Author Dan Ephron, whose new book documents the events that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the assassination’s aftermath, was APN’s guest on a briefing call on November 2, 2015.

In Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, Ephron tells the parallel stories of Rabin and his assassin, Yigal Amir, during the two years leading up to the murder, and sets the scene to the two decades that followed.

Ephron is an award-winning writer, who has served as the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek and the Daily Beast, and now lives in New York City.

Rejecting any claim that settlements play a part in the current violence, Netanyahu has adopted data showing he's built less than his predecessors. But don't believe the statistics.

This past Saturday, October 31st, Peace Now and other groups organized a rally in honor of the memory of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Attended by more than 100,000 Israelis, the rally was held in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv where the late PM was assassinated by a right-wing extremist.

Speakers included US President Barack Obama on a pre-recorded video feed and former President Bill Clinton, who attended the rally.

President Clinton, who considered Rabin a personal friend, and coined the phrase shalom chaver (goodbye, friend) immediately following the murder, said: "[Rabin] refused to give up his dream of peace in the face of violence . . . The next step will be determined by whether you decide that Yitzhak Rabin was right, that you have to share the future with your neighbors ... that the risks for peace are not as severe as the risk of walking away from it. Those of us who loved him and love your country are praying that you will make the right decision."

President Obama said: "In these difficult days for Israel, for Palestinians, for the region, Yitzhak's life, his dream, inspire us still." Obama added, "A bullet can take a man's life, but his spirit, his dream of peace, will never die."

Click here  to watch video clips of the remarks by President Obama and former President Clinton.

  Dr. Gail Weigl, APN volunteer and a professor of art history, reviewed Dan Ephron's new book on Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, published on the 20th anniversary of the murder that changed Israel. 

Dan Ephron, Killing A King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel (New York and London, 2015), 257 pages.  $27.95

A heartbreaking chronicle of the circumstances leading to and following from the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Killing A King is a brilliant and comprehensive analysis of the quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and of the ultra-Orthodox opposition to that quest. While the subtitle, The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, might sound grandiose to some, Ephron in fact convincingly proves the case that Rabin’s assassination catalyzed the remaking of an Israel increasingly dominated today by right-wing political and religious extremists. In his telling, even-handed though he may be, they are the primary if not the only villains of the piece.

Washington, DC -- On the 20th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Americans for Peace Now (APN) is joining four other progressive American Jewish organizations to take joint action to honor Rabin’s legacy of peace, security, political pragmatism, democracy, and tolerance.

The groups, Americans for Peace Now, Ameinu, J Street, the New Israel Fund and T’ruah, are today issuing a joint statement vowing to continue on Rabin’s path, to help provide Israelis and Palestinians with hope for the security, freedom and dignity that they so deeply desire and deserve.

In memoriam of the 20th anniversary of the assassination, we believe that uniting progressive Americans in a solemn demand for a peaceful and democratic Israel has never been more necessary.

Please join us for a briefing call on Wednesday, November 4th, at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time) with the leaders of APN, the New Israel Fund, J Street, Ameinu and T’ruah. The call, on the anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, will bring together the five organizations to help unite uniting progressive Americans in a solemn demand for a peaceful and democratic Israel has never been more necessary.

The call will bring together Daniel Sokatch, the CEO of the News Israel Fund, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the President of J Street, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the Executive Director of T’ruah, and Debra DeLee, the President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now.

The call will be moderated by JJ Goldberg of the Forward.

To join the call, RSVP here, and you will receive a call-in number with an individual pin.

The Obama Administration enters its final 14 months in office with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalating into daily bloodshed. This crisis is taking place to a backdrop of a fatally discredited peace process, a political clock ticking down toward American elections, and an international community awaiting direction and leadership from a White House that is providing neither. More broadly, it is taking place to the backdrop of Israeli policies - including settlement expansion, demolitions, and coercive displacements - that disclose an unmistakable drive to implement a one-state outcome, notwithstanding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's continued (if weak and intermittent) rhetorical support for a two-state solution.

It is now self-evident that Israeli-Palestinian peace will not be achieved on President Obama's watch, nor will meaningful progress towards a peace agreement come from another round of negotiations. In this context, the Obama Administration has three options: walking away, playing it safe, or charting a new course.

On the 20^th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Americans for Peace Now is joining four other progressive American Jewish organizations to take joint action to honor Rabin’s legacy of peace, security, political pragmatism, democracy, and tolerance. The five groups, Americans for Peace Now, Ameinu, J Street, the New Israel Fund and Truah, are today jointly issuing the following statement. The heads of the five organizations will discuss the statement, their collaboration and other related issues on a conference call next Wednesday, November 4^th, the yahrzeit of Rabin’s assassination. Further joint action will follow and be announced next Wednesday.

Israel’s Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) last week produced a new video, formatted as a “trailer,” which wars against the bi-national state reality that Israel’s right wing is imposing on the country by its diplomatic intransigence. The video, depicting the brutality that is a bi-product of a bi-national state, is hard to watch, but it does reflect that reality-in-the-making in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

On the eve of the 20^th anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, please join APN for a briefing call on Monday, November 2^nd, at 2:00 pm Eastern Time, with Dan Ephron, the author of a new investigative book on the murder.

In Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, Ephron tells the parallel stories of Rabin and his assassin, Yigal Amir, during the two years leading up p to the murder, and sets the scene to the two decades that followed.

Ephron is an award-winning writer, who has served as the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek and the Daily Beast, and now lives in New York City.

The details of the call are as follows: