Yitzhak

Paris.--THE CONFIDENCE Israel's Yitzhak Shamir expressed after meeting George Bush last week was a whistle in the dark. Things could scarcely be worse for Israel. They are worse, perhaps, than even Mr. Shamir understands.First is the threat from Saddam Hussein, which the Mr. Shamir understands very well. Americans debate whether Iraq's threat to them is such as to justify war. For Israel no doubt exists. If Mr. Hussein survives his confrontation with the U.N. and the United States, he provides the biggest external threat to Israel's existence the Jewish state has yet confronted.

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin warned yesterday that if the Palestine Liberation Organization reopened negotiations on a package of compromises, everything would be on the table and previous Israeli concessions would be withdrawn.Mr. Rabin said that a PLO rejection of the package worked out during intensive talks this week in Cairo, Egypt, would return the negotiations to their starting point."As long as there is no approval from [PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia] . . . for the paper, which we view as a summing-up [of agreements]

Jerusalem -- BUSH administration officials are to be forgiven if they are, at least at this moment regarding the Arab states, adopting a modest "We told you so" attitude toward their cynics in the aftermath of the gulf war. But they also ought to take with extraordinary seriousness the other attitude in the Mideast equation -- the "We told you: No!" of Yitzhak Shamir's Israel.For there is certainly a "new world order" trend revealing itself in the Arab world, with Syrian, Egyptian and other Arab promises to end the long-standing Arab boycott of Israel in exchange for an end to expansion of the Israeli settlements.

TEL AVIV, Israel - Kathleen Kennedy Townsend ended a two-week trip to a tense and anxious Israel yesterday with a tribute to the slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, whom she likened to her assassinated father as a leader who inspired courage in his citizens. Defying the U.S. State Department's travel warnings to the public, Maryland's lieutenant governor came here with her husband and three of her four daughters for a family vacation followed by a series of official meetings, where she was joined by a group of Baltimore and Washington-area Jewish leaders.

The government of Israel has entered into a pact with "terrorists and murderers" to maintain political power at any price, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said in Baltimore last night."

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Last week, back when the world was still simple, 17-year-old Shoul Zoalis confronted the ancient problems his young nation with a laugh and a song, admittedly "getting a little bit stupid" from time to time.He and his friends were for peace, and so was their prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, so they gathered by the tens of thousands on Saturday to celebrate in Kings of Israel Square. Before the night was over Mr. Rabin was assassinated by one of his countrymen, and the world according to Shoul Zoalis changed forever.

Baltimore's Jewish community gathered last night at several vigils to reflect, pray and denounce the violence that took the life of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was buried earlier in the day.At the Chizuk Amuno Congregation in Baltimore County, a night that was to be a fund-raiser for the Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore was turned into "A Gathering for Peace." Actor Richard Dreyfuss, who was to be the keynote speaker for the fund-raiser, reflected on Mr. Rabin, whom he had met on several occasions.

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Yigal Amir told an Israeli court yesterday that he had murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin because, "the minute a Jew gives his people and land over to the enemy one must kill him."Also, authorities said that Mr. Amir's 27-year-old brother, Hagai, may have provided the gun and manufactured a custom-made "dum-dum" bullet that would inflict a more severe injury than a regular round."He [Hagai Amir] took a bullet, drilled a hole in it and turned it into a lethal bullet which causes far more damage than a regular one," a police officer told Magistrate Court Judge Dan Arbel yesterday, in describing the way the assassin's brother built a hollow-body bullet, which expands on impact, making it especially destructive.

When artist Helene Aylon wrote and addressed a letter to "Leah Rabin, Israel," she had no idea if it would even get to her, or if the widow of the assassinated Israeli prime minister would respond.It did, and she did.Which is why they met in Owings Mills yesterday, where Rabin accepted Aylon's invitation to view one of her artworks, included in the ongoing "Too Jewish?" exhibit. Aylon was moved to dedicate her piece, a walk-through installation that comments on the Torah, to Rabin's husband after he was slain in November 1995.

JERUSALEM -- Yitzhak Rabin's last breakthrough for peace came at his burial yesterday, when world leaders flocked to Israel as they never have before. Representatives of six Arab countries along with leaders fromer of Zionism, and their presence there acknowledged the changed stature of the Israel Mr. Rabin helped shape.A siren raised its voice in a single, insistent note as Mr. Rabin's plain pine coffin arrived at the cemetery. The mournful wail echoed over the Jerusalem Peace Forest, and was repeated throughout Israel as the country stood still in mourning.