Tishrei 28, 5768, 10/10/2007
Answers to Prof. Plaut's "Answers"
by Baruch Gordon
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...
