Eitan Haber, Rabin’s close aide who told the nation of PM’s death, dies at 80
Eitan Haber, a former journalist and top political aide to slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, died Wednesday afternoon at the age of 80 after battling a serious illness for three years.
Haber was the official who famously issued a tearful announcement of Rabin’s death by assassination on the night of November 4, 1995.
Haber, who first met Rabin when working as a journalist in the Israel Defense Forces, was a regular columnist for the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
In 1985, he was appointed Rabin’s communications adviser when Rabin served as defense minister in the Likud and Labor unity government. Haber stepped down with Rabin in 1990, and returned to be his bureau chief after the Labor election victory in the 1992 election.
Haber was known as a master communicator and wrote many of Rabin’s most memorable speeches, including, notably, his “Soldier of Peace” speech delivered to the US Congress in 1994.
Rabin, who together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, was assassinated by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir on November 4, 1995, at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Haber was tasked with making the government’s official announcement of Rabin’s death that night.
“The government of Israel announces in dismay, in great sadness, and in deep sorrow, the death of prime minister and minister of defense Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an assassin, tonight in Tel Aviv,” Haber said as he emerged from Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid eulogized Haber, saying in a tweet that “the words of Eitan Haber will echo in the history books for eternity: ‘The Israeli government announces with dismay.’”
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“Eitan dedicated his whole life to the fight for Israel’s image. He was a man of words and vision. Israel lost a dear man today,” Lapid wrote.
Haber is survived by two children.