ISRAELI Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was an unusual individual. A military man for nearly three decades and architect of the Israeli success in the ‘six-day war’ of 1967’, Rabin appears to have arrived at his conviction for peace through the crucible of war. His assassination on November 5, at the hands of a right-wing Jewish bigot, will perhaps be the defining moment for Israel and the peace process that he initiated.
Peace had eluded Israel and its Arab neighbours for nearly half a century. It was through sheer political will that Rabin tried to bring peace to this strife-torn area. The first step towards this was the signing of agreements for disengagement with Egypt and Syria in 1974, followed by the interim agreement with Egypt in 1975. A long hiatus followed in which the peace process slackened until Rabin and his Labour party returned to power in July 1992. One of the cardinal points of policy set out by him was an accelerated movement on the peace process. In 1993, Rabin signed the landmark peace deal with Palestine Liberation Organisation chief Yasser Arafat, followed by a West Bank self-rule accord in September 1994 and a peace treaty with Jordan.
The peace process had other benefits. Countries like India, which had refrained from establishing full diplomatic relations with Israel, keeping in mind the suscept-abilities of the Arabs, did so and in January 1992, both India and Israel opened embassies in each other라이브 바카라 capitals. Since then, there has been no looking back.
By mid-1991, the Indians had learnt about the secret parleys being held between Israel and the PLO in Norway. Meanwhile, the Israeli consulate general, based in Bombay till then, tentatively checked with the Indian Government if there was a possibility of opening up formal bilateral relations, now that Israel and PLO were talking to each other. The Indian response was cautious. It first wanted to discuss the issue with the Arab countries, especially with Arafat himself. It was only after consultations with them that India gave the go-ahead.
During the run up to the establishment of diplomatic relations, Rabin clearly conveyed to the Indians that New Delhi could be an important player in building up Israeli relations with the PLO. The importance he attached to India라이브 바카라 role was evident from the fact that Rabin insisted India be represented on the four working groups set up to arrive at an overall agreement with the PLO. He sent yet another sig-nificant political signal when he posted Ephraim Dowek, till then the Jewish state라이브 바카라 ambassador to Egypt, as the Israeli ambassador to India. Dowek finished his tenure in India just five days before Rabin라이브 바카라 death.
In the last three years, Indo-Israeli ties have improved. Israel has offered to repair and upgrade Indian defence equipment of Soviet origin. It had captured a lot of Soviet equipment in its wars with the Arabs, and through reverse engineering improved upon it. Besides, the Israelis have offered help to India, whenever necessary, conceptually and otherwise on counter-terrorism.
When the then Indian foreign secretary J.N. Dixit visited Israel in 1992, Rabin set aside all protocol by receiving him and spending over an hour with him to discuss bilateral relations. Subsequently, Israeli acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres, then the foreign minister, made a successful visit to India in May 1993. Both Rabin and Peres lent India their full support on the Kashmir issue. Peres maintained that on the question of the country라이브 바카라 territorial integrity, there could be no negotiations.
The bilateral trade between the two countries has touched about $ 500 million annually. The balance of trade is in Israel라이브 바카라 favour and it covers agro-technology, diamonds and phosphate.
What is not known so widely is that Rabin was an admirer of Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru라이브 바카라 Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History, had pride of place in his library.
