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Forgotten Her es
Rabin’s Military Service By Avi Heiligman
Rabin, right, at the entrance of the Old City during the Six Day War
D
epending on the laws of a country, a head of state can usually serve non-consecutive terms. In the U.S., this has happened once when President Grover Cleveland was elected the 22nd president in 1885 and four years after his first term ended was reelected in 1893 as the 24th president of the United States. In Israel, this has occurred three times, with Yitzchak Shamir, Benyamin Netanyahu, and Yitzchak Rabin all serving non-consecutive terms leading the Jewish State. Rabin’s record serving the State of Israel dates back to days of the British Mandate with a military record that is to be remembered. Yitzhak Rabin was born in 1922 in Jerusalem a few years after the British Mandate was instituted. His parents emigrated from the Russian Empire during the Third Aliyah, and Yitzhak grew up in Tel Aviv. When he was just 14, he joined the Haganah and received military training. Before deciding on a military career, he considered the idea of becoming an irrigation engineer and excelled at the Kadouri Agricultural School. During this time, he met a young Haganah sergeant, Yigal Alon, whom he joined in weapons training with the organization. The pair became policemen for a kibbutz for a short period while the school was closed. The Palmach was established in 1941, and many men from the Haganah were eager to join its ranks. Rabin
Rabin speaking to the commander of the southern front during the Six Day War
was one of these recruits and was accepted, even though he couldn’t fire a machine gun yet. Under the tutelage of Moshe Dayan, Rabin became a polished soldier and took part in a few operations. The first of these was with the British Army to take over Lebanon, which had been held by the Vichy French. It was during this operation that Dayan lost an eye. Rabin later took a senior commanders’ course, and at the end of World War II was appointed deputy commander of the 1st Battalion in the Palmach. In 1945, he planned a raid to release over 200 immigrants who were being held in the Atlit Detention Camp. He spent five months in a British prison in 1946 for his participation in the organization. In 1947, Rabin was appointed as the Palmach’s chief operations officer. The British Mandate ended in 1948, and the State of Israel was formed after the Brits’ departure. The newly formed Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) needed many trained soldiers to fight an invasion of several neighboring Arab countries. The war actually started in November 1947 as a civil conflict, and the Haganah and other underground organizations had been preparing for war for several months. Once the IDF was formally established, many former Palmach soldiers, including Rabin, joined their ranks. Rabin was appointed commander of the Yerushalayim sector with just
An infamous handshake on the White House lawn
two Palmach battalions under his command. In April 1948, the 26-year-old was given command of the Harel Brigade and was active during the battles for Yerushalayim. The brigade then participated in the Operation Maccabi around Latrun to reopen roads to Yerushalayim. They succeeded in opening up part of the road and went into the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. However, the overall operation failed, as the Jordanians retained control of East Jerusalem and the Old City, including the Kotel. Several battles were fought to capture Latrun, but they failed. These included Operations Danny and Horev, in which the Harel Brigade participated. For Operation Danny, Rabin was promoted to the deputy commander for the operation, which included four brigades. Altogether, 274 members of the brigade died fighting in the War of Independence. Later in the war, Rabin was appointed as chief of operations on the southern front and took part in the battles that ended the fighting in that sector. He also participated in the ceasefire talks with Egypt. After the war, he became the most senior Palmach officer to stay with the IDF and held several commands in the years that followed. In December 1963, he was appointed as the chief of staff for the IDF under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and held that position until 1968. Rabin used his position to buy American weapons and systems and
prepared the IDF for a large-scale war. The Six Day War took place in June 1967 with Rabin as the chief of staff. The war turned into a major Israeli victory and under Rabin’s leadership gained many strategic and important areas. Parts of Jerusalem, including the Kotel, were now in Jewish hands. Retiring from the IDF in 1968, Rabin turned to politics after spending 26 years wearing the army’s uniform. He was appointed ambassador to the U.S. and used his position to lift an embargo on F-4 Phantom fighter jets and was able to increase the aid the U.S. sent to Israel. He served twice as prime minister and received the Noble Peace Prize for his role in the Oslo Accords. On November 4, 1995, Rabin was attending a rally in Tel Aviv when he was shot and killed by Yigal Amir. Many questions still remain in connection to the assassination, as the official account has several inconsistencies. Much of Rabin’s life is known to the general public, but it was his early years in the Palmach and the IDF that molded him into one of the most important prime ministers in Israeli history.
Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.
