Israel / Palestine: Israeli military commander and politician Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995). Photo by Yaakov Saar (CC BY-SA 3.0 License)

Yitzhak Rabin (1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995.

Rabin led a 27-year career as a soldier. As a teenager he joined the Palmach, the commando force of the Yishuv. He eventually rose through its ranks to become its chief of operations during Israel's War of Independence. He joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces in late 1948 and continued to rise as a promising officer. He helped shape the training doctrine of the IDF in the early 1950s, and led the IDF's Operations Directorate from 1959–1963. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1964 and oversaw Israel's decisive victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.

He was appointed Prime Minister of Israel in 1974, after the resignation of Golda Meir. In his first term, Rabin signed the Sinai Interim Agreement and ordered the Entebbe raid. He resigned in 1977 in the wake of a financial scandal. Rabin was Israel's minister of defense for much of the 1980s, including during the outbreak of the First Intifada.

In 1992, Rabin was re-elected as prime minister on a platform embracing the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He signed several historic agreements with the Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with long-time political rival Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. In November 1995, he was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli radical named Yigal Amir, who was opposed to the peace process.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Yaakov Saar (CC BY-SA 3.0 Licens

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