TIME Magazine

December 4, 1995 Volume 146, No. 23

LETTERS

DEATH OF A PEACEMAKER

"A great man with an even greater dream has been taken away from us. Let us hope Yitzhak Rabin's vision of peace lives on and succeeds." YUVAL SHAMIR Los Angeles IN WAR, PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN was a genius soldier [Nov. 13]. In diplomacy, he was an honorable peacemaker. His untimely demise is a loss not to the world alone but to all humanity. His death shows that peace is worth dying for if it will allow people to coexist in harmony, free from war. DANNY G. ABUCEJO Cerritos, California

COUNTLESS LIVES HAVE BEEN SACRIFICED on battlefields to win a war, but rare and precious is the individual who dies waging peace. Because of Rabin and a few souls like him, Israel should be hopeful that it can still win peace for mankind. KATHRYN WRIGHT Grenoble, France Via E-mail

HAVING A RELIGIOUS JEW ASSASSINATE MY Prime Minister was my worst nightmare. It's clear to me that although the holiness of the land of Israel has an important value, it certainly does not outweigh the importance of Jewish unity or of the Commandment that states "Thou shalt not kill." I am a right-wing, religious Jewish Israeli, and though I represent only my personal views, I think they are shared by many others. I oppose the Oslo accords (which expand Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank) for a simple but major reason: Israel is severely compromising the personal security of many of its citizens and also, perhaps, military security. In return, the Palestinians are holding firm to their desire to push the Jews into the sea. I implore Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres to honor the Bible and refuse to sign future Oslo agreements until the Palestinians change their position. DEBORAH WUNSCH BACH Haifa, Israel Via E-mail

THE MURDER OF RABIN AS AN ATTEMPT TO stop the peace process in the Middle East will have the exact opposite effect. It will bring together the world's nations in condemnation of this senseless act and strengthen the will of their leaders to bring peace to the region. FRED E. REYNOSO Mexico City Via E-mail

RABIN'S ASSASSINATION WAS A VIOLENT crime that all must deplore. By the same measure, however, we must not lose our sense of fairness and responsibility. As much as we condemn Rabin's assassination, there should be no dilution of our indictment of the policies of the current Israeli government.

We are not responsible for the extremist rhetoric on both sides of the political spectrum. If rhetoric of this sort provoked this deed of violence, similar rhetoric or even coolly calculated policies are equally responsible for neglecting and weakening the security of many Jews in Gaza and elsewhere. Despite Rabin's apparent sincerity in believing the Oslo accords to be Israel's long-awaited chance to establish a lasting peace with its Arab population and neighbors, we have not only seen the potential dangers of this position but also the actual losses of hundreds of lives as a result. If Rabin's passing is a true tragedy for the entire Jewish people, as indeed it is, so is the loss of every person killed as a result of Arab violence since the start of the negotiations. RABBI SHMUEL M. BUTMAN New York City

RABIN IS GONE, BUT HIS SPIRIT WILL LIVE forever. There is no doubt Peres, as Acting Prime Minister, will double the pace of the peace process and lead Israel and the Middle East to a new era. MICHAELI YITZHAK Haifa, Israel Via E-mail

AS A WAR HERO AND HARD-LINER WHO turned peacemaker, Rabin had a unique credibility within Israel. He may very well turn out to be irreplaceable. Had Peres led his Labor Party in the 1992 elections, it would hardly have resulted in a mandate for Labor, despite the willingness of a majority of Israelis to pursue peace. With elections coming up in 1996 and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu voicing restraint and looking more statesmanlike every day, his opposition party may take over, and the bullets that killed Rabin could kill the peace process. ERIK STEVEN WEISE Bern, Switzerland Via E-mail

THE MIDDLE EAST IS DIVIDED AND YET united. The people of both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, are united in grief. Also united are Rabin's supporters, who believed in his peace policy and longed for an end to the killing in the region. And united are the opponents in this conflict in their efforts to maintain an atmosphere of terror and crush the still weak but growing flower of peace. JAN WOHLGEMUTH Warendorf, Germany

WHY WAS RABIN'S PURSUIT OF PEACE SO hard for a few people to tolerate? Why are their beliefs stronger than their respect for life? And how can those beliefs be of any value when they include the death of another human being? Again the world suffers a terrible loss at the hands of those who hate. ALYCIA SETLIN Saarbrucken, Germany

I WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD WHEN PRESIDENT John F. Kennedy was shot. Within a few years, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were also struck down. Growing up in the shadow of those assassinations was part of what influenced me--a secular Jew reared in a comfortable American suburb--to settle in Israel 20 years ago. I felt I had found a more perfect society in which to rear the children I might one day bear. Today I am the mother of three youngsters, living in an affluent, nonreligious Israeli suburb. Now with the assassination of Rabin, I mourn with the other people of Israel the death of a great statesman. But it is haunting to see my children witness an event so similar to the tragedies of my own childhood. LISA SALTZMAN MISHLI Maccabim, Israel

