THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511050197
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER AND STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
Mark Goldstein thought back to news photos of Yitzhak Rabin, the soldier, walking through the liberated streets of Jerusalem's old city during Israel's 1967 Six Day War.
On Saturday night, hours after Rabin, the prime minister, was assassinated, Goldstein could see the same streets from his hotel room near central Jerusalem.
``It's just so hard to believe what happened here. I can look out the window here and see all that, and now he's not here,'' Goldstein said. ``It feels very surrealistic.''
Goldstein, executive vice president of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, was among 95 Jews from Hampton Roads on a 10-day visit to Israel. Their schedule would have included a midweek breakfast with Rabin.
Now Goldstein is busy exchanging long-distance telephone calls with Jewish leaders back in Hampton Roads to plan remembrances for Rabin.
``Even though we are not citizens of Israel, we felt a personal sense of loss. We all have strong connections with Israel,'' Goldstein said. ``My wife's sister lives here. . . . Now I have a 2-year-old nephew. I want it to be a different kind of Israel . . . one that has peace with its neighbors.''
Israel was in shock, Goldstein said. He saw people crying on Jerusalem's downtown Ben Yehuda Street, a pedestrian mall known for its lively nightspots.
The killing also stunned Jewish leaders in Hampton Roads.
``I have the same pit feeling in my stomach as I had when I was a little boy and President Kennedy was shot,'' said Michael Glasser, head of campaigns to sell bonds for Israel's economic development.
Glasser met Rabin during an August 1994 visit to Israel. ``He was a regular guy. By that I mean he was not officious while speaking to us . . . He was like a Jewish grandfather,'' he recalled. ``He delayed a meeting with Arafat for one hour so he could continue meeting with us.''
Glasser was impressed with Rabin's ability to maintain a demanding schedule yet focus on peace.
``It would have run you and me ragged,'' Glasser said. ``But in roughly the hour we had with him, he was very calm. He was not the type to pound his fists.''
Rabin's devotion to Israeli-Palestinian peace derived from years of military service, Glasser said. ``It takes someone who has been in battles and seen young people die to understand that young people don't need to perish like that,'' he said.
Rabin's stature loomed large over Jewish leaders in Hampton Roads.
``This man was a founding father,'' said David Brand, president-elect of the United Jewish Federation. ``As Shimon Peres said of him, `He lived all the triumphs and he lived all the failures.' ''
Here, as in Israel, there was deep concern about the future of the peace process led by Rabin.
``Israel itself has to do some internal healing first. I hope the rest of the world gives them some room to do this,'' Brand said. ``This is a country that has faced so much much peril for so many years. I don't even know I could fathom the moral fortitude of Rabin, of the Israeli people and of the Palestinians who stood up and said, `It's time to try to create peace.' . . . That has to continue.''
Brand and others compared Rabin's assassination to that of another Middle East peace broker, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Sadat's ``death did not stop his fight for peace,'' said Rabbi Israel Zoberman of Beth Chaverim congregation in Virginia Beach.
Rabin's assassination by a Jewish extremist may solidify the fragile peace, Zoberman said. ``For a fellow Jew to have undertaken such a tragic mission is certainly a source for grave concern and soul searching,'' he said. ``This is going to awaken even those who were not sympathetic with the peace process to realize that too much is at stake.''
Sam Kaplan, director of the regional office of the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith, said ``the weight of this cowardly act will be felt in Israel, but it is our sincere hope that the peace process will continue.''
Non-Jews expressed concern.
``You can kill the individuals but you cannot kill their principles. May peace live on in the lives of those still working on the Israeli peace process,'' said Carlos A. Howard, co-chairman of the local African-American/Jewish Coalition.
``People should really be examining themselves about what course we should be taking as a civilization. We all need to coexist in peace,'' said Howard.
Dr. Charles E. Horton, founder of Physicians for Peace, said he's proceeding with a volunteer medical mission to the Middle East.
On Monday, he will be part of an team of physicians, dentists and nurses participating in what Horton described as the first medical-education symposium in areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.
Such missions, he said, foster peace by creating friendships through professionals working together on medical problems.
Horton, who attended an Israeli-Palestinian peace-signing ceremony at the White House in 1994, termed Rabin's assassination ``a terrible, terrible heartache for me.''
``I hope this brings a realization that radicalism, zealotry and extremism is not the process to peace, but it's through talking and communicating, working and helping, just as the Koran, Torah and Bible say.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
A GATHERING
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: ASSASSINATION MURDER ISRAEL
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