Travails of an Indiscreet Assassin

photo: David Furst/AFP/Getty Images

Considering that he shot and killed a much-loved Israeli prime minister, Yigal Amir had a cushy time of it in prison. In his cell, the unrepentant assassin was able to keep a library, a TV set and DVD player, an electric kettle for his afternoon tea, and even enjoy conjugal visits from his wife.

It's hard to imagine that in other countries, an assassin would have the celebrity and liberties that Amir did in Israel. But he is a unique case. In batty, rightwing circles Amir is hailed as a hero for killing Premier Yitzak Rabin at a 1995 rally. Rabin's death was a huge blow to hopes for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and Amir, along with his extremist fans, likes to think that the killing was a job well done.

But Amir blew it. Furious wardens found out that he had given interviews to local Israeli television channels from the prison phone. They stripped him of his privileges and banished him on Friday to a high-security prison.

There's a cruel and no doubt unintentional irony to this transfer. Amir now resides in a prison where he'll be surrounded by Palestinian terrorists. No doubt he and his Arab inmates will have much in common; Amir shot Rabin for signing the Oslo accord with the Palestinians, and most of the terrorists locked up with him are also against peace, from the Palestinian side. In their bloody extremism and banality, their viewpoints are one and the same.

And, there go his perks: Amir was stripped of all but a bed, toilet items and a Bible. His conjugal visits are probably gone for a while, too.

Israelis were enraged over Amir's prison interviews –-and at the media for airing his rightwing diatribes. As Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: “Amir should not have any part in the public dialogue.” His pregnant wife Larissa was recently asked on army radio if she would tell her future child that his father was an assassin, she replied,: “I will tell him that his father sacrificed himself for the sake of his people." Chilling.

By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem