Dear Rabin Family,
Mr. Speaker,
My Friends, Members of Knesset,
This is the ninth year the Knesset is marking the murder of the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, may his memory be blessed.
The murder, which was committed by a villain in our midst, rocked the foundations of Israeli society, and the Knesset determined this day on our national calendar as the writing on the wall, and a warning to us and to future generations.

This Memorial Day must be, and must forever remain, a day of national reckoning.  It is a day of renewed commitment to carry out the fundamental duty of every democratic society – to respect the opinion of the other, even when it contradicts our own. 

Yitzhak Rabin felt the weight of responsibility he shouldered as Prime Minister of Israel.  He felt he was charged with, as he said: “A deposit whose value is without measure – the nation which generations of Jews dreamed of, thousands gave their lives to establish, additional thousands of our sons and daughters died defending and ensuring its security, and which millions of Jews around the world see as their homeland and home.  Nothing is more valuable than this pledge.  Life and death depend on it, bonded to it by the destiny which ties us and our grandchildren after us.  It is the asset of a people who have lived for thousands of years and want to continue living.”

His commitment to this pledge, his faithfulness to the path he believed was in the best interest of this country, cost Yitzhak Rabin his life.  A villain who sought to risk all we have here, shot Yitzhak and wounded us all.

As one who has carried the heavy burden of responsibility for people’s lives from a young age, I can tell you that guarding the State of Israel is the greatest responsibility that exists, and it is placed first and foremost on its leader.  However, the privilege and duty to ensure the future of the State of Israel is on each and every one of us – the citizens of the State.  The future of the country, the future of the Zionist enterprise, rests first and foremost on the ability of each of us to accept the democratic decisions of the ruling authorities, from the moment such a decision is made.
The affliction that puts not only our democracy in real danger, but also our unity as a nation – thus undermining our very existence – is the affliction of disobedience.  “Your ruiners and destroyers will come from within you.”  There is no more accurate a description than this of the phenomenon of disobedience.  Disobedience is the first big step towards anarchy.  Its practical significance is the destruction of the acceptance of governmental authority, without which – as is written in the Ethics of the Fathers – men would swallow one another alive.

The Israel Defense Forces is an army of the people, but it can only remain thus as long as the IDF uniform covers the political and other disagreements that have always existed between the various sectors of Israeli society.  Both soldier and commander put aside their legitimate personal views and accept the burden of obedience to the general governmental considerations.  Disobedience threatens to crush the people’s army, to tear vital organs from it, and to leave it bleeding and paralyzed.  Thus, disobedience constitutes an existential threat to the State of Israel.

It is very painful to determine that, 56 years after the establishment of the State, the issue of the unity of statehood, which transforms various streams in the country into one national stream, has yet to be fully internalized.  Even worse, in large and significant segments of the population there are those who believe that in Israeli society, statehood is in a dangerous retreat as it is sacrificed on the altar of political sectarianism.  For what is disobedience if not giving preference to the narrow, sectarian, political view over that of the state, which is responsible for all?

Behind the big words, behind the angry ideological statements – disobedience is the refusal to obey the instructions of the legal leadership of the State of Israel.  The fact that rabbis are placing their students in a heartbreaking conscientious dilemma: whether to obey them or their commanders’ orders – is painful and distressing.  The most distressing thing is that this specifically goes against all that the rabbis themselves taught them over the years – that the army is the full expression of the unity of the nation, and thus must not be harmed in any way, and that we must not surrender to pressure by political extremists.
Since I believe in the strength and health of Israeli society, and since I believe in our life-force, I have no doubt that at the hour of trial we and the IDF will know how to deal with this matter, as we knew how to deal with other difficult challenges we faced in the past.

And I believe that the national religious public, one of the most important cornerstones of Israeli society, will find within themselves the strength to stop the erosion while there is still time, and to return and refer – as a whole – to disobedience as heresy and a denial of Jewish essentials, and an unacceptable tool.

Mr. Speaker,

I would like to conclude with a quote from the speech Yitzhak Rabin delivered to representatives of the Jewish Federation in the United States:

“This is a time of painful deliberation and stormy debates.  However, it is important that all of us know that, whatever decisions are made, genuine love of Israel rests on them, and in front of our eyes will always be the ancient maxim – all of Israel is responsible for one another.  We do not forget for one moment that between those who support our process and those who oppose it – we are all brothers, we are all Jews, and we share one destiny.”
Today, we also do not forget that for one moment.  And we do not forget him, Yitzhak. 

May his memory be blessed.