In fact, however, Rabin was totally against a withdrawal from Gush Katif. In his last Knesset speech, he said:
'We will not return to the lines of June 4, 1967... The security border will be placed in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest interpretation of this concept... [We will] include Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are east of what was the Green Line... and also... settlement blocs like Gush Katif; would it be there were others like them in Judea and Samaria as well.'
Neither was Rabin in favor of a Palestinian state, and stated clearly his envisioned solution of a 'Palestinian entity that is less than a state.'
It is also interesting to remember that Rabin's reaction to the first "intifada" was far more violent than Sharon's reaction to the second one. It is perhaps unfair to compare the two, but the sainthood that the Left confers on Rabin seems more than a little misplaced, and conversely the concessions that Sharon has made to the Palestinian Arabs seem foolhardy compared to those Rabin may have offered.
At any rate, the consistent labeling of "dove" and "hawk" done incessantly by the media reflects more their perceptions and wishful thinking than the reality.