Yitzhak Rabin's Killers Target Obama (VIDEO)

In October 1995, Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu appeared before thousands of right-wing demonstrators in Jerusalem's Zion Square to deliver a stinging denunciation of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Oslo Accords he had signed two years earlier. "Death to Rabin! Nazis! Judenrat!" the demonstrators chanted. Many waved signs depicting Rabin dressed in Nazi regalia.

Concerned that Netanyahu would inflame an already dangerous climate, Israeli Housing Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer warned the hyper-ambitious politician, "You'd better restrain your people. Otherwise it will end in murder. They tried to kill me just now... Your people are mad. If someone is murdered, the blood will be on your hands... The settlers have gone crazy, and someone will be murdered here, if not today, then in another week or another month!"

Netanyahu ignored Ben-Eliezer, striding to the podium to chants of "Bibi! Bibi! Bibi!" and an eerily prescient introduction as Israel's "next prime minister."

One month later, Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing radical and student at Bar-Ilan University, the ideological training ground of Israel's religious-nationalist front. Rabin's wife, Leah, refused to forgive Netanyahu, insisting he was at least as responsible for her husband's murder as the extremist who pulled the trigger.

With Netanyahu back in the prime minister's office, Avigdor Lieberman's proto-fascist party in control of several top government posts, and the Israeli peace camp Rabin once inspired in a state of near-permanent marginalization, an emboldened settler movement has turned its wrath on Barack Obama. Obama has aroused the setters' ire by calling for a construction freeze in the West Bank and a halt to Israeli housing projects intended to Judaize Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

7-23, an anti-US hatefest erupts in front of the American consulate in Jerusalem

On July 23, thousands of Jewish settlers and their right-wing allies in the Knesset gathered in front of the American consulate in Jerusalem for a torchlight rally against Obama's proposals. My friends Joseph Dana and Mairav Zonszein were there with a video camera to document the demonstrators' histrionics. According to Dana, no other journalists shot video of the event.

"Saddam Hussein Obama! Saddam Hussein Obama!" the settlers chanted. "Piss off, you little shit!" a young radical growled when asked if he had a message for the American president.

"I believe if Barack Obama manages to hurt Israel they will be punished," said another twenty-something rightist. "At some point Israel will survive and America will fall."

The most remarkable comment came from a demonstrator who claimed that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a former civilian volunteer for the Israeli army and the son of a former member of the Zionist terrorist group Irgun, is a self-hating Jew.

Emanuel "is an auto-anti-Semite," the protester said. "He is a Jew that has something against his Jewishness."

In another era, it might have been possible to dismiss such a remark as paranoia from the far-right fringe. Unfortunately, Netanyahu is reported to have said the very same thing in private discussions with his top advisers. According to Ha'aretz correspondent Barak Ravid, the Israeli Prime Minister has routinely referred to Emanuel and David Axelrod as "self-hating Jews." Like the settlers whose rhetoric he apparently emulates, Netanyahu has become unhinged by Obama's interference with Israel's ongoing colonization of the West Bank.

Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, will hold several meetings this week with top members of Netanyahu's government. Seeking to tamp down on the growing rancor between Tel Aviv and Washington, Mitchell called the meetings "discussions between friends."

But who are the Israeli Prime Minister's real friends? The settlers who cheered Rabin's murder and now inveigh violently against Obama, or the American administration that has pledged to ship his country advanced weaponry and billions in loan guarantees? The White House must force Netanyahu to decide.

Follow Max Blumenthal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal

Comments

[Bramble8]

These right wing jews are the problem.

[efdcapt115]

You know, all of my life I've grown up supporting Israel; and rooting for a just solution to the geopolitical problems that plague the middle east. I remember 1st getting really interested when I was in 10th grade and Saddat/Begin were making peace progress. I remember the horror I felt at Saddat's assasination. With Israel owing much of it's existence (and certainly a lot of military hardware and financial aid) to the U.S., I'd expect Israelis to have a little more respect for our young and intelligent POTUS and his fine staff. Is there no person in Israel who sees the connection between Obama's brilliant speech in Cairo, and the Green Revolution underway in Iran right now? The power of intelligence, the power of the spoken word; these are being demonstrated by the Obama administration daily. And yet, I feel my unyeilding support for Israel buckling when I hear these haters and their disgraceful remarks about Obama. Wake up right-wingers in Israel. You can't keep up the land grab game anymore. People like me are losing our patience with Israel when it appears like they want to thumb their noses at the U.S, at Obama, and at fresh ideas to help solve the conflict, and just keep taking land illegally from the WB. Keep on bad mouthing my President, and one day soon you might find me bad mouthing Israel; something I never thought would happen.

