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The Brother of Rabin’s Assassin Speaks

+972 Magazine strikes up an unlikely conversation

by
Adam Chandler
August 14, 2012
((Hagai Amir) Jack Guez/AFP)
((Hagai Amir) Jack Guez/AFP)

Ami Kaufman of the mercurial, always incisive +972 magazine posted an article last night about an exchange he had on Facebook with Hagai Amir, the brother of Yigal Amir–who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Hagai Amir recently got out of prison after 16 years for serving as an accomplice to his brother.

It’s a very disquieting conversation, but also a sobering look at the political dialogue taking place on the seams in Israel.

Hagai Amir: There is no chance that I will fight for the people who at this moment are torturing my brother.



Ami Kaufman: So let me understand, if any leader – in the present or future – will give away parts of Eretz Israel, you will do nothing because at the moment they are torturing your brother? Meaning, according to this logic, your brother’s life is worth more than land?



Hagai Amir: The reason Rabin was eliminated was not because of transferring land but because of the risk to Jewish life as a result of that, there is no Jewish meaning to the Zionist regime which is why it can give this or that land and this will have no Jewish meaning – just as other conquerors did throughout history – as long as this doesn’t endanger Jewish lives.

The rest of the thread is worth a read.

Also, for the uninitiated, be sure to check out Liel Leibovitz’s fascinating profile of +972 here.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.