YITZHAK RABIN
Prime Minister of Israel
1922 - 1995

To find some information on this shocking news I used Lycos search engine. My query was Rabin assassination and Lycos gives several search options such as display 10-40 hits at a time, search from loose to strong match, and display standard, summary or detailed results. Unfortunately, Lycos did not provide updated news (its latest news was form Sep. 23), hence, news on Yitzhak Rabin's assassination on November 4, 1995 was not included.

I decided to use MetaCrawler instead since it exhausts references from other search sites. MetaCrawler gives you the option to search a query by phrase, all words, or any combination of words. In addition, it provides options to search a query by region (the world or continent), and sites (e.g. company, educational. network, government, international, or any search sites). Again, Rabin's assassination was my query and I did not put any constriction on my search because I was eager to learn everything about my prime minister's death.

Twenty references were returned by MetaCrawler and most of them were relatively ancient news that included Rabin's activities while signing peace agreements with the Palestinians and Jordan. Yet, Yahoo Directory did provide the most recent news relating to Yitzhak Rabin's assassination at the peace rally in Tel-Aviv. The Headlines site offered the latest stories about Rabin's assassination such as Rabin Shot at Tel-Aviv Peace Rally; Jewish Suspect Arrested; Shock, Uncertainty, After Rabin Assassination; World Condemn, Mourns Rabin's Assassination; Arab Leaders Flock to Rabin Funeral; etc. I clicked on related Yahoo's links to the latest on Rabin's death and came across the Condolence Page and Biography of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. I was deeply touched by the Condolence Page since it aesthetically captured and symbolized the Jewish mourning by its black background and inscription of white lettering. The Condolence page gave the option to view the Shir HaShalom the Song of Peace which Rabin sang at the peace rally in Tel-Aviv before he was fatally shot. The site also offered a way to express sympathy by signing the Condolences Book which has already reached its fifth volume. The book included thousands of e-mail messages that embody the opinions and emotions of grief-stricken individuals from around the world. In essence, these messages portray that in time of mourning, people crave unity and to share their feelings.

The Condolence Page also offered a link where you could light a candle for the memory of Yitzhak Rabin by simply clicking at Light-a-Candle link. The candle site is full of candle icons and so far thousand of candles were lit (11,254 candles). In the Condolence Page you could also find links to read Rabin's biography and his photo album which included pictures of him singing the Song of Peace at the rally, signing the peace agreement, etc.

It was amazing to see how people put together such a beautiful and emotionally loaded page in such a short time. The Condolence Page exemplifies an excellent medium to communicate not only facts and news but also shared emotions. To Israel, Yitzhak Rabin was a hero of war and peace and at the peace rally in Tel-Aviv he said that Israel should take advantage of ending decades of warfare. He said, "I was a military man for 27 years. I fought as long as there was no chance of peace. I believe that there is now a chance of peace..." Let us continue Yitzhak Rabin legacy; make peace and no war. To his memory here is the Shir HaShalom that he sang moments before his death:

Lyrics: Yaakov Rotblit

Melody: Yair Rosenbloom

Leave a Message for Nitsa Mc Carthy?