Rabin

A year and a half ago, former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to the Mideast peace process. Six months later, his life was commemorated by his granddaughter, Noa Rabin, in In the Name of Sorrow and Hope. Now, Rabin's widow reflects on her husband's life, his legacy and their 48 years together in this engrossing biography. She recalls his career as a military leader and statesman, providing details of the 1967 Six-Day War that made Rabin a military hero, and his tenure as Israeli ambassador to the U.S. as well as his defeats and victories within Israel's Labor party. The Rabins, who shared a lifelong commitment to Israel's defense, met in 1943, when she was a 15-year-old school girl and he was a 21-year-old soldier in the elite military unit, the Palmach. Although Mrs. Rabin touches only briefly on her children or on family events, and provides little insight into her husband's private thoughts, she fully details his long career, punctuating the account with her sharply remembered opinions and anecdotes. Of great interest is her perspective on the power struggle between Rabin and Shimon Peres (whom Mrs. Rabin clearly dislikes) and her candid opinions on world leaders she has met. In her last chapter, which uses diary entries and meditations on current events to describe her life and that of her country since Yitzhak Rabin's death, Leah Rabin promises that she will continue to speak out: ""I feel an acute responsibility to carry his message forward.... I am here to remind you of him."" Photos not seen by PW. BOMC alternate. (Apr.)