In Israel, the leftist-controlled media regularly draw a distinction between the "sane Right" and the "insane Right". And after each such piece, the usual people then write in letters against the distinction, insisting that ANYONE who opposes Oslo must be part of the insane Right.

And of course, the media are unwilling to acknowledge it, but there exist in Israel both an "insane Left" and a moderate Left. The Insane Left is the Labor Party and the Moderate Left is the Likud.

Having noted this, let us also bear in mind that just because the Left contains lunatics, this does not rule out the fact that there are also lunatics on the Israeli Right. Indeed, there IS an Insane Right, and it consists at the moment of those people who belong to the Rabin Conspiracy Cult, those people "discovering evidence" that a grand conspiracy of the Shin-Bet and Shimon Peres actually were behind the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. These people have launched a new initiative in recent days to boost their cult "theories" and get them new attention.

Ordinarily such conspiracy nuts would not be worth cyberspace. The problem is that, thanks to these Insane Right conspiracy nuts, the Right in Israel has even less chance of altering national policy and influencing events than ever. Instead of succeeding in discrediting Peres, these conspiracy cultists simply discredit themselves and the forces opposing Oslo. The activities of the conspiracy cult simply result in the bulk of the public dismissing - justifiably so - these people as loopy marginal fringe and assume they have nothing of value to contribute to public policy debate. Because of the vocal presence of these cultists within the Right - they this week ran a conspiracy convention in Jerusalem - much of the Israeli public, who are sick and tired of Oslo, will never identify with the Israeli Right nor endorse its agenda. The conspiracy cult is undermining the ability of the