Answers to Answers to Answers

Chasing imaginary conspiracies works to neutralize the Israeli Right

The entire world saw those hijacked planes crashing into the WTC towers on 9-11.  Yet there are conspiracy nuts (one of whom is the main inventor of the Rabin assassination conspiracy "theory," at least when he is not busy publishing his articles on Neo-Nazi Holocaust Denial web sites) who insist that the collapse of the WTC towers was NOT caused by the exploding planes, or even claim that no planes at all crashed into the WTC.  The entire world saw Yigal Amir on the tape shoot Rabin, as did all the eyewitnesses, and Amir readily confirms he shot Rabin with live bullets.  I am reminded of that old Richard Pryor quip when I read the conspiracy "theories" about the assassination - "Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"

Does Fendel seriously mean to argue that if Lincoln and Julius Caesar were assassinated, this proves that Yigal Amir is innocent of killing Rabin?

The blog entries that follow below must be read to make sense of this posting here.  So we agree that the "20 minute car trip to the hospital" was not 20 minutes and was based on inaccurate recordings of times by those involved.  So what?

1.  None of the MDs who at first thought Rabin was struck by three bullets or struck from the front think so today.  They themselves think their initial impression was wrong, and accept the findings of the Shamgar Commission.  Why does Fendel doubt their word today?  There was no third bullet wound at all. Rabin's spine was NOT sliced by the bullet. These "claims" were at best early innocent suspicions that turned out to be wrong and today are conspiracist misrepresentations, similar to falsehoods in the 9-11 conspiracy "theories." 

2.  Initial hospital reports made in the emergency room often bear little resemblance to actual final reports, especially when surgery is involved.

3.  I do not know if Miriam Oren thinks today Rabin was unhurt by the gunfire of Amir.  Maybe someone should ask her.  In any case, the simple fact of the matter is that he WAS.  So she was wrong.  The other eyewitnesses all saw things differently.  Did Oren also not see the planes crashing into the WTC on 9-11?

4.  UPDATE:  A security man checked the back seat of the car, closed the "mysteriously closing door" but did not ride with Rabin in the car's back seat on the way to the hospital.  No mystery!  No conspiracy!

5.  At the Columbine school shooting, the shooting in Virginia Tech, and at many others people thought they were hearing blanks because real bullets being fired do not sound like what people imagine.  Tell me, if it is now discovered that someone yelled "Felafel" close to the scene of the shooting, would this prove that Amir had fired felafel at Rabin?

6.  People injured by gunfire often continue to take steps and walk. This can confuse people like Miriam Oren and Hillel Fendel.

7.  Sneh himself says he was wrong in his earlier impression of the wounds.  He believes the Shamgar Commission report.  Why does Fendel not believe him today?

8.  Haber does not say that he destroyed evidence.  Neither does the Shamgar report.  Fendel says that.

9.  Fendel is not an expert on gunpowder residue.  The Shamgar Commission spoke with numerous experts.  They saw nothing to suggest Amir did NOT shoot Rabin.  Who is Fendel to second guess them?

10.  The best way to discredit Israel National News, to discredit the entire Israeli Right, and to ensure that the policies of the Israeli Left continue to be implemented is to try to recruit the "Right" into pursuing mindless conspiracy nonsense, chasing imaginary conspiracies for which not a single scrap of real evidence exists.  None of Fendel's "questions" constitute evidence.  At best they are his ponderings and conjectures.

11.  Here is a question of my own.  How is it that Fendel believes anything (and everything?) he is told by David Rutstein?  Does he know who and what Rutstein is?  Why does he consider Rutstein more credible than Shamgar?

Answers to Prof. Plaut's "Answers"

Actually by Hillel Fendel and posted by Baruch Gordon [byline is hardcoded in acc. to one who posts]

Shalom.  Here are my answers to Prof. Plaut's answers.  The original questions in my article are in regular font, Prof. Plaut's are preceded by carets, and my answers are in italics.

How is it that an eye-witness to the event, Miriam Oren, was filmed at the site telling reporters emphatically and repeatedly, "I saw that Rabin was not hurt"?
>> Because she was wrong.
She was there, saw it happen, and said over and over that he was not hurt - but those who were not there say she was "wrong."  Maybe they have ruach hakodesh?

