1977 – As an Opposition Parliamentarian
Following the Knesset elections held on May 17, 1977, it became clear that the Labor Party had been removed from power. For the first time, the Likud, headed by Menahem Begin, was charged with assembling the government. The Labor Party moved to the benches of the opposition. As a Member of Knesset (MK), Rabin was amazed by Sadat’s visit to Israel. Despite his reservations regarding the clauses relating to the withdrawal of settlements from the Sinai, he supported the peace treaty with Egypt in the Knesset.
In 1979 he published his memoirs, “The Rabin Memoirs” (in Hebrew, the book was titled “Pinkas Sherut”), in which he summarized his pathway in the military and settled accounts with his political adversaries of the day, particularly Shimon Peres. In a small office in the Defense Ministry offices in Tel Aviv, which was allocated to him as a former prime minister, he spent time writing for newspapers, meeting with old friends, and breathing life into his faction and supporters in the party.
Once more active in party politics, he threw his support behind Yigal Allon, the Labor Party candidate for prime minister, in advance of the general elections scheduled for June 1981. However, Allon’s sudden passing in February 1980 led him to declare his candidacy. While Peres won the party’s nomination, the Likud won the elections. While Peres won the party’s nomination, the Likud won the elections.
On June 6, 1982, Operation Peace in Galilee began to protect the communities of the north. Rabin supported its initial phases; however, as the war continued and its objectives expanded, he warned against the IDF becoming mired in the Lebanese “mud.” He demanded the army’s withdrawal to a security zone from which it could defend Israel’s northern border.
