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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/14448/full/14448/assassin-regrets-he-didn-t-kill-rabin-earlier/ <br /><br /> <b>Assassin regrets he didn’t kill Rabin earlier</b> <br /> Friday, November 10, 2000 | by <p>DAVID FRANKLIN and NINA GILBERT </p> <br /><br /><p>JERUSALEM—Five years after assassinating prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, his killer said Monday he has only one regret—that he didn't shoot him earlier.<br /><br /> Yigal Amir, who killed Rabin at a Tel Aviv peace rally on November 4, 1995, made his comments during an appearance at a Beersheva court to ask that closed-circuit television monitoring cameras be removed from his cell. A decision on that request was postponed to a later date.<br /><br /> In the past, Amir said he killed Rabin to stop peace moves with the Palestinians. At the start of the court session, reporters asked whether he had any regrets about the assassination.<br /><br /> "Yes," replied the handcuffed former law student, who is serving a life sentence. "Why didn't I do it earlier? I should have done it before Oslo 2."<br /><br /> "I didn't do it for any personal reasons," said Amir. "I have nothing against Rabin."<br /><br /> A debate ensued Monday evening over whether Amir should have been allowed to speak out. Channel 1 announced that a decision was made not to broadcast Amir's remarks. The remarks were aired on Israel's Channel 2.<br /><br /> Prison officials denied responsibility for allowing the brief interview. Spokeswoman Orit Meser-Harel said Amir had been accompanied to and from the court by police, not prison guards.<br /><br /> She intimated that permission to interview him had been granted by the judge, adding that the Prisons Service department has been doing its best to prevent such interviews for the past five years, and the interview undermined those efforts and gave Amir a platform to incite viewers.<br /><br /> "I'm not sure he should have been interviewed, or whether we should have allowed expression to this kind of social pyromania," Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg said.<br /><br /> "The problem is not Yigal Amir, but the public that continues to support him," said the former premier's daughter and parliament member Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff. These people, she said, "continue to negate the legacy of my father, Yitzhak Rabin, after they refused to condemn his murder in cold blood."<br /><br /> She said that for society to protect itself, its values and its existence "must speak with one clear, loud voice that the person who killed the prime minister will not come in its midst and does not have a place as a Jew. That is the only way that we can defend ourselves from our external enemies."<br /><br /> Other lawmakers were shocked that the television had given Amir a platform to spread his ideas.<br /><br /> Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party said that the television had given Amir a "prize during the week of commemoration" of Rabin's murder. There should be limits to the freedom of expression, and Monday that limit was broken, he said.<br /><br /> Shinui member Yehudit Naot called on the media not to publish Amir's remarks, saying that "it is inconceivable to give a despicable murderer who carried out one of the worst crimes in the history of the state a platform for spreading his distorted views."<br /><br /> She also said that a ban should be placed on broadcasting Amir's voice and image. "His punishment must include his eviction from the lives of the people and the public arena," she said.<br /><br /> The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza said it "advises Yigal Amir to shut his mouth and not give 'advice.' Amir is the person who caused the greatest damage ever to settlement and the settlers."<br /><br /> Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Barak asserted at a One Israel faction meeting that "there will be no pardon for the murderer."<br /><br /> Barak recalled that Rabin "was unable to accept" warnings that the political atmosphere in 1995 was capable of leading to murder. He said there is a "wising up" in society and that despite the strong objections now to the ongoing efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians, the same danger of murder does not exist today. With that, he added, "I can't be responsible for some crazy person."<br /><br /> Barak repeated his resolve to continue the peace efforts, despite the ongoing violence in the territories. "There is no other way," he argued, "even if we have been destined to a period not short, and certainly not easy."</p> <p> </p>

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