The public, complain the organizers of Yitzhak Rabin memorial rally, no longer comes to this event. The right has won and democracy is under threat, lament those who kept the crowds away from the square.

But the right has not won at all. The work of the left is being done, particularly since Rabin’s assassination, by the right. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, bete noire of the left, is actually passing Rabin on the left: He is willing to withdraw to the 1967 borders and even concede territories inside the Green Line, in exchange for settlement blocs.

But the Palestinians and their Israeli supporters are still not satisfied, and are liable to extort from Netanyahu what they never would have gotten out of Rabin and the historical Zionist left. The left was conquered by people possessing neither vision nor purpose, who adopted the deceptive rhetoric of the extreme left, tore away the Labor camp’s identity and deep sense of mission and led it to the edge of the abyss.

Rabin Square is not empty because of public apathy. The public simply no longer wants to listen (at an “official” rally, organized by state and municipal funding ) to incitement from performers, politicians, writers and “intellectuals.” It is sick and tired of the glorification of the Oslo Accords, which are covered in the blood of thousands of Jews and Arabs. And it is outraged when the speakers at these rallies accuse Israel of spilling that blood.

If the public’s belief in peace has flagged, this is mainly the fault of the architects of Oslo (who in effect set the agenda of the rallies ); of those who cling to Rabin and his “legacy” to renounce personal responsibility for the most catastrophic error in the history of the state – much greater, and more serious, than the Yom Kippur War.

The public woke up. It sensed that the rallies were being manipulated for the purposes of incitement and political propaganda. That – and not the (nonexistent ) shift to the right – is the reason for the growing trivialization of the country’s worst social-moral-political disaster.

As far as I understand, and from my acquaintance with some of the figures involved, those responsible for this outcome were fully aware of the consequences of their actions from the start. But because their principal interest is not the “Rabin legacy” but rather absolving themselves of responsibility for the Oslo debacle, they persist in fanning the flames of hatred and pointing fingers. Even the recent spate of murders in Lod, former Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On charged yesterday, resulted from the assassination in the square 15 years ago.

They have nothing new to say, and when they speak of “peace” it is merely a tired cliche. Their concern for the future of democracy, too, is fake and unconvincing.

When it comes to the big issues, the ones that will truly determine the future of the Jewish people in its land, the left does not follow in Rabin’s footsteps at all. Were the teachings of the Rabin legacy comprehensive and faithful to the truth, tracing the significant stages of his life – the youth movement and its Zionist-pioneer values, the Kadoorie Agricultural School, the Palmach, the Israel Defense Forces and the settlement enterprise (in the army, as defense minister and as prime minister, Rabin was a founding father of settling Gush Katif, the Golan Heights and extensive areas of Judea and Samaria ) – a common denominator could be forged between him and many groups within society. Today these groups are alienated from his genuine heritage, thanks to a version of his “legacy” that is imaginary and divorced from his founding beliefs – themselves a subject of consensus – being crammed down their throats.

Many activists, and certainly a large portion of the general public, genuinely mourn Rabin’s death and also believe that if not for his assassination there would be peace today. But these people have no influence on the manner in which he is commemorated, the promotion of “the legacy” or the content of the rallies. A significant number of those involved in such activities are cynics or opportunists, seekers of fame or fortune, as evidenced in the 2010 film “Dor Shalem Darash Shalom.”

Had these people – some of whom are prominent in advertising and PR – genuinely wanted to educate toward nonviolence and political tolerance, they should have worked to bring the camps together, not deepen the rifts; to promote genuine historic reconciliation among Jews, and not just between Jews and Palestinians. The latter is their primary interest.

Without reconciliation between brothers, there can be no reconciliation with rivals. But they intentionally chose to deepen the rifts. And they who sow hatred shall reap the whirlwind.