Recent Reading: Killing a King

I suspect most people outside of Israel have never heard of Yigal Amir. However, his assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 changed history and made reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians much less likely. 

Dan Ephron’s book Killing a King: The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel is an in depth look into this event and the people connected to it. It reads like a novel with engaging characters. In addition to Rabin, we learn about Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, as well as names of people far less known to most non-Israelis such as the mysterious Shabak agent Avishai Raviv and Baruch Goldstein. Current security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir even makes a brief appearance.

I noted this line as well:

American journalists … emphasized the role Americans played in the settlement enterprise, not only in Hebron but throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Though settlers made up fewer than 3 percent of Israelis, 10 percent of the settlers were American-born.

Ephron’s book is worth your time.