[lizr]

thanks Max for publishing this CHILLING story.

[tbonehead]

Where will America hide if anything happens to President Obama; the SHAME will not be big enough to cover us; it will be the beginning of the end of America!!!

[max08]

These are the political descendants of Brooklyn-born Meir Kahane, which no less than the Israeli Courts and government labeled a terrorist in 1988. A Kahanist killed Rabin.

Ha'aretz editor Benn asked on the Op-Ed page of the NYT this week why Obama wont come to Israel. Watch the video for your answer. Since Fox is the only US tv station in Israel, is this Glenn Beck's real audience when he race-baits the President of the United States?

[Klimb]

All previous presidents did to Israel what Obama is trying to do but their lives were never threatened like they are doing to Obama. Again, it seems ok when POTUS talks to blacks as he did in Ghana and NAACP but how dare he talks to others the same way. Mitchell is carrying the same messages Bill Clinton had in the 1990s but some would rather make it personal against Obama.

[alexa07]

It is outrageous that such statements are made against President Obama, but much more outrageous that the US media is burying this story. If these extremist statements were made by any other group in the region, they would have been spread across our media, from CNN to ABC to Fox, 24/7. The huge filters that protect anything negative about Israel are still at work, nefariously working to protect racist fanatics. Thank you, Max for all you do to promote fairness, justice & non-discrimination in Palestine.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
If Obama has an assassination attempt conducted against him, we now have the prime suspects with means and motive on file.

[Darwin256]

Other videos:

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/videos/

[NoFactsJustTruth]

Crazy spooky stuff, Max, because it's very hard for some of us to come to terms with the type of hatred and hypocrisy that would prefer to see a scorched earth - to peace and equality between peoples.

Stay safe there, my friend.

[bdaved]

Max, are they going to leave one of your videos on here for a change?

[mikesw]

A video of lunatics baying at the moon.

[MalleusMaleficarum]

Thank you, Max Blumenthal, for your perceptive reports from Israel. Your reports are illuminating the psychology of the nation that America has nurtured, protected, supported, financed and armed for the past 4 decades. Needless to say, it is disappointing that so many Israelis loathe the President of the United States who is doing so much more than his predecessors to achieve a broad-based peace settlement with the Arab nations surrounding the state of Israel. With its outspoken extremists, the current government of Israel is a government too far. America should now withhold USAID and weapons to such a government for the likelihood that the funds and weapons will be used to violate international law and the Geneva Conventions is now overwhelming. US authorities should prosecute all cases of espionage against the United States including those citizens of Israel who have collaborated with foreign intelligence agents to disclose classified intelligence -- including agents of Israel. It is now time for an even-handed approach to return to US foreign policy after a very long period of unbalanced and counterproductive policies that favored Israel over the human rights of the Palestinians.

[Freenation]

the part which i liked in the vodeo was 'give us money but don't ask us what to do', well yeah we will tell you what to do and if you are competent enough to go alone you are welcome...

[pvernier]

Let's take our money and weapons and go home.

Israel already seen that it faces a different foe in Lebanon and Gaza. The next 7 day war may not go so well.

[Johnny2Bad]

The question that needs to be asked is why no other journalists covered this demonstration? Why wasn't this footage shown on the BBC and every U.S. Network news? The answer is simple. The powers that control these media outlets don't want the rest of the world to see that fascism is alive and well in Israel. Why that could get Americans thinking they were subsidizing a hateful nation whose citizens wanted to murder our President.
Fascism was wrong in 1933, it is wrong today no matter what government practices it. No matter what that country's history may be. Use of events that occured over 70 years ago will never justify fascism and the desire to assassinate a country's leader.
Israel has violated international law for over 60 years. All U.S. aid financial and military aid to Israel should be stopped immediately. The world community must isolate Israel and make the country account for its violations of international law, apartheid policies and war crimes.