Virtually every “question” raised by the conspiracists about the Rabin assassination has by now been fully explained away and answered:
• The conspiracists make much of the fact that someone at the scene of the murder supposedly yelled “blanks!” The conspiracists believe that this alleged shout proves that Amir fired blanks. Talk about non sequiturs! In fact, if there really was such a shout, it just shows that some people nearby thought the gunfire was blanks. People commonly mistake real gunfire for blanks; in any case, it may have been Yigal Amir himself, afraid of being gunned down by guards, who yelled it. The conspiracists also claim that Amir had no gunpowder residue on his hands, proving that he fired blanks. But blanks actually leave more residue than real bullets.
• The conspiracists have erected much of their theories on the question of whether Rabin was struck by two or three bullets. The initial hospital admissions records said three, no doubt based on the extent of Rabin’s injuries (he was shot with hollow-point bullets). Amir only shot twice. Hence the conspiracy is “proved,” claim the conspiracists. As it turns out, Rabin was only struck by two bullets. The initial hospital report was mistaken and written before thorough examination, but the final report was correct.
• The undershirt Rabin was wearing was later found to have a third hole. Aha, proclaim the conspiracists. This past fall Israel’s Channel Two took the shirt in question to a forensics lab in the UK for analysis. It turns out the third hole was from a cigarette. Rabin was a notorious chain smoker. There were three holes in the undershirt but only two entry wounds in Rabin.
• The car carrying Rabin to the hospital took “too long” to get there and did not use the previously planned evacuation route. Gotcha, proclaim the conspiracists. In fact, the driver, upon seeing that large numbers of people from the rally attended by Rabin were crowded into the alleys designated as the evacuation route, chose to try an alternative route to the hospital, also crowded. No conspiracy.
• In footage of the murder, Rabin walks away from Amir after being shot. How could Rabin be walking if his spine was snapped, as hospital records indicate? Eureka, crow the conspiracists. The truth, however, is that Rabin’s spine was not snapped. One bullet bounced off a vertebra. The initial hospital admissions records saying otherwise guessed incorrectly, and later the full extent of injuries was correctly understood.
• Rabin’s guards did not stop the young Yemenite with the yarmulke from getting close to Rabin? They were in on it, chant the conspiracists. But all this proves is error in judgment or incompetence after the fact – hardly unknown in the Israeli security forces in countless other matters.
One can go on and on. The conspiracist case breaks down even faster when the same method of asking questions about seeming inconsistencies is turned against the conspiracists themselves. If Yigal Amir fired blanks or was a patsy, why does he still insist that he alone murdered Rabin? If there are people who supposedly have “real” information about an assassination conspiracy – a conspiracy that would amount to the greatest scandal in Israeli history – why have they not turned their material over to real journalists or to the police or to Shamgar?
The conspiracists are not above outright lying. They regularly claim their theories have been endorsed by members of the Rabin family themselves. False. They claim Amir at first told the police the assassination was a mere staged show. False. They claim Amir had once been employed as a Shin Bet agent. False. They claim that after the assassination, witnesses and Shin Bet agents were murdered by the Shin Bet. False.