Noa Ben Artzi-Pelossof

The granddaughter of the late Yitzchak Rabin wrote a book that was very sweet and sad. She was 19 years old and in the Israeli Defense Force when she wrote this remembrance of her grandfather, then Prime Minister of Israel.

I’d been putting off reading this book because I knew I’d feel downhearted after reading it. It brought back the memory of the shock I felt when I learned that Yitzchak Rabin had been assassinated.

Noa’s book told of her grandfather from a personal viewpoint. She spent much time in the company of her grandfather and grandmother so Rabin's unanticipated and tragic death came as a terrible blow to this young woman. Nevertheless, Noa told with clarity what it was to be a young woman growing up in Israel two generations after her grandfather. She had not been around to remember the birth of Israel nor had she taken the Holocaust so seriously, never having known a family member who’d been a victim of Nazi murder.

She, like most young people, wanted to live happily and free from wars and terror. Her hope was that her grandfather’s dream would come to fruition. Although I love Israel very much, it was exactly the death of Rabin that killed my following of Israeli politics. From that time on, I’ve been a cynic and continue to feel that some things just never change. I still don’t see the peace that was to come. However, Noa never lost hope that peace could actually come about. She wanted peace to be the lasting legacy to her grandfather. Who knows? Perhaps one day that dream might , in fact, happen.… (more)