by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

There will be many statements in honor of the recently deceased Leah Rabin. That will be good. From some, including those of high official rank, a simple statement will often do what is required of them on this saddening occasion. From me, to be true to my own nature in this matter, something akin in spirit to what is called a Festschrift, in honor of her memory, were more suitable.

For nearly a century and a half, Western and Central Europe were plunged into something like the 14th-Century New Dark Age, by religious wars. This living nightmare came to a close only with that 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War. Those among us who have studied how that blessed peace came about, give a special place of honor to those, especially from among combatants, who attempted to bring about a peace at the mid-point of that continuing hecatomb, but whose efforts were frustrated. The murdered husband of Leah Rabin was such an heroic figure, and she has earned full honors for her heroic efforts in continuing that same cause after his death.

If peace and justice were to be brought finally to that region of the Middle East, we must never lose sight of the circumstances under which she had lately continued that effort for what to many must have seemed to so many a losing cause. Those in the future who are challenged to walk a similar pathway with such courage and determination as she has shown, must reflect on the example she has set, and wonder whether they, too, might find the strength within themselves to continue the necessary fight for some urgent, but still presently losing cause, a cause which must be ultimately won for the good of all humanity. She is entitled to receive victory at our hands, even after her death, so that others might find in her example, the honor to act with the commitment for which many among us had come to admire her so much.