How did Rabin's armored car back door close?
>> Because someone inside closed it.
The Shamgar Commission found that only Rabin was in the back seat; Damti was getting into the car as the door closed on the other side, and guard Rubin was tending to Rabin. No one else was inside.

Why was the call, "Blanks, blanks!" heard when the shots rang out?
>> Because people who heard the shots thought at first they were blanks. This is not unusual near actual shootings.
It's not unusual for people who hear gunshots to start spouting off their opinions about whether they were blanks?!?  How many people do you know who know the difference between real shots and blanks - and would choose the shooting of a Prime Minister, of all times, to tell everyone?
On the other hand, it could be that if no one - including the target of the shots - was hurt, someone might conclude that it was blanks...

Why was the assassin not killed immediately?
>> Because he was wrestled to the ground. Since when are assassins killed on the spot in Israel?
Since forever, according to Shabak procedure.

The last three questions have been asked publicly by Rabin's daughter, former MK Dalia Rabin-Pilosoph?
>> No they were not.
Yes, they were.  I guess you didn't read the Olam HaIshah interview cited in the article.  I assume many of the other readers did.

>> The Rabin children "ask questions" designed to "prove" that the entire Israeli Right and especially the Likud were behind the murder. Claims that the Rabin children endorse the loony "conspiracy theory" about Peres ordering the Rabin assassination or about Rabin supposedly being killed by his own guard are complete fabrications by people with disturbed minds.
How can these questions possibly prove that the right-wing did it?  If you read what she said, you'll see that she does not endorse any conspiracy theory - I never implied otherwise - but rather that she is very bothered by some of the same questions that bother the "conspiracy nuts."

Why did then-Health Minister Dr. Ephraim Sneh say on television that that Rabin had been wounded by bullets to the chest, stomach, and spinal cord?
>> Because he thought that was so at the time, based on the hospital's preliminary superficial examination. He was wrong.
A 'preliminary superficial examination'? Do you really think the hospital would be anything less than 100% thorough in a case like this?  Three top doctors who operated him filled out their report that he was wounded to the chest! In addition, Sneh was speaking after Rabin was unsuccessfully operated on!  It was clear to them, and Hospital Director Barabash, and to Sneh, that the bullet entered the chest. Yet you know that Sneh was wrong?

Why did security guard Yoram Rubin testify before the Shamgar Commission that Rabin was shot at 9:50 PM, when in fact Yigal Amir was arrested at 9:30 PM?
>> Because he made a mistake, or had not looked at his watch or his watch was fast.
Yeah, right, people always walk around with a watch that's 20 minutes fast, or testify at a government commission about things they don't know...  I mean, if bloggers can write about things they don't know, then why should witnesses at a government commission be different?
By the way, the Shamgar commission concluded that the death was at 9:50...  Don't tell me you're siding with those lunatics who disagree with Shamgar?  (See also what you wrote in the next line)

Why did Rabin's driver, Menachem Damti, testify that he drove to Ichilov Hospital in less than two minutes, when the ride actually took over 20 minutes?
>> It did NOT take over 20 minutes. The admissions time stamp at the hospital was 20 minutes after the shooting, but hospital time stamps are not made as ambulances pull up, only later, as anyone who has ever been in the emergency ward knows.
Well, most of us have been in an emergency ward before, so tell us: Are the people in charge of writing down ambulance pull-up times supposed to be accurate, or is it OK if they fudge it by 20 minutes or so?
Anyway, as I wrote above, Shamgar concluded that the shooting happened at 9:50, so maybe you should "review your premises..."

Why did Damti testify that he was opening the door for Leah Rabin when he heard the first shot, when in fact Leah Rabin was standing on the steps nowhere near her husband when the shots were heard?
>> Because he made a mistake and because wives do not always stand right next to husbands.
This question did not appear in the final version of the article.

Why did Rabin's top aide Eitan Haber destroy evidence?
>> He did not. What he took was not evidence, if indeed he really took anything.
He said he did.  Should I believe him, or you?

Why did MDs say Rabin died of a shattered spine with bullet entry through the chest?
>> That was their initial guess and it was wrong. Same MDs later corrected their statement.
Four top doctors who were there make unanimous g u e s s e s  about the murder of a Prime Minister?!

