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Barry Chamish: "I win. I'm vindicated."
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| By israelinsider staff and partners November 6, 2005 |
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| As Yigal Amir is arrested, the time on the officer's watch shows 9:31. The official Shamgar Commission stated that the murder occurred at 9:50. By this evidence, Yigal Amir was arrested before he allegedly committed the crime. |
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Part Three in a Four-Part Series. Click here for Parts 1, 2, and 4.
It has been quite a week for the "conspiracy theorists" who have argued for years that the Rabin assassination ten years ago was the work of a renegade cell of Israel's "Shin Bet" Internal Security Agency, directed by senior politicians and funded by foreign interests. On Sunday, two of them were at the center of attention of the Israeli cabinet's weekly meeting, savaged for their depiction of Shimon Peres with "blood" on his hands.
But by week's end, Barry Chamish and David Rutstein were being accorded unprecedented attention and respectability by major newspapers, web portals, and wire services as a result of a documentary on Israel's Second Channel offering compelling evidence that Yigal Amir, convicted of being the assassin, could not have fired at least one of the shots that hit Rabin.
There were widespread calls for a new investigation of the assassination, including from two retired senior officials, one from the Shin Bet and the other from the police, who had been responsible for the security on that fateful night of November 4, 1995, and from prominent members of the media.
Chamish had long ago called attention to the forensic evidence of three bullet wounds (including one shot from the front) long ago. Indeed, the Health Minister at the time, Ephraim Sneh, relying on evidence provided by senior Ichilov Hospital physician Gabi Barabash, had officially announced the three wounds in an assassination-night statement.
Chamish had also detailed the subsequent cover-up of that evidence by medical personnel at Ichilov Hospital where Rabin was taken, by the medical examiner Yehuda Hiss and subsequently at the trial of Yigal Amir and the official judicial commission into the investigation led by Chief High Court Justice Meir Shamgar.
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"I invite ministers Peres and Herzog to sue me. If they do, perhaps we will be able to verify our claim."
David Rutstein, along with Barry Chamish, accuses Shimon Peres of ordering the murder and waits to be taken to court to prove his claim.
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The documentary -- Case Not Closed? -- confronted these officials with the physical evidence and revealed their discomfort at the indications of a third bullet hole in the lower front of Rabin's shirt and undershirt. Embarrassing, too, for the officials was the revelation that the videotape of the post-mortem examination had been "recycled" and that the x-rays of his lower body were withheld.
Those who have argued for the existence of a conspiracy to kill Yitzhak Rabin -- one surveys indicated that a quarter of Israeli respondents believe that there was one and another indicated that only 35 percent of the public consider Amir to be the "main culprit" -- have variations in explaining what really happened.
But a "composite" summary of what the conspiracy theorists say "really happened" goes something like this:
Amir -- a former government agent himself -- was a patsy, an unwitting "fall guy" set up by his buddy, Shin Bet agent and agent provocateur Avishai Raviv, to shoot the Prime Minister. The goal was to incriminate the Israeli right and strengthen Shimon Peres and the foreign powers who back him, concerned that Yitzhak Rabin, as indicated by his Knesset speech just a month before, was unwilling to accept their preferred policy of massive territorial concessions to the 1949 borders and support for a Palestinian state. (Rabin had also announced his opposition to withdrawal from Gush Katif in Gaza.)
Among the evidence for this claim was the fact that Carmi Gillon, head of the Shin Bet at the time, had publicly described the profile of the next assassin might be: "He doesn't have to be a settler, he could be a dark-skinned Sephardic student, studying at Bar Ilan University and living in Herzliya." This was, of course, precisely the profile of Yigal Amir.
The idea of setting up the right-wing to make it look violent and dangerous was part of the plan, conducted with the sanction of the political echelon. The "Jewish Department" of the Shin Bet ran agents who committed violent acts in the guise of Israeli settlers and extremists, often arranging for the disguised agents to be filmed for television. Avishay Raviv, code-named "Champagne" was in charge of carrying out many of these provocations, with full sanction from his Shin Bet handlers.
This week it emerged that other members of the Shin Bet, including Dror Yitzhaki, the head of Rabin's personal security detail, were initially unaware that such provocation was standard practice. "They're all ours," Yitzhaki was told when he asked about a particularly outrageous example of masked Shin-Bet agents pretending to be Jews swearing violent vengeance against the government. Champagne, too, was later shown to be responsible for the famed poster of "Rabin in an SS Uniform" displayed at an anti-government demonstration, was later trotted out by the media to besmirch the Israeli right. In fact, it turned out that the poster was a Shin Bet production (a fact which, even years after being revealed, doesn't deter its use by the Israeli media).
But that was, the conspiracy theorists claim, just window dressing. The real thing was to find a would-be assassin who could be set up to carry out an assassination. Yigal Amir was being cultivated by "Champagne" to be a real threat, egged on by the Shin Bet agent to prove that he was a person not just of words but of deeds. Indeed, in his televised interview Friday, Yitzhaki revealed for the first time that Agent Raviv was actually present at the rally, the scene of Rabin's death. It meant that a Shin Beit operative well acquainted with Amir, and his murderous intentions, was present and could have identified him.
But the conspiracy theorists say that was not gross incompetence but rather intention: Amir and Raviv were in cahoots, and communication. Raviv, they speculate, may in fact have given Amir his weapon, loaded with blanks. Raviv is suspected of having sent a beeper message to the media immediately after the shooting, apparently on the assumption that the assassination attempt had been unsuccessful, expressing regret that the assassin missed that time and expressing the hope that the next attempt would not fail.
