Remember a few weeks ago when I sent a friendship request to Hagai Amir, the brother of Rabin’s assassin Yigal Amir, on Facebook? Here’s what I wrote about it back then.
Well, a few days later he accepted and we’ve been pals ever since. OK, not really. We haven’t spoken. Was never inclined to.
But last night something happened. I posted a small photo album of pictures I took the night before. They were from the anti-war-with-Iran demonstration under Ehud Barak’s luxury apartment in central Tel Aviv.
Not long after I posted the album, Hagai Amir left a comment on it. A discussion ensued.
Hagai Amir: They don’t look like people who are about to die.
Ami Kaufman: Did Yitzhak Rabin look like a man who was about to die? Just asking. Maybe there are early warning signs.
Hagai Amir: Of course, he surrounded himself with battalions of security guards, which of course didn’t help him much.
Ami Kaufman: So, according to that theory Bibi is going to die as well, no? Are you planning something?
Hagai Amir: He is indeed afraid but not from the Left, they’re just a pack of losers, he doesn’t have to be afraid of me I’m not involved any more, it’s not my war.
Ami Kaufman: What is Bibi scared of? And what do you mean you’re not involved? What, that’s it? You won’t fight anymore for your homeland?
Dahlia Scheindlin: Hagai, what is your war? Just so we know.
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.
Ami Kaufman: I think you answered my question partially. I want to understand: If giving land endangered Jewish life (then, during Rabin’s rule, as you said), can there not be a situation where giving land in the future (during Bibi or someone else’s rule) will also endanger Jewish life? And if you will be convinced, hypothetically, that there is a danger – what will you do?
Hagai Amir: I myself can no longer act in this area because I am known and discretion is needed, anyway today the fraud element that characterized the Rabin regime no longer exists, today the people are aware of the dangers and if a majority of the people choose this route then good for them and I won’t mourn when they pay the price for it, if a majority of the people supported the Oslo Accords, Rabin would still be alive.
Ami Kaufman: Ah, so this is a matter of a majority against a minority? So basically, Yigal was the watchdog of democracy?
Hagai Amir: Of the Jewish people, and stop flattering yourself there is no democracy here but a mutation of the Bolshevik regime, a bad mutation.
Ami Kaufman: Indeed, there is no democracy here. Yalla, I’ve had enough for today. I’m going back to my pack of losers.
I have to say, I felt uncomfortable during the whole thing. Made me feel queasy at certain parts. But for some reason I felt the urge to engage. To try to understand this guy. Which is why I decided to follow him in the first place. A journalistic urge of sorts. Yet, I think I could have asked much better questions. I was pretty tired as it was.
During the discussion, a friend who was observing said I might be goading him into saying something. Which is true, in a way. But I think it’s a legitimate question to ask, to try to know if a criminal who is free would commit the crime again.
Anyway, it got me thinking about the murder, about remorse not shown, about the solitary confinement of Yigal, as if Rabin’s blood was bluer than other murder victims. Even about Facebook, and the strange “opportunities” it allows.
I don’t know.
I don’t think I’ll be chatting with Hagai again.