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

DATE: MONDAY, November 13, 1995                   TAG: 9511140014
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CATHERINE OBENSHAIN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RABIN ASSASSINATION

Through the past two months that I have spent in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, I have continually been faced with people saying the most inexplicable things at the most unexpected times, or with events that seem like Salvador Dali paintings brought to life.

Some surreal events are just brief impressions, like hearing so many New York accents in downtown Jerusalem. Others are more vivid, like the singer in a West Bank restaurant - he could have just arrived from Vegas - who announced ``Welcome to Palestine!'' before breaking into ``Eight Days a Week'' by the Beatles.

As disconcerting as these occurrences are, the most surreal and most sobering event came with the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. At the time of the shooting, I was sitting with my Jordanian host family in Amman having my future read in my coffee grounds. At one point, my host mother read a word in Arabic she said she saw in the grinds and then translated, ``This means a crisis for the Jews.'' But she quickly moved on to tell me more about a friend who wanted to get in touch with me, and I thought little of her statement.

Not half an hour later, we turned on the news and were told of Rabin's death. A crisis for the Jews, indeed.

The next day I headed back to Jerusalem with the nine other students on my program. As we crossed the Allenby/King Hussein bridge to see the Israeli flags flying at half staff, we were all struck by the irony. Our casual act of crossing the border between Israel and Jordan was inconceivable just three years before, and would not have been possible without the work of the man who had been murdered not 24 hours earlier. In the span of a few short years, Rabin, and those like him working toward a peace of some sort, had achieved enough that King Hussein and President Mubarak would speak at his funeral and Yasser Arafat would wish to attend.

Rabin was not a personal hero for me, was no leader of mine, but I willingly waited for two hours outside the Knesset building to see his casket and to pay my respects. While I did not always agree with his policies, I respected his bravery in trying to bridge a divide that has existed for centuries.

Most of all, I felt I owed Rabin a ``thank you.'' The actions he took toward peace with Jordan and with the Palestinians were the reasons I am now able to spend a semester studying in this area.

One of our lecturers in Jordan told us, ``Per capita, the Middle East has more prophets than anyone running around.'' This could be said for martyrs, too. Another has been added to the ranks.

Catherine Obenshain, a graduate of Cave Spring High School, is spending a semester of her junior year at Duke University living with families in the Middle East and studying conflict resolution.