CRI听力:100,000 Commemorate Rabin,Wishing for Peace

"I, Military I.D. No. 30743, consider myself to be a soldier in the army of peace today. Today we are embarking on a battle which has no dead and no wounded, no blood and no anguish. This is the only battle which is a pleasure to wage: the battle for peace."

Over 20 years ago, then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declaring his determination to achieve peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The Oslo Accords, which Rabin finalized with the Palestine Liberation Organization Chair Yasser Arafat, heralded in the 1990s as steps toward enduring peace.

However, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist on November 4, 1995, during a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

20 years later, some 100-thousand people have gathered at the site where Rabin was assassinated to remember the beloved leader at a time when tensions have been mounting for over a month in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"He was a very positive person. He knew what he's doing. He has done all his life for our state. We are now in a very difficult situation, and he was one that fought for peace. If we won't remember him and go further with his policy, it will be very bad for us."

Since the start of October, a series of attacks have brought the Israeli death toll to 10, while nearly 70 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces.

Among those who have attended the rally for Rabin are Israeli Arabs, who attended the rally, despite the current tensions.

"I'm not coming out of house as I used to, because our parents are not allowing us to go anywhere because of the attacks, the situation between us and the Jewish. We are here for Yitzhak Rabin that wanted to make peace between us and the Israelis. We just wish for the peace. We want the peace. We need the peace. We hope for the peace. We have the hope."

Former US President Bill Clinton, who helped broker the Oslo Accords, spoke at the rally, urging Israelis to continue with the legacy of Rabin and pursue the goal of peace with the Palestinians.

"All of you now must decide how to finish his legacy, for the last chapter must be written by the people he gave his life to save and to nourish. The next step will be determined by whether you decide that Rabin was right, that you have to share the future with your neighbors, that you have to give their children a chance too, that you have to stand for peace, that the risks of peace are not as severe as the risks of walking away from it."

Addressing the rally in a video message, US President Barack Obama says peace is necessary, just, and possible.

"Peace is necessary, because it's the only way to ensure true and lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians. Peace is just, the Jewish people have the right to live in their homeland, and Palestinians have the right to be a free people in their own land. And peace is possible, if both parties are willing to truly compromise and take risks for the only real solution - two states for two people, a democratic Jewish state living side by side in peace and security with a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state."

For CRI, I'm Zhao Jianfu.