The Middle East has lost a passionate advocate of peace. Ms. Leah Rabin, the widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, died of cancer this week at the age of 72. For some, Ms. Rabin was a meddlesome, divisive figure. For many more, she was a tireless campaigner for peace and friendship among Israelis and Arabs, a woman who suffered the most horrific personal tragedy yet emerged even more committed to her cause. Now more than ever, the Middle East needs voices like Ms. Rabin's.
More than 200 people, the overwhelming majority of them Palestinians, have been killed in the two months of fighting that have convulsed Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Summits, ceasefires and attempts at international mediation have failed to restore order. Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders seem to be talking past each other, focusing their fight on a second front -- the court of international opinion. The continuing violence suggests that no one is winning; the mounting death toll reveals that all are losing.
Ms. Rabin's death comes as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians enters a new phase. Rocks have given way to random shootings as Palestinians now target Israeli civilians. Israel has responded with its own attacks on individual Palestinian leaders, and stepped up the blockade of Palestinian territory, making a grim economic situation even worse. Although human-rights groups have condemned the Israeli government for the excessive use of force, Israel's prime minister, Mr. Ehud Barak, considers his policy a restrained response, and has repeated his desire to return to the peace process. That is becoming more difficult. Israelis are pressing the prime minister to respond in kind to escalating violence by Palestinians.