In November 1995 Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin was shot and killed during a peace rally by a far-right militant, over the 1993 Oslo Accords which founded the Palestinian Authority. What if the shooter misses, or one of Rabin's guards is a little more alert, or Rabin wears a protective vest (there's a story going around that his aides urged him to wear a protective vest before the rally but he refused saying that it's absurd to suggest one of his fellow countrymen would try to kill him)? Both what it means to the Israel-Palestinian peace process and to domestic Israeli politics. The 1996 elections that followed saw the (unexpected) victory of Netanyahu, and of course he didn't go for a two-state solution. I'm wondering though whether a two-state solution could have been reached if Israel maintained a more left-wing government, and I'm not sure what to think. The Oslo Accords were an interim agreement, they didn't actually include solutions to the big issues (refugees, Jerusalem, permanent borders, settlements etc.) but just recognized that both sides will strive for a two-state solution. The thing is, I'm really skeptical that even a government that would really want to go in that direction could achieve a permanent agreement. The Camp David talks in 2000 ended miserably, and that was after Netanyahu was out of office and replaced by Ehud Barak, who was from the same party as Rabin. What do you think?
(yeah I understand it's not easy to talk about this without getting too much into modern-day politics but I'd really to open this issue for discussion)