by Emanuel A. Winston

(Middles East analyst & commentator)

 The assassination conspiracy of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is bubbling up with terrifying questions that can't be answered by limiting the Shamgar Commission's investigation only to the actual shooting by Yigal Amir. By all appearances both the Israeli police and its most secret intelligence service, the GSS, General Secret Service (Shabak) were both used by the Rabin/Peres government for political mischief. This is familiar to Americans as our history reminds us that often the political parties engaged in "dirty tricks", using such agencies as the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), the CIA, FBI and NIS with illegal orders to investigate or harass the opposition.

Those involved in Rabin's assassination will try to protect themselves by suppressing the investigation and destroying evidence. The alleged assassin, Yigal Amir hasn't yet told his version of the Nov.4th events. But, he said after the shooting: "Why are you putting handcuffs on me? I did my job. Now you do yours."

(1) Amir seemed to think he was on some special assignment. In court Dec. 3, Amir shouted to newsmen: "Why don't you investigate the death of Rabin's bodyguard? ...The one who yelled the bullets are blanks." (2) (Note! It was later reported that a GSS agent had committed suicide, or was helped to commit suicide) (3) Amir went on to tell the media he knew enough to "to bring down the whole regime" and "the whole business has been a charade." He also said that he would be forgiven "later when people know the whole story." "I didn't think they would start killing people." (4) Were these the ravings of a man out of control or trying to plead innocent. I think neither, because there seems to be much more to the story than has surfaced to date.

The following are questions the Shamgar Commission ought to ask:

Were the top echelons of the GSS or the police under Minister Moshe Shahal tasked by government superiors to provoke a "staged assassination attempt"?

Who in the Rabin/Peres government had the authority to order such an illegal mission? (Recall that after Avishai Raviv, the GSS agent used by Shabak as an Agent Provacateur, (5) took control of a organization called Eyal and he manipulated its few members to provoke violence during demonstrations. He even reportedly challenged Yigal Amir to kill Rabin.(6) Raviv was a Shabak agent perhaps as long ago as 1987. Shabak reported directly to Rabin as Prime Minister.

Who but the top echelons of Shabak could have ordered their field agents and Rabin's bodyguards NOT to clear the people around Rabin's car including Yigal Amir?

Why was Yigal Amir asked by police at the scene, "Did you shoot blanks?" (7)

Why did they THINK he shot blanks?

Why did Rabin's driver first head toward Shabak headquarters instead of a hospital? En route, when Rabin was found to be actually shot, the car turned toward the hospital. But, even then, in a country where most ordinary citizens have cellular or car phones, there was no radio or phone call from the scene of the shooting or the car to alert the hospital to have surgeons on hand and the operating theater ready for a very important person. Why was there no first aid or ambulance at the scene of this massive rally.

Other "odd" notes at the scene: Ballistics reports the spent shells at the scene did NOT match Amir's gun. And that the gun was touching Rabin when he was shot: "Rabin felt the gun before he felt the bullets." The mysterious death of the Shabak bodyguard, reportedly by suicide, Amir's outcry in court, the ballistics reports that have been exposed - all combine to call the main question for the Shamgar Commission:

Who really shot Rabin? Did Amir THINK he was shooting blanks. The re-enactment shown on TV didn't show him touching Rabin with the gun. Did a second shooter, maybe by a Shabak agent in the car, really kill Rabin and is that why the Shabak agent was killed in a suspicious suicide?" And if there is any credence to this theory, who ordered it?

What did Rabin and Mrs. Rabin KNOW that night BEFORE he was assassinated?

After Rabin was shot (some thought with blanks), Leah Rabin was assured that everything was okay by her Shabak bodyguard. Later, Leah Rabin told Adi Talmor of Israel Army Radio (Galei Zahal) that "Even now I don't exactly understand why the Shabak bodyguards told me my husband was shot with only blanks. Maybe the bodyguards thought that is what happened or maybe they were in shock because of the situation. Or, perhaps they really believed that is what really happened." (8) (That's lots of maybes and maybe lots more to ask of Leah Rabin.) It was reported that Leah Rabin was immediately driven to Shabak headquarters where she was made to wait one half hour before being driven to the hospital. Why was she so patient, so trusting of the explanation that the shots were only blanks? Presumably she, or any wife, would have been very impatient, even slightly emotional, having known her husband had just been shot at. Why the patient wait? Why not an imperative demand to see her husband immediately? If the assassination was to be a "Sting", a well-orchestrated, staged but failed attempt, in order to embarrass the political opposition, then surely Mr. and Mrs. Rabin had to have been informed beforehand. This would have been essential, because a sudden attack, staged or real, could have provoked a heart attack in an aging Prime Minister who already had health problems. Such a shock to Leah Rabin could also have disastrous consequences. The conclusion is that, neither the head of Shabak nor the police under Moshe Shahal would have dared to carry out such an audacious farce without express approval and cooperation of the Prime Minister. If there was to be a staged assassination then Mrs. Rabin, both as a wife, personal confidante and advisor to her husband, would have been informed well in advance.

