To start off, the Israeli TV stations (State-owned?) did the right thing. They aired teasers for an interview with Yigal Amir, the killer of Yitzhak Rabin the other day. After public outrage, they said they would not air the telephone interview. Good; best thing to do in a bad situation. That being said;
What the heck were these pinheads thinking? Who the hell would think anyone wants to know why this dickhead decided to pop the PM? Don’t any journalists have any sense of decency?
Extra bonus outrage. Amir did the interview on the phone claiming to be talking to his wife. Why the hell can enemies of the state call his wife? He is a freakin’ killer.
Double bonus outrage. The prison authorities will punish Amir by canceling his wife’s periodic overnight visits. Who the hell would let this scumbag breed?
The Israeli media, like free-speech media everywhere, tends to go for what they think will attract attention. It takes loud shouts by the public to stop them from going too far. There was a similar situation in the US a few months ago, IIRC, where some one was publishing OJ Simpson’s book “I didn’t do it, but if I did it, here’s how I would have done it.” Public outrage stopped them.
There was huge, prolonged outrage about this in Israel while it was happening. He married his wife after he went to prison, after she divorced her previous husband to marry a convict. The happy couple spent years petitioning for conjugal visits, much to the delight of the scandal-seeking press and general disapproval of the public.
Well, he is more than a murderer. He is an assassin. More than ending a single life, he has attacked the collective life of society and state. People who do such things ought not be allowed to breed or communicate with the society they attacked. But then again that is just my opinion.
I wonder what would have happened if a Palestinian had done the deed.
He’d have been torn to shreds by a mob, probably. When Gandhi was assassinated, Muslim families in India stayed indoors until news broke that the assassin was a Sikh.
Then there were hundreds of atrocities against Sikhs.
For better or for worse - in this case, for worse - the Israeli correctional system is somewhat more lenient than that of other countries. Besides the absence of a death penalty, prison conditions are better and prisoners have more rights than elsewhere, including in the United States.
That doesn’t mean I think Amir deserves conjugal visits; hell, if I had it my way, we wouldn’t have a lightbulb.They should literally lock him up and throw away the key - just shove some food under his door every day, and when it starts piling up, assume he’s dead and seal the cell for posterity.
However, I also believe in the rule of law, and according to Israeli criminal law at the time the crime occured, there was no legal difference between assassinating a prime minister and murdering an ordinary citizen. Yigal Amir may be punished to the full extent of the law - and he is - but he cannot be punished any further.
When a friend of mine started talking about Islam being a terrorist religion - and this is a guy who really ought to know better :rolleyes: - I pointed out that in the dangerous Middle East who was it who assassinated an Israeli Prime Minister? It was a Jew. Who walked into a PLACE OF WORSHIP and machine-gunned kneeling worshipers in their backs? Another Jew. I am ashamed that those scumbags can in any way be construed to be my co-religionists. I’m ashamed we’re even in the same genus.
I never thought I’d see a down side to enlightened treatment of prisoners. They guy who shot Rabin deserves nothing but hell.
Whatever you think of Amir, i think deciding to shelve the broadcast was a stupid idea, especially given the government pressure that was exerted in an attempt to quash the show.
Nitpick: The assassin of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu extremist who opposed Gandhi’s multicultural inclusiveness. The assassins of Indira Gandhi in 1984 were Sikh members of her bodyguard, angered by government violence against Sikh separatists. (And yes, there was lots of anti-Sikh violence following the assassination.) The assassins of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 were Hindu extremists, members of a Sri Lankan separatist movement. It’s not quite clear which assassination you meant.
Thanks, I was wondering which Gandhi was being talked about. I remember Indira being murdered by her Sikh bodyguards. It’s a bummer when you have to specify which assassinated family member you are talking about.
This is scary considering the current political climate in the US… and I sure hope it won’t be repeated here. All the people who truly believe that Obama is some kind of anti-christ that could destroy our country… I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the wingnuts takes it into their own hands.
There’s also a huge difference between criticizing the government and its policies, and carrying out political assasinations. I also objected to the Oslo accords, back in the day, just like Ariel Sharon did (and changed my mind about them later on, just like he did about certain things). Am I also responsible for Rabin’s murder?
Did you go around encouraging right-wing extremists to yell “Death to Rabin”? Apparently Netanyahu did:
AFAICT, Sharon didn’t make speeches encouraging these people, but he did attend some of their rallies. I think that any leader who sees stuff like this going on among their followers and doesn’t denounce it is at least somewhat complicit in encouraging murder, although not actually guilty of murder themselves.
I actually had a class on that rally as part of my Communications studies in college, a couple of years after the murder. It’s an interesting case of media misrepresentation. The cameras, you see, were up on the balcony with Bibi, while the microphones were down in the crowed, giving the impression of overwhelming chants of “death to Rabin”, while in fact later tests proved that there was no way he could have heard them from where he was standing.
As for everything else… yes, there were some nasty things said, but Israeli political can be a bit more blunt and volatile than what foreigners are used to. Yes, Netanyahu is a douchebag, and yes, he should have condemned the chanting and the signs, but he couldn’t have thought an assassination was even a possibility. Nobody did - not the right, not the left, not the press and unfortunately, not Rabin’s security detail. Sure, you’ll find lots of people who will tell you that in retrospect, the writing was on the proverbial wall, but the bottom line is that no political assassination had ever taken place in Israel before, and no-one thought that kind of thing could happen here. Needless to say, we were all wrong.
And anyone who thinks Sharon and Ze’evi even dreamed of hurting the prime minister, doesn’t know a thing about the two men’s relationship with Rabin.