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del.icio.us Digg It!  new Last update - 07:14 04/11/2007 ANALYSIS: Rabin memorial offers pop stars and empty cliches By Gideon Levy tags: Yigal Amir, Israel  Banot Nechama, this year's pop music discovery, was not there last year, but this year the group joined Aharon Barnea, Shimon Peres, Aviv Gefen, Achinoam Nini ("Noa") and Sarit Haddad, these memorial rallies' house bands. Last year the writer David Grossman, then a newly bereaved father, was at the podium, crying out against our hollow leaderships, and hearts were briefly stirred. Last year not a single speaker - neither the authors nor the the intellectuals - had anything meaningful to say at the hollow memorial rally for Yitzhak Rabin, which resembled a late-summer Caesarea reunion of the legendary Israeli group Kaveret more than anything else. The audience was, as always, the same: self-described Ashkenazi, secular, leftist and peace-loving. How good and pleasant it is to stand in the square once a year and feel a part of this warm family, with these excellent Hebrew songs in the background, with the last-minute decision to have the newly bereaved Hagashash Hahiver member Shaike Levy singing "Shir Hare'ut." F Advertisement or a moment last night, everyone awoke from a year-long coma: Peace Now, the Labor Party, Meretz, Hashomer Hatzair and the Noar Ha'oved youth movement with their blue shirts. Journalist Aharon Barnea once again put on the angry-prophet suit he wears once a year in early November: "We shall not forget and we shall not forgive," he thundered, uttering the slogan that was once the province of Holocaust memorial assemblies. The cliches washed over the square, the "hope," the "legacy," the "victory," the "peace" - no one knows what they really mean. The square was also awash in white balloons. White for peace. Occasionally one burst, one escaped into the black Tel Aviv sky. A helicopter and a spy balloon also hovered overhead, just as they do over the skies of Gaza, which was never as far from these peace rallies as it was last night. When Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Yitzhak's legacy is alive and kicking inside of us, was he referring to the blackouts and starvation in Gaza that he coordinated? No one spoke of that Saturday. And no one mentioned the forbidden name, Yigal Amir, despite the fact that his spirit - especially that of his newborn progeny - hovered in the air throughout. The only real applause of the evening went to the defense minister when he promised, who knows by what authority, that "his sentence will not be commuted, he won't be pardoned, and the prison gates will shut him in until his final day." Yitzhak Rabin's son, Yuval Rabin, who returned recently from a long sojourn in America, also devoted much verbiage to the murderer without, heaven forbid, saying his name: He called on us to be a state of law while at the same time complaining about the court decision to permit Amir's son to be circumcised at his father's prison. How easy to unite against Yigal Amir, the lowest common denominator of the left. "We promise you: Your way will be victorious," Barak said, coming out of the closet Saturday night. For the first time he uttered the name Annapolis, and even said it contained "a promise" and not "a threat," and wished it success, in contrast to some wicked rumors. That, too, is not to be sneezed at in a memorial and peace rally. Related articles Amir's son's circumcision to be held inside prison 150,000 attend Tel Aviv rally marking Rabin's assassination Bookmark to del.icio.us Academic freedom The High Court has challenged strict IDF criteria for the entry of Palestinian students. Rapping rabbi British Jewish rapper MC Rebbe is a finalist in the world's largest blog competition.   1.   RABIN TURNS IN HIS GRAVE WHEN HE HEARS WHAT THEY DO TO ISRAEL IN 05:27  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 04/11/07   2.   AND WHY ISN`T SHABAK AGENT A.ASKIN WHO MADE A TELEVISED PULSA 05:33  |  VOICE)))))))) 04/11/07   3.   The etiolated `left` 06:17  |  Rowan Berkeley 04/11/07   4.   Excuse for a party : insult to Rabin 06:52  |  B.Hedem 04/11/07   5.   Let`s see you do better 08:17  |  JG 04/11/07   6.   Rabin should better turn in his grave and suffer terribly 08:21  |  Genuine Tosefta 04/11/07   7.   Memorial 08:28  |  zznhl 04/11/07   8.   