. In the next election, what will they try to do? More Blue and White? Now another line of retired military people who still haven't gone a round? These aren't bad people. It's the lack of personal involvement and the lack of ability to cooperate and accept responsibility."

Q: Will you try politics again?

"If I think I can make a difference, I won't be able to say no. Do I want to? No. I didn't want to last time. I'm also not a victim. There are people who do things that are a lot worse, right? I'm lucky. But no one should rush to change places with me, you don't know what it's like."

Q: Why do you take part in the anti-government protests?

"Because I worry that there is an attempt to change the balance of power, so Israel's liberal character is in danger."

Q: Wouldn't it be better to focus the protest at Balfour? On achieving something?

"I'm against the game of attacking the protests. In 2011 it was a fashion show of activism. I lived on Rothschild Blvd. then and the activists camped out there very soon and that put an end to it. Now we have a solid core, and the groups that have attached themselves are as serious as a bunch of gypsies. They drag them in by their homemade signs. I don't have a US passport – I don't have anywhere else to go, and I can't think of anywhere else. My language is everything I am."

Q: What will happen when Bibi goes."

"There will be faith in the government."

Q: Who would you want to replace him?

"This is the Left's problem – they have no one to offer. If Bibi goes, he will be replaced by a group, and if it can be 50% women, it would be better. Who said we need one person?"

Q: There needs to be one person. Otherwise, it won't work. Polls show that the person running closest to Bibi…"

"Is [Naftali] Bennett."

Q: Right.

"I have a problem with most of Bennett's worldview. But I'm willing to disagree ideologically with the prime minister on the condition that he gets up every morning and works on my behalf. I would prefer Tzipi Livni or Ehud Barak, but they aren't running. Or Yair Lapid. Names aren't my problem. My problem is the discourse."

Q: This year there have been a few initiatives for a Rabin memorial ceremony. Which one do you like?

"I saw a post about a ceremony in Rabin Square, under the slogan 'We argue, but we are brothers,' proposed by the council that runs the pre-military preparatory academies. That's the message: instead of learning songs of brotherhood, learn tolerance. These are things that promote dialogue."

The post 'Reality is left-wing' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Bar-Ilan University Professor Mordechai Kedar claimed on Tuesday at a rally in support of Netanyahu that Yigal Amir did not kill Rabin but that another gunman did, as part of a political conspiracy.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Amir was convicted in 1996 and is serving a life sentence for the November 1995 killing of Rabin, who spearheaded the peace process with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu, who was the opposition leader at the time, had been accused of inciting anti-Rabin sentiment ahead of the assassination.

Israeli media quoted Netanyahu as condemning Kedar's "nonsense" about Amir on Wednesday. Bar-Ilan University said Kedar's views don't reflect those of the school.

The post Netanyahu rejects conspiracy claim in Rabin's assassination appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"I do not agree with the things my son Yair wrote about Yitzhak Rabin. Yair's positions are his alone," the prime minister said.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Netanyahu's response came following his son's tweet that: "Rabin broke the law (the dollar account affair), gave speeches in America while he was still a public official, made a fortune. When they caught on to him, he put the blame on his wife and ended it with a pleasant living room conversation with [then-Attorney General] Aharon Barak. Rabin murdered Holocaust survivors on the Altalena. Rabin brought [Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser] Arafat and tens of thousands more terrorists from Tunisia and caused the death of 2,000 Israelis."

Rabin's son, Yuval, responded to the tweet on social media, saying, "Determining Rabin murdered Holocaust survivors is the direct continuation of a poster of Rabin in SS uniform. Don't say you didn't see it [.] Maybe this time the attorney general will act against the inciters?"

Labor chairman Amir Peretz, meanwhile, directed the party's legal advisers to prepare a libel suit against Yair Netanyahu.

"As the individual tasked with Rabin's legacy and continuing it, I will not allow the slander of Israeli hero in wartime and in peace and his path."

"I will fight for his path," he said, "and I will not let sick people's sick ideas rewrite history and damage my name and the name of the party."

Yair Netanyahu has since deleted the tweet.

The post Netanyahu disavows son's remarks on late PM Yitzhak Rabin appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.