Why do such an outrageous act? One answer could be that Rabin was lagging badly in the polls, with 74% of the electorate demanding a referendum before implementing Oslo 2. If he was to be reinvigorated for the 1996 elections and get affirmation for his Oslo giveaways, then there was a necessity for a drastic act to elevate him and the Labor party. Another reason would be the vital need by Labor and U.S. sponsors to insure that the "Peace Process" after 1996 remained under the authority of Rabin.

Who would know about such plans and discuss the risk vs. the benefits? There would have been numerous participants: His closest friends and advisors such as Eitan Haber should be thoroughly questioned regarding what he and others knew.

Shimon Peres, as Foreign Minister must be asked how much he knew and if he alerted Itamar Rabinovich, Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. If there was a plan to elevate and dramatize Rabin's hero image, then it would have been urgent that the Embassy communicate immediately with Congress to put the desired spin on the story. That spin would include getting Congress, in an moment of shock, to release the $500 million to the PLO's Yasser Arafat on a sympathy vote. This would also direct Congress and the Administration to be hostile towards the political Right under Bibi Netanyahu. (In the Middle East, this is called "Poisoning the Well.") Conversely, the Labor government would enjoy a groundswell of warmth and understanding against all those religious people who believed this "peace process" would lead to war. Presently, it appears as if the Shamgar Commission is limiting its inquiry to the shooting only. This raises additional questions, such as:

Who made the decision to suppress the whole truth in "the National Interest"?

Would full disclosure bring down the government, destroy the Rabin myth and with it end the Peace Process? (This is reminiscent of the Kennedy assassination where the Warren Commission inquiry found everyone innocent except the dead shooter, while also denying that there was a second shooter.)

We Americans have seen our nation assaulted with scandal upon scandal. Political "dirty tricks", the use of our investigative branches to harrass political opponents, illegal support of regional wars ... we Americans have seen it all. Why don't we recognize the same syndrome occurring in Israel?

It is with dismay we watch what was once a vigorous, thriving democracy lower itself to adopt such hostile practices as Administrative Detention. This allows the government to scoop up any Jew without charge, without a hearing, without legal counsel and with confinement to solitary. Shmuel Cytryn, an American citizen and a father of 5 young children, has been held like this since Dec. 4. And now PM Shimon Peres has adopted the law of Sedition, which has been declared unconstitutional and a threat to liberty by the U.S. Supreme Court. Indictments of legal protestors, demonizing of the Right and the religious, harassment, arrests in the middle of the night, accusations in the media vilifying the opposition freely, closure of religious sites and confiscation of religious articles... unconscionable violations of civil, human and religious rights and justice has accelerated under Shimon Peres. And the Labor/Meretz is changing the Law of Return to fit its radical philosophy.

Labor MK, Dalia Itzik requested that the Attorney General have Nadia Matar, co-chairman of Women in Green, prosecuted for incitement and deported for dramatizing the fallacies, faults and failures of the Labor/Meretz government policies of appeasement and surrender. Because she has inspired the grandmothers, mothers and children to stand up for their rights to a Jewish State, she's been dubbed the Jewish Joan of Arc. No wonder the Left is trying to neutralize her. Former Soviet Refuseniks and Prisoners on Zion, including Ida Nudel, Yosef Mendelevitch, Yosef Begun, Vladimir Slepak and others have called on President Ezer Weizman to intercede and stop the government's blatant human-rights violations and witch-hunts against the right and religious opposition.

It wouldn't be shocking to find that Israel's Labor/Meretz government, in order to retain power, staged what was to be a failed assassination intended to arouse sympathy for Rabin. We Americans expect a maximum effort to cover up this scandal to protect important individuals and save the government from crashing.

Perhaps for once the Israeli Courts and former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar will not allow the coverup, even if it is intended to preserve the government or for the "sake of the peace Process". Perhaps, too, Congress will no longer follow the dictates of Israel's Foreign Ministry and will hold long-delayed hearings on America's Middle East (real) foreign policy. The excuses from the Administration that such hearing are "Premature", are the same excuses used to get American soldiers into harms' way in Bosnia. Once an Israeli withdrawal from all the Golan Heights is announced, with American troops to provide the security guarantees, it will be too late to hold meaningful hearings.

I must close with one observation. It is a tragedy for any nation when its police, army and intelligence services are co-opted by the politicians - for the purposes of staying in power. So many good men and women have been sacrificed to serve the hunger and ambitions of politicians who no longer understand honor, ethics and truth.

2.Associated Press, December 3, 1995 5:32 EST V0053

3."Rabin Bodyguards Draw New Suspicion" by Yaroslav Trofimov (London Observer) Washington Times 12/2/95

4."Assassin Hints Bodyguard Helped Him Kill Rabin" by Joel Greenberg NY Times 12/4/95

5."The Agent Provocateur" by A.M. Rosenthal, New York Times, 11/24/95

6."Was Raviv Under Orders or Out of Line?" by Steve Rodan, Jerusalem Post, 12/3/95

7.Ibid Inside Israel

8.Interview with Mrs. Leah Rabin, by Acdi Talmor, Galei Zahal (Israel Army Radio)