The conspiracy theorists claim that Amir did indeed intend to kill the Prime Minister, but that his pistol only contained blanks. That is why Rabin's bodyguards, or someone near them, were reported yelling "srak, srak [blanks! Blanks!] -- it's not real!" and didn't shoot to kill the assailant. That is why Leah Rabin was assured by an agent that it was all an exercise and her husband was unharmed. That is why the Prime Minister did not fall down and had time to look over his shoulder, and then get into his limousine under his own power. That's why there was no blood on the ground. That's why there was no gunpowder or other signs of firing live rounds found on the hands of Yigal Amir in tests taken after the murder.
Indeed, photos of his arrest show the arresting policeman with a wristwatch reading 9:31, even though the official Shamgar Commission said the killing occurred at 9:50! The time on the arrest sheet and the photographic evidence of the time of the shooting, they argue, had to be suppressed to explain how Rabin could reach the hospital only at five minutes to 10.
Yitzhaki, in his televised interview, said that he was told by a "senior judicial source" that the Shamgar Commission was cautioned not to bare all the facts but rather to hold them back.
The conspiracy theorists believe that Rabin was shot several times at point blank or extremely close range enroute to Ichilov hospital, a trip that normally takes two to five minutes. The conspiracy theorists argue that Bruce Gladstein of The Materials and Fibers Laboratory of the Israeli Police testified at Amir's trial that Rabin was shot from less than 20 cm and again at point blank range, while the Prime Minister was bent over. No such shot by Amir was conceivable based on the Kempler video and eyewitness testimony, they argue.
Chamish speculates that the shooter was Yoram Rubin, Shin Bet agent and one of the PM's bodyguards, who was allegedly wounded by Amir's shot but whose medical records show only suffered a slight friction injury, was treated with ointment, and released.
The most chilling and gruesome aspect of the theory is that Rabin, seriously wounded, arrived at the hospital barely alive but was, through heroic medical efforts, resuscitated and stabilized. It was then, Chamish argues, that the Shin Bet ordered the room cleared of medical personnel and Rabin's bodyguard, who was hospitalized with him, was ordered to fire the coup de grace with a final bullet, finishing the job he allegedly started but failed to finish.
At that point too the cover-up allegedly began, with forgery of the medical reports, suppression of the photographic evidence, and Shin Bet intimidation of the doctors and nurses and journalists to never breathe a word of what they saw, heard and knew.
But Israel is a small country, and over ten years, much of the story and documentary evidence has been revealed. More and more of the story is accessible, including the recent re-emergence of the Kempler video, posted on the web by David Rutstein, which documents the "actual" assassination (or at least what appeared to be one) from the vantage point above the scene of the crime, focusing intensively on Yigal Amir, calmly waiting to shoot his prey. Indeed, the power of the internet to distribute and publicize the information has been a key factor in the increasing pressure that is progressively stripping away what the conspiracy theorists say was a bungled and amateurish cover-up.
Most outrageously, the conspiracy theorists have ratcheted up the pressure further by stating that they accuse none other than Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who inherited power in 1995 after the assassination, of being responsible for killing his former boss and long-time rival. On the websites of Chamish and Rutstein, together with the offensive picture of the blood-dripping Labor leader is the following statement: " Barry Chamish and David Rutstein, both residents of Israel, state unequivocally that Shimon Peres ordered the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of blessed memory and NO ONE SUES US!
Chamish and Rutstein have not been sued. But they are being interviewed, increasingly by Israeli and foreign media taking a new interest in their arguments. A Reuters wire report notes that "the most vocal promulgators of Rabin conspiracy theories are two North American immigrants. Barry Chamish and David Rutstein run a slew of Web sites, home-publish books, and sport T-shirts accusing a senior politician of complicity. "In Israel, there is a genuine feeling that people are afraid. They are just not brave people. Me and Barry, we didn't come here to know a crime was committed and do nothing about it," Rutstein told Reuters. Ironically, the Reuters write did not name the "senior politician.
Chamish and Rutstein, it must be stressed, offer no direct proof that Peres ordered the murder. They rely solely on circumstantial evidence and reasoning: Peres benefited by inheriting leadership of the nation with unprecedented popular support. Peres directed the Shin Bet to investigate itself, not the police as would have been expected. Only the new Prime Minister would have had the power to oversee the massive and pervasive cover-up and destruction of evidence that followed. And only Peres would have a motive for rewarding the disgraced Shin Bet chief Gillon by offering him the Chairmanship of the Peres Center for Peace.
Despite the lack of a "smoking gun," the conspiracy theorists have caused no small amount of consternation in the Labor party and the Israeli left. "Shimon Peres told Israel Radio earlier this week that a political assassin may yet be at large, and that censorship of certain extreme views is necessary to protect the democratic institutions of the nation. There is among us an extremist minority that should be forbidden to be heard in the media. This is a grave danger to our democracy."
But Rutstein notes that there are people in the Labor party itself that are delighted to see Peres fingered. The website operator also has filed a slander lawsuit against Peres, claiming the vice premier has referred to him as "insane" in a Labor Party publication.
At last Sunday's cabinet meeting Housing Minister Yitzhak Herzog presented Attorney General Menachem Mazuz with a printed version of the website's homepage and asked that he investigate.
"Only a few days ago we were witness to the unruly incitement of the Amir family, which wants to taint the memory of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin," Herzog told Ynet. "And here we see that the tree of incitement continues to take root. The foolish and criminal theory whereby Peres is responsible for Rabin's murder proves how short memory can be."
Minister Matan Vilnai (Labor) fumed after seeing the photos: "I cannot understand how this website even exists; how such a nobody dares to speak out against Peres in this manner." Rutstein, 39, who admitted to posting them, said, "I invite ministers Peres and Herzog to sue me. If they do, perhaps we will be able to verify our claim."
Next: Will the Rabin murder case be re-opened? Will his coffin?
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