Baruch Gladstein, proved categorically that one gun shot was fired into Rabin at point-blank range - about a half-meter closer than Amir ever got to Rabin?
>> Who says he "proved" that?
Again, you have to read the sources before you ask questions like that.  His proof is linked in the article.

>> And since when is a half meter not point blank range?
 Gladstein told Amir at Amir's trial, ”You placed the gun on his back on the second shot and fired." Amir said, "We need a new expert because I didn't shoot from point blank range."  This shows that the shots that the experts were analyzing were not shot by Amir.

Adir Zik believed there was a conspiracy?
>> Adir Zik was wrong.
Oh.

>> Yigal Amir confirms he murdered Rabin. There is no reason not to believe he did. 
Except for the questions in the article, and many more.

>> There is not a shred of real evidence to support any of the lunatic conspiracy "theories" that have been making the internet rounds ever since the assassination.  These "theories" are as mindless as the conspiracist claptrap popular on the web about Jews or Israel being behind the 911 attacks on the US.
or maybe as accurate as the conspiracies to kill Hitler, or Julius Ceasar, or Abraham Lincoln. I wonder if we'll ever find out? If you have your way, we certainly won't...

Answers to Hillel Fendel about Rabin Assassination

In a companion article on the Israel National News web site, Hillel Fendel asks some questions about the Rabin assassination. Here are the answers.

Answers to Questions:

How is it that an eye-witness to the event, Miriam Oren, was filmed at the site telling reporters emphatically and repeatedly, "I saw that Rabin was not hurt"?

>> Because she was wrong.

How did Rabin's armored car back door close?

>> Because someone inside closed it.

Why was the call, "Blanks, blanks!" heard when the shots rang out?

>> Because people who heard the shots thought at first they were blanks. This is not unusual near actual shootings.

Why was the assassin not killed immediately?

>> Because he was wrestled to the ground. Since when are assassins killed on the spot in Israel?

The last three questions have been asked publicly by Rabin's daughter, former MK Dalia Rabin-Pilosoph?

>> No they were not. The Rabin children "ask questions" designed to "prove" that the entire Israeli Right and especially the Likud were behind the murder. Claims that the Rabin children endorse the loony "conspiracy theory" about Peres ordering the Rabin assassination or about Rabin supposedly being killed by his own guard are complete fabrications by people with disturbed minds.

Why did then-Health Minister Dr. Ephraim Sneh say on television that that Rabin had been wounded by bullets to the chest, stomach, and spinal cord?

>> Because he thought that was so at the time, based on the hospital's preliminary superficial examination. He was wrong.

Why did security guard Yoram Rubin testify before the Shamgar Commission that Rabin was shot at 9:50 PM, when in fact Yigal Amir was arrested at 9:30 PM?

>> Because he made a mistake, or had not looked at his watch or his watch was fast.

Why did Rabin's driver, Menachem Damti, testify that he drove to Ichilov Hospital in less than two minutes, when the ride actually took over 20 minutes?

>> It did NOT take over 20 minutes. The admissions time stamp at the hospital was 20 minutes after the shooting, but hospital time stamps are not made as ambulances pull up, only later, as anyone who has ever been in the emergency ward knows.

Why did Damti testify that he was opening the door for Leah Rabin when he heard the first shot, when in fact Leah Rabin was standing on the steps nowhere near her husband when the shots were heard?

>> Huh?  Question makes no sense.

Why did Rabin's top aide Eitan Haber destroy evidence?

>> He did not. What he took was not evidence, if indeed he really took anything.

Why did MDs say Rabin died of a shattered spine with bullet entry through the chest?

>> That was their initial guess and it was wrong. Same MDs later corrected their statement.

Baruch Gladstein, proved categorically that one gun shot was fired into Rabin at point-blank range - about a half-meter closer than Amir ever got to Rabin?

>> Who says he "proved" that? And since when is a half meter not point blank range?

Adir Zik believed there was a conspiracy?

>> Adir Zik was wrong.

Yigal Amir confirms he murdered Rabin. There is no reason not to believe he did.  There is not a shred of real evidence to support any of the lunatic conspiracy "theories" that have been making the internet rounds ever since the assassination.  These "theories" are as mindless as the conspiracist claptrap popular on the web about Jews or Israel being behind the 911 attacks on the US.

Amir, The REAL assassin of Yitzhak Rabin