Yitzhak Rabin

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Israeli military man and politician; served as the Israeli army Chief of Staff 1963-68; Ambassador to Washington 1969-'72; and Prime Minister 1974-'77, filling the vacuum of Golda Meir's resignation. Primarily in political exile for the next 15 years, from 1984-'90 he was defense minister in the Labor-Likud coalition government until re-elected P.M. in 1992. In 1993, his handshake with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shook the world and marked a major turning point for peace in the Middle East. He later shared in the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in signing the accord which became the blueprint for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Coldly analytical, a stubborn pragmatic, he was known as tactless, blunt and cutting. Most of his first 45 years were spent in the military, in the underground from 1941. He was a Brigade commander by 1948 and Chief of Staff in the Six-Day War of 1967. He had trouble shaking the stigma of that time with allegations that he had a drinking problem and a nervous breakdown just before the Six-Day War. He said that his collapse was from exhaustion. On the night of 11/04/1995, he spoke at a rally in Tel Aviv. At 9:40 PM, a right-wing Israeli, Yigal Amir, 27, fired three bullets at close range as Rabin was about to get into his limo. The car raced to the hospital. At 11:05 PM, Israel radio reported his condition as very serious and five minutes later, he died on the operating table. Link to Wikipedia biography