4 November

Today’s the day when in 1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv. The gunman was rapidly overpowered and arrested. He was believed to be one of the founders of an illegal Jewish settlement on the West Bank and a member of an extreme right-wing organisation. The rally at which Mr Rabin was shot was attended by about 100,000 Israelis who backed the Rabin government's peace initiatives with the Palestinians.

If you work for peace, whether it’s on an international scale or in your own family or workplace, Jesus says you come under God’s blessing. But in the next breath he warns us that doing what is righteous is no guarantee of popularity. Here are his words from Matthew 5:

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.