Hagai Amir, brother of Yitzchak Rabin’s murderer Yigal Amir, granted his first interview since his release from prison to the anti-Zionist, left-wing website 972, and attacked the Rabin Family, as well as, among others—the settlers. The interview followed a lengthy correspondence between reporter Ami Kaufman and Hagai Amir on Facebook.
Kaufman asked if Amir thought Netanyahu could bring about change for the good, to which Amir responded: “No one can change anything now. It’s too late.”
Kaufman: Too late for what?
Amir: A slow yet steady disintegration of the state.
Kaufman: Which will end in a bi-national state? The end of Zionism?
Amir: It depends how it ends. If they reach an agreement on a bi-national state, then Jews will be able to live here. But if there is no agreement, it will end like it did with the crusaders.
Amir then defines a Jewish state—unlike simply the state of the Jews, which he believes has no right to exist—is a state that cherishes Jewish values: Shabbat, Torah study, etc.
Both Hagai and his brother, Yigal, have been conducting many conversations with Hamas prisoners, including higher ups like Ibrahim Hamed, head of the Hamas in the West Bank, and Gaza-based Hassan Salameh.
Kaufman: Did you agree on anything?
Amir: On the important things we didn’t agree, of course. Too much blood has already been shed. From their point of view there is no way this state can be here. And I no longer know if Jews as individuals will be able to live here. Anyway, the atmosphere was relaxed, they respect us and we respect them and it is clear we are enemies on the outside, but for the meanwhile there is a ceasefire.
Regarding the struggle to preserve the settlements, Amir told Kaufman: “I would fight (literally) shoulder to shoulder with those Jews on their land if they themselves were willing to fight for their homes. But this is not the case, unfortunately.. 99% are not willing to fight, as you saw in the disengagement. It was clear to me back then that this is what would happen, They are simple bourgeoisie, not tough rebels. In my opinion, you fight for a home with a weapon in hand. He who is not willing to hold a weapon is not fighting for his current home, but for his next one.”
Amir told Kaufman that during his interrogation, “they took me to see the funeral to put mental pressure on me. Of course, this did not work. The Rabin family was never really moved by the blood of the murdered on the Altalena, whom the head of their family murdered. They knew how to live well in his midst. Therefore, the crocodile tears they cry do not move me. This family has earned a living quite well from this whole story. If it wasn’t for us nobody would have heard of them. The blood of the Oslo murdered is a thousand times more dear to me than the tears dropped for the one who killed them, with help from the Arabs.”
Amir told Kaufman, as, apparently, he had done several times before during their exchanges on Facebook, that he did not regret the Rabin assassination.
“Of course not,” he reiterated this time. “It didn’t just happen out of the blue. We thought about it for two years, we acted according to the Jewish halacha, and one must not regret doing a mitzvah.”
