TEL AVIV, Israel (KRT) – Bill Clinton returned to Israel Saturday to mourn his slain partner in peace, Yitzhak Rabin, and to try to help heal one of his greatest heartbreaks – the fragile truce between Israelis and Palestinians that died with Rabin’s assassination 10 years ago.

“I loved him very much, and I was in awe of his ability to move from being a soldier to being a peacemaker, a politician to a statesman,” said the former president, who had to wipe back tears.

“If he were here, he would say, “There is enough of all this missing. If you really think I lived a good life, if you think I made a noble sacrifice in death, then for goodness sakes take up my work and see it through to the end,”‘ Clinton told the massive rally at the square where the prime minister was killed.

An Israeli extremist gunned down Rabin six weeks after he signed a peace deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Clinton ended his speech by saying, “Shalom, haver,” Hebrew for “Goodbye, friend,” the same words he used to bid farewell to Rabin at the Israeli leader’s funeral.

Security was tight in the city-block-size plaza, with streets sealed for a five-block radius.

Admirers of the former president began gathering hours before he arrived to get a good view.

“Of course we love him. Such a question,” said a 35-year-old Tel Aviv woman named Annat. “We love him so much – he was on our side.”

“We came to hear Bill Clinton, and we wanted to see Bill Clinton,” said Saralena Weinfield, 19, an exchange student from Greenwich Village. “It is nice to see an American president who is still interested in the peace process … and it is even more fitting because he was part of the peace movement with Rabin.”

Across the back of the stage stretched a sign reading “Ten years since the murder” and a 50-foot banner in the crowd said “Peace Now – There is a solution.”

Clinton and Rabin’s peace agreement followed 1993’s Oslo accords, and the historic 1994 deal Clinton brokered with Rabin ending decades of war between Jordan and Israel.

But the final deal with Arafat fell apart soon after Rabin’s murder.

Clinton tried again in 2000 with Prime Minister Ehud Barak, but then Arafat balked, leaving Clinton with one of the greatest disappointments of his presidency.

Arafat made a colossal “blunder” by walking away from a deal, Clinton said.

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(McAuliff reported from Jerusalem, Frankel from Tel Aviv.)

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(c) 2005, New York Daily News.

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AP-NY-11-12-05 1850EST