WASHINGTON – Former President Bill Clinton spoke to a packed audience at Brookings Institute on Thursday and called for an end to ongoing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Commenting on the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, Clinton noted, “This is a very old story. It’s as old as the Holy Land, and much older. Ever since people encountered the other. It is a very old story. And it always comes down to two things — are we going to live in an us-and-them world, or a world that we live in together?”

The 43rd President delivered his first public address yesterday since Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential elections. He also cautioned about the dangers of heightened nationalism. “People who claim to want the nation-state are actually trying to have a pan-national movement to institutionalize separatism and division within national borders all over the world,” he asserted. “It’s like we’re all having an identity crisis at once. It is the inevitable consequence of the economic and social changes which have occurred at an increasingly rapid pace,” Clinton added.

Clinton spoke at a Brookings event introducing the new biography written by Itamar Rabinovich “Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman”

The former President became emotional as he revealed his great affection for Rabin. “I loved him very much. And I miss him still,” he explained. Clinton added that the Israeli premier’s tragic death was the worst moment for him while serving in the White House.

Wowed by Rabin’s commitment to peace, the Arkansas native added that Yasser Arafat, former President of the Palestinian Authority was in “awe” of the Israeli leader. He emphasized, “I remain convinced that had he lived we would have achieved a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians by 1998 and we’d be living in a different world today.”

The former US President delivered a deeply personal eulogy at Rabin’s funeral with the famous words “Shalom Chaver.”

While not mentioning the name Donald Trump, Clinton appeared to take a veiled jab at the current president. “We have to find a way to bring simple, personal decency and trust back to our politics,” he urged.