Yitzhak Rabin

Israel’s election is being cast as a historic showdown - but four trends tell a different story

POLITICAL AFFAIRS: From rivalries within political blocs to polls that shape voter choices and coalition red lines, four trends reveal the challenges facing Israel’s next government.

|ByHERB KEINON
‘Politicians should leave room for compromise before the election, rather than making absolute promises they may have to abandon afterward for the good of the country.’ Will the challenge of building Israel’s next coalition government fall to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Gadi Eisenkot?
Election campaign billboards featuring Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot and Likud party chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside opposition leaders are displayed along a roadside in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, ahead of Israel’s upcoming general elections.

Peace absent from Israel's 2026 elections as West Bank tensions continue to rise -analysis

More than three years of war have reshaped the country, but few candidates are offering a vision for relations with the Palestinians, let alone a path toward resolving the conflict. 

|ByRUTH EGLASH/JTA
Israeli President Issac Herzog at a memorial ceremony to commemorate the 30th anniversary of former Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin's assassination, at the president's residence in Jerusalem on November 3, 2025.

WATCH: President Herzog hosts ceremony commemorating 31 years since Rabin's assassination

At 3 p.m., Herzog is scheduled to deliver remarks at the state memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin and his wife, Leah, at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

|BySHIR PERETS
In April 2004, about nine years after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, an emotional official ceremony took place in the heart of Berlin to commemorate Israel’s fifth prime minister. Yitzhak-Rabin-Straße.

Showing some respect: Places around the world named after famous Israelis

At a time when the word "Israel" evokes controversy and extreme hostility in many places, it is moving to recall eras and locations where Israelis were actually a source of admiration.

|ByEYAL SHAPIRA

Elephant diplomacy: Ambassador marks mark 72 years of Thai-Israeli relations with zoo visit

“The Thai elephant is very important, they are in the heart of Thai people. They are the symbols of living diplomacy, the good relations between Thailand and Israel,” Vichienpuntu said.

JUNE 7, 2026BySAM HALPERN, MATHILDA HELLER
Thai ambassador to Israel, Boonyarit Vichienpuntu, in front of the elephants at Jerusalem’s Tisch Family Zoological Gardens. June 4, 2026.

Can the Oslo Accords model still deliver peace after October 7? - opinion

Three decades after Oslo, regional turmoil, terrorism, and international pressure challenge its negotiation-based model.

JUNE 6, 2026ByALAN BAKER
THE 1993 OSLO Accords between Israel and the PLO were signed in Washington, with a beaming president Bill Clinton presiding over the White House ceremony

30 years after Netanyahu’s victory in 1996: How the comeback marvel changed Israel - opinion

Netanyahu’s victory in 1996 remains one of the greatest political comebacks in Israel.

MAY 28, 2026ByEITAN LASRI
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits with his arm around his wife Sara as she accompanies her husband on the podium during Netanyahu's election victory ceremony, on June 2, 1996.

Middle Israel: How Likud’s primaries poisoned Israeli politics - opinion

The 18-year fencing match between Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin came to a sudden end, thanks to an invention Israel had never seen: primary elections. 

MAY 15, 2026ByAMOTZ ASA-EL
A LIKUD supporter waves the party’s flag at a gathering, a show of grassroots loyalty which has long defined the movement, even as critics say its primaries have reshaped, and at times distorted, who rises within its ranks.

Israel's new death penalty law marks moral break, sparks discrimination fears, expert says

For Prof. Yoram Rabin, a criminal and constitutional law scholar and president of the College of Management Academic Studies, the law is both a moral rupture and a legally vulnerable one.

MARCH 31, 2026BySARAH BEN-NUN
A VOTE on the death penalty for terrorists who murder Israeli civilians at the auditorium in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, March 30, 2026.

Jerusalem commemorates the ‘Egoz’ shipwreck disaster, 65 years later

This is the tragic story of 44 illegal immigrants – men, women, and children – who set out from Morocco to Israel in 1961 and met their deaths at sea.

JANUARY 24, 2026ByAVI NACHMANI
Memorial to the victims on board the immigrants ship ‘Egoz,’ on Mount Herzl.

Palestinians must renounce culture of deception for real peace with Israel - opinion

The Oslo Accords taught Israel a painful lesson: peace is not secured through documents alone. It is measured through sincerity, education, and genuine shifts in worldview. 

DECEMBER 27, 2025ByDAVID BEN-BASAT
THE FAMOUS handshake: Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin seals the deal with PLO leader Yasser Arafat as US president Bill Clinton admires his handiwork, at the White House upon the signing of the Oslo Accords, Sept. 13, 1993.

Rabin’s legacy matters more than ever, our amnesia is putting us at risk - opinion

After Rabin’s death, American Jews needed an Israel they could rally behind. A day of mourning for a fractured nation didn’t fit the narrative.

NOVEMBER 24, 2025ByBARAK SELLA
THEN-PRIME MINISTER Shimon Peres addresses a memorial event for slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin while standing under a giant portrait of Rabin, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, December 1995. Within two years, the commemorations were gone, says the writer.

Grapevine: Yitzhak Rabin: An appreciation

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

NOVEMBER 8, 2025ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
Portrait of Yitzhak Rabin

Grapevine, November 7, 2025: A nurse with a difference

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

NOVEMBER 7, 2025ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
Natan Datner with Yona Elian.