Ex-Senior Israeli Official Holds Netanyahu Responsible for Rabin’s Assassination

PM Naftali Bennett delivers a speech at the memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem on Monday, October 18, 2021. (Reuters)
PM Naftali Bennett delivers a speech at the memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem on Monday, October 18, 2021. (Reuters)
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Ex-Senior Israeli Official Holds Netanyahu Responsible for Rabin’s Assassination

PM Naftali Bennett delivers a speech at the memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem on Monday, October 18, 2021. (Reuters)
PM Naftali Bennett delivers a speech at the memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem on Monday, October 18, 2021. (Reuters)

A former senior Israeli government official has held ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the assassination of his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin.

The official investigation committee formed after the assassination addressed negligence in Rabin’s security but did not investigate what paved the way for this crime, the official stressed.

Shimon Sheves, former general director and chief of staff during Rabin's time in office, said Israel’s premiers still face the risk of being assassinated.

“If those who created the atmosphere for the assassination are not held accountable, then the next target is inevitable.” He underscored incitement against the current PM, Naftali Bennett, and the alternative PM, Yair Lapid, that could most probably lead to their assassination.

“Netanyahu refused to accuse Rabin of treason, but he did nothing to stop the bloody incitement,” Sheves said, in response to a question about the reason for accusing Netanyahu of being responsible for the assassination, knowing that he repeatedly told his audience that Rabin should not be accused of treason.

Netanyahu also participated in festivals and demonstrations where slogans accusing Rabin of treason were raised.

Protesters raised pictures showing Rabin putting Yasser Arafat’s “keffiyeh” and wearing the uniform of an officer in Germany’s Nazi because he signed the Oslo Accords, Sheves explained, accusing Netanyahu of listening willingly to the campaigns of incitement against Rabin.

He also blamed Rabin’s companion and his deputy at the time, Shimon Peres, who became interim prime minister, for covering up the incitement issue. According to Sheves, Peres was afraid of expanding the scope of the investigation and was occupied by the early elections held then.

Therefore, Rabin’s right was lost, along with Israel’s opportunity to hold accountable those responsible for spreading an atmosphere of division and hatred that paved the way for the assassination, he noted.

Memorial events were held Monday in Israel to mark 26 years since Rabin’s assassination.

Bennett and other top Israeli officials attended the official ceremony at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl national cemetery, except for Netanyahu.

Rabin’s family has accused Netanyahu of playing a part in public incitement against Rabin before his death. Netanyahu has regularly rejected the allegations.

Rabin was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv’s Kings Square in 1995. He was reportedly shot in the arm and back by the extremist far-right activist Yigal Amir, who said he had no regrets.



Netanyahu Survives Opposition Bid to Dissolve Parliament

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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Netanyahu Survives Opposition Bid to Dissolve Parliament

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government survived an opposition bid to dissolve parliament on Thursday, as lawmakers rejected a bill that could have paved the way for snap elections.

Out of the Knesset's 120 members, 61 voted against the proposal, with 53 in favor.

The opposition had introduced the bill hoping to force elections with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties in the governing coalition angry at Netanyahu over the contentious issue of exemptions from military service for their community.

While the opposition is composed mainly of centrist and leftist groups, ultra-Orthodox parties that are propping up Netanyahu's government had earlier threatened to back the motion.

The results of the vote Thursday morning, however, showed that most ultra-Orthodox lawmakers ultimately did not back the opposition bill, with just a small number voting in favor.

The opposition will now have to wait six months before it can try again.

Before the vote, Yuli Edelstein, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, announced that after lengthy discussions, parties had agreed on the "principles on which the draft conscription law will be based".

Edelstein, who chairs the foreign affairs and defense committee, did not specify the terms of the agreement.

"As I said all along -- only a real, effective bill that leads to an expansion of the (Israeli military's) recruitment base will emerge from the committee I chair," he wrote on social media platform X.

"This is historic news, and we are on the path to real reform in Israeli society and strengthening the security of the State of Israel."

Edelstein had earlier put forward a bill aimed at increasing the number of ultra-Orthodox conscripted, and tightening the penalties for those who refuse to serve.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, said the government was seeing the beginning of the end.

"When coalitions begin to fall apart, they fall apart. It started and this is what it looks like when a government begins to collapse," he said.

Ultra-Orthodox parties had been given a choice between losing a law on their exemption from military service, or losing their place in the government, and they chose exemption, Lapid added.

"The government helped them... organize the exemption of tens of thousands of healthy young people," he said, referring to ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi hit back, saying the coalition government was "moving forward" and "stronger than ever".

Earlier on Wednesday, opposition leaders had said their decision to bring the dissolution bill to the Knesset for a vote was "made unanimously and is binding on all factions".

They said that all opposition parties would freeze their lawmaking activities to focus on "the overthrow of the government".

Netanyahu's coalition is one of the most right-wing in the country's history. It includes two ultra-Orthodox parties -- Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ).

The two parties had threatened to back the motion for early elections.

'Existential danger'

Military service is mandatory in Israel but, under a ruling that dates back to the country's creation when the ultra-Orthodox were a very small community, men who devote themselves full-time to the study of Jewish scripture are given a de facto pass.

Whether that should change has been a long-running issue.

Efforts to scrap the exemption have intensified during the nearly 20-month war in Gaza as the military looks for extra manpower.

Netanyahu is under pressure from his Likud party to draft more ultra-Orthodox men -- a red line for parties such as Shas, who demand a law guaranteeing their constituents permanent exemption from military service.

Ahead of the vote in the early hours of Thursday morning, Israeli media reported that officials from Netanyahu's coalition were holding talks with ultra-Orthodox leaders hoping to find common ground.

In an apparent bid to allow time for those negotiations, Netanyahu's coalition filled the Knesset's agenda with bills to delay the vote.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that bringing down the government during wartime would pose "an existential danger" to Israel's future.

"History will not forgive anyone who drags the state of Israel into elections during a war," Smotrich told parliament, adding that there was a "national and security need" for ultra-Orthodox to fight in the military.

Netanyahu's government is a coalition between his Likud party, far-right groups and ultra-Orthodox parties, whose departure would leave it without a parliamentary majority.