SILENT NO MORE?

Ending the formal seven-day mourning period, Leah Rabin on Sunday night gently rebuked her countrymen in a speech at the same square where her husband was cut down on November 4. "They left you alone in the turret," she told a crowd estimated at over 250,000, as if addressing her husband. "The writing was on the wall and they were silent. It is impossible and forbidden to remain silent anymore. Let the sane, just voice be heard. The silent majority will be silent no more." What was remarkable about the huge gathering on the square now named Kikar Yitzhak Rabin, says McGeary, was that Leah Rabin was the only person who gave a speech. "And she changed her theme. She did not talk at all about the right wing Israelis, whom she had earlier accused of fomenting a climate that got her husband killed. Her message on Sunday positive, asking those who had been silent to speak up." Also, says McGeary, Rabin's widow specifically forgave the security agents protecting her husband that night. "She said they weren't to blame. It was, overall, a very effective talk."