Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was opposition leader when then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered 25 years ago, defended his behavior back then in a memorial session for Rabin at the Knesset on Thursday.Netanyahu reminded the MKs that at the time, he said not to call Rabin a traitor but to criticize him for policies of giving land in the Oslo diplomatic process and for calling terror victims “sacrifices for peace.” “I had an obligation to express my opposition to Rabin,” Netanyahu said. Netanyahu accused the press back then and now for presenting only one side. He warned against silencing political rivals. “Accusing rivals of incitement to murder is undemocratic,” he said. Meretz MKs Tamar Zandberg and Yair Golan immediately heckled Netanyahu, accusing him of inciting to murder Rabin ahead of his assassination.Economy Minister Amir Peretz, who has Rabin’s former post of Labor Party chairman, appeared to agree with the Meretz MKs, when he said that the hate of Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, was fed to him by “sources of authority.”Opposition leader Yair Lapid told the Knesset that part of Rabin’s legacy is leadership telling the truth, keeping promises and remaining strong under pressure and said such leadership is missing in the Israeli government now. Lapid said Oslo was a flawed process but it was a better alternative than doing nothing, which he said is the policy of the current government on the Palestinian issue.Netanyahu said he is currently being threatened and threats against him were not being criticized. Source
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