Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 5, 1995                   TAG: 9511060129
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KARIN LAUB ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                LENGTH: Medium

LONER LED ISRAEL TO PEACE

There was little room for emotion or ideology in the world of Yitzhak Rabin, a blunt and pragmatic leader shaped by a lifetime in the military.

From his teen-age years, Rabin fought or led others against Arab nations or Palestinian militants. But in 1992, he set himself a new agenda: to make peace with the Arabs and lead Israel out of its isolation.

He was not deterred by powerful resistance to peace, from either Islamic militants who wanted Israel destroyed or right-wing Israelis who vowed the entire biblical land of Israel would remain in Israeli hands. A right-wing Israeli has confessed to assassinating Rabin on Saturday.

Rabin, 73, the nation's first native-born prime minister and its first to be assassinated, had told his people it was time to discard old fears rooted in the Nazi Holocaust and the 100-year conflict to secure the Jewish state.

``No longer are we necessarily `a people that dwell alone,' and no longer is it true that `the whole world is against us,''' Rabin said after his 1992 election victory.

Dubbed ``Mr. Security,'' Rabin was the one politician Israelis trusted enough to take the risks involved along the rocky path toward peace. He would get impatient with those who would not walk with him, once calling right-wing protesters ``propellers'' spinning in place.

But his deepest reservations centered on dealing with the Palestine Liberation Organization. He had to overcome a deep mistrust of Yasser Arafat and his cohorts, whom he had long condemned as ``terrorists.''

From the first reluctant handshake with Arafat on the White House lawn Sept. 13, 1993, when the first Israel-PLO framework for autonomy was signed, Rabin never was fully at ease at giving power to the guerrilla leader.

But his distrust of Arafat did not keep him from eagerly seeking peace with Jordan's King Hussein or with approaching Syria despite strong doubts about withdrawing from the Golan Heights.

He, Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts toward peace. It was Peres who initiated the process, but Rabin who shouldered the responsibility.