The Rabin Memoirs.

RABIN, Yitzhak.

Item Number: 86744

Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1979.

First edition in English of the memoirs of Yitzhak Rabin. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “To Dorothy and Ozzie with love Y. Rabin 10.22.79.” The recipients Dorothy and Ozzie Goren were philanthropists deeply involved in the Jewish community, having served as general campaign chair, Federation president and chair and/or board member of innumerable committees, boards and meetings, including many Federation missions to Israel, as well a serving as Chair of the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission for twelve years. Contemporary inscription, near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by John Renfer. Photograph by Magnum photographer Leonard Freed.

Yitzhak Rabin was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Rabin was born in Jerusalem to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants and was raised in a Labor Zionist household. He led a 27-year career as a soldier. As a teenager he joined the Palmach, the commando force of the Yishuv. He eventually rose through its ranks to become its chief of operations during Israel's War of Independence. He joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces in late 1948 and continued to rise as a promising officer. He helped shape the training doctrine of the IDF in the early 1950s, and led the IDF's Operations Directorate from 1959 to 1963. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1964 and oversaw Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Rabin served as Israel's ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973, during a period of deepening U.S.–Israel ties. He was appointed Prime Minister of Israel in 1974, after the resignation of Golda Meir. In his first term, Rabin signed the Sinai Interim Agreement and ordered the Entebbe raid. Rabin was Israel's minister of defense for much of the 1980s, including during the outbreak of the First Intifada. In 1992, Rabin was re-elected as prime minister on a platform embracing the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He signed several historic agreements with the Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with long-time political rival Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Rabin also signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. Rabin's memoirs are important not only for the insider's view they offer about Israel and the Middle East, but also for providing a very human portrait of a heroic world leader.