GROWING UP IN INDIA, WHERE CASTE AND communal tensions always ran deep, to the point of violence, I often marveled at the unity among the Israelis and at their military prowess in a land surrounded by enemies. Israel to me seemed invincible. Today that belief has been undermined. World leaders be warned: the enemy is no longer on the other side of the battle line; he is right behind you. Welcome to the new world order! GAUTHAM VENKATACHALAM Glasgow, Scotland

MAHATMA GANDHI WAS ASSASSINATED BY one of his own countrymen for pursuing the cause of Hindu-Muslim harmony in the aftermath of the partition in India. How could you have omitted his name while mentioning Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Anwar Sadat in your introduction "Soldier of Peace"? MANMOHAN T. LALWANI Bombay, India

THE HISTORY OF THIS CENTURY HAS taught us that there is nothing more threatening than a peacemaker. From Gandhi to King, from Sadat to Rabin, leaders have been killed while pursuing a dream of peace and nonviolence. The only conceivable vengeance against their murderers is to make these martyrs' dreams come true. GUIDO MARIANI Pavia, Italy Via E-mail

QUEBEC'S VOTE OF UNITY

DESPITE WHAT THE QUEBEC SEPARATISTS would have one believe, the truth is 49.4% of Quebeckers who voted oui did not vote for severing ties with Canada [Nov. 13]. That question was not even put to the voters. What they did say oui to was having Quebec try to negotiate a new deal with Canada. Only if the negotiation were unsuccessful should Quebec declare independence. Quebeckers voted for change, not for secession. If those in the separatist regime were not such cowards, they would put a straightforward question of independence on the ballot. That way Quebeckers could make a clear statement of their desires and not be forced to vote oui or non in some enigmatic word game. J. BYRON THOMAS Toronto, Canada

MAYBE THE QUICKEST WAY FOR QUEBEC to gain its independence is for the rest of Canada to vote in a referendum on whether it wants to keep the province as part of the country. ELI SOLEYMAN Geneva, Switzerland

AS A QUEBECKER AND A CANADIAN, I FELT great relief over the results of the referendum on Quebec sovereignty, voting down separation from Canada. We have had two opportunities to vote on this issue. It is time to accept the will of the people and move on as equal partners in a country with enormous potential. ERNEST ACHTELL Colombo, Sri Lanka

COEXISTENCE OF CULTURES

SHAME ON CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER. HIS unsettling and premonitory ending to his Essay "Quebec and the Death of Diversity" [Nov. 13], "America is proceeding blithely down the path of diversity and ethnic separatism ... America's destination is the Balkans," does little except kindle a sense of despair and insecurity. Krauthammer avoids the tough questions: When and how will this happen? Can it be prevented? While he is right in noting that ethnically driven forces have the potential to tear the U.S. asunder, Krauthammer's essay is bereft of viable solutions or practical advice. If he is truly convinced of the inevitability of civil war in the U.S., he should abandon writing his articles and essays. This entire subject requires at least a book-length treatise--urgently. ALEX RIVERO Springfield, Virginia

I CHALLENGE KRAUTHAMMER'S ASSERTION that the issue in Canada is "the coexistence of just two... cultures." The indigenous population of Canada reacted strongly to the October referendum. Both the Cree and Inuit people of Quebec resisted secession and said they would remain part of Canada, even if the referendum succeeded.

The final vote still showed that half the people of Quebec support coexistence. The collective response of Canadians outside Quebec is perhaps also evidence of this cohesion. It is ironic that Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau, a practicing ethnopolitician, should blame the separatist defeat on "money and the ethnic vote." ANDREA GAJDOSIK Erina, Australia

THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE

THANK YOU FOR PRINTING THE SPECIAL section Time Digital on new technology and computers [Nov. 13]. I am a student who is just learning about the wonders of the Internet. Time Digital described people who are experiencing the same confusion that I sometimes feel while trying to find my way through the vast World Wide Web. EMILY GOODE Edmond, Oklahoma Via E-mail

FINALLY SOME PRESCRIPTIVES FOR FACing the challenges in information technology that are sweeping over us. We no longer confront a technical change but a cultural one. As Stephen S. Roach pointed out, "The key to success then is...finding just the right blend of mind and machine...[W]e need a cultural and an educational system that embraces what might be called the sociology of technology tolerance.'' Surprisingly, most of our colleges and universities still don't get it. Lacking a market mechanism, slow-moving schools and universities are representative of outdated socialist-style corporations, much like IBM and the old AT&T. The U.S. is not teaching how to manage change, and our educators are among the last to adapt. GLENN RALSTON Indianapolis, Indiana

GENDER IDENTITY

I TAKE ISSUE WITH YOUR CHOICE OF nesting the article "New Evidence of a 'Gay Gene''' alongside the piece on transsexual men who feel they should have been born women [Nov. 13]. While to many readers such an association of topics may seem logical, this connection merely serves to reinforce misbeliefs and stereotypes. The only common thread tying these two subjects together is that of the misunderstanding and prejudice that equate homosexuality with a man's desire to become a woman. Despite the developments covered in your report on transsexuality, it is considered a psychiatric disorder; homosexuality is not. Gay men are not transsexuals. By linking these two articles, you subtly provide justification for those who wish to view gays in such inaccurate and prejudicial ways. R. GLENN HESSEL, M.D. Chicago Via E-mail