Story highlights Clinton spoke at the Brookings Institution in Washington Thursday

He said Rabin's assassination was one of the worst days of his presidency

Washington (CNN) Former President Bill Clinton said Thursday that the rise of nationalism worldwide over the last five years mimics the strife inside Israel that eventually led to the death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Clinton, speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Rabin's assassination was one of the worst days of his presidency and suggested that the conflict between left and right in Israel that led to Rabin's death was a "microcosm" of the rise of nationalism.

"This is a global deal. It is like we are all having an identity crisis at once," Clinton said about nationalism in Europe, the United States and Asia. "What happened 20 years ago is a microcosm of what is coming full bloom today. And these things are going to need to be worked out."

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Nationalism has been on the rise worldwide. In what has been dubbed Brexit, voters in the United Kingdom in 2016 backed leaving the European Union and a number of nationalist leaders have either risen to power or are polling well in coming elections.

Clinton didn't specifically mention President Donald Trump, who bested his wife, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 election. Steve Bannon, Trump's top strategist, said Trump used an "economic nationalist agenda" to win.

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