Rabin and Amir 09:14  |  Alex 04/11/07   9.   HOW CYNICAL CAN YOU GET? 09:15  |  B`Galil 04/11/07   10.   Gideon`s gripes 09:25  |  sh 04/11/07   11.   Rabin and Amir - public&Knesset are guilty 09:32  |  Alex 04/11/07   12.   #3 Rowan Berkeley - Is this the reason 09:56  |  Yonatan 04/11/07   13.   Levy is indeed cynical, but I`m afraid he also has a point..... 09:58  |  Swiss (Dino) 04/11/07   14.   Gideon Levy - never anything good to say 09:59  |  Yonatan 04/11/07   15.   Good article 10:12  |  Meir Weinstein 04/11/07   16.   stop commenting levy 10:29  |  igal azuelos 04/11/07   17.   Levy, Rejected and Jealous 10:41  |  FOX 04/11/07   18.   Rowan Berkeley 10:42  |  Nemesis 04/11/07   19.   Swiss you are one of the `trouble-makers` 10:43  |  Nemesis 04/11/07   20.   They all know the truth 10:46  |  David Rutstein 04/11/07   21.   Yonatan #14 10:58  |  TonyL 04/11/07   22.   ANALYSIS 11:04  |  Ralph 04/11/07   23.   Communist Curmudgeon 11:05  |  Jane 04/11/07   24.   Let`s at least get our generalizations right...... 11:18  |  Esther 04/11/07   25.   # 19 Nemesis 11:30  |  Swiss (Dino) 04/11/07   26.   swiss dino there is enough racism in your nation 11:55  |  shalev 04/11/07   27.   swiss dino you have voted in a right wing party that hates blacks 12:00  |  toblerone 04/11/07   28.   swiss dino blacks in switzerland interviewed on the bbc 12:03  |  toblerone 04/11/07   29.   Free concert 13:12  |  Beni 04/11/07   30.   Genuine Tosefa 13:15  |  Anne 04/11/07   31.   To Yonatan 13:32  |  Political 04/11/07   32.   To FOX 13:36  |  PoliGuy 04/11/07   33.   Now as then. 13:40  |  Gilad 04/11/07   34.   ISRAELIS demonstrating for peace.Time for derogatory remarks 13:52  |  PETER S.M. 04/11/07   35.   Swiss choreography 13:57  |  sh 04/11/07   36.   Rabin is Dead, Now Move On 14:01  |  Mark Hamil 04/11/07   37.   Mazel Tov Yigal! 14:10  |  Mark Hamil 04/11/07   38.   PoliGuy, on forced reading #32 14:40  |  FOX 04/11/07   39.   did anyone see the ghost of arafat laughing ? 14:48  |  victor hardman 04/11/07   40.   Swiss 14:49  |  Nemesis 04/11/07   41.   # 26 /# 27 /# 28 toblerone and "friends" 15:13  |  Swiss (Dino) 04/11/07   42.   # 35 sh 15:17  |  Swiss (Dino) 04/11/07   43.   swiss dino stories of swiss prisons as hilton hotels 15:37  |  toblerone 04/11/07   44.   Gideon Levy suggests that throughout the years, not enough 15:40  |  Smadar 04/11/07   45.   swiss dino`s psychology 15:42  |  toblerone 04/11/07   46.   the hypocrite swiss dino knows that muslims cannot build mosques 15:48  |  toblerone 04/11/07   47.   swiss dino knows very well if the muslims pressure the 15:53  |  toblerone 04/11/07   48.   and why is swiss dino so complacent? 15:56  |  toblerone 04/11/07   49.   my name is smadar and what i want to know is why cant we all 16:02  |  smadarpost 04/11/07   50.   P&R made a grave mistake; Israel needs damage-control every day! 17:11  |  Alicia 04/11/07   51.   That is what Rabin was all about - Empty Cliches 15:37  |  Kobi 05/11/07

Today Online Lebanon: Reported Hezbollah exercise 'probably simulation' Responses: 174 Akiva Eldar: Question of when, not if, Mideast goes nuclear Responses: 37 PM slams 'violent brutes' of Beitar J'lem who booed Rabin Responses: 106 Abbas: Aiming for peace deal before Bush leaves office Responses: 118 Rosner's Domain * Mayor Bloomberg: No rational case for bombing Iran * Guest: Childbirth, menstruation and rape in the Torah * Poll: A "regional peace settlement" before Bush leaves office? * AIPAC trial: Bring on the top government officials More Headlines 18:53 PA surrounds Nablus camp in pursuit of Al-Aqsa gunmen 20:27 IAF drops flares over southern Lebanon coast after news of Hezbollah exercise 18:29 Abbas: Aiming for peace deal before Bush leaves office 19:01 Arab delegates meet in Syria for talks on reviving boycott of Israel 18:59 Rock concert planned at site of former Nazi death camp cancelled 20:20 Meshal: Summit is U.S. ruse meant to distract from war vs. Iran 11:31 PM: I'm Beitar fan, but I detest violent brutes who booed Rabin 17:07 IDF thwarts Palestinian teen's plan to stab soldier in Hebron 18:02 No deal in high-level talks to end professors' strike 12:29 Extremist Eskin arrested, suspected of wiretapping Lieberman Previous Editions Select Day 04 nov 02 nov 01 nov 31 oct 30 oct 29 oct 28 oct 26 oct 25 oct 24 oct 23 oct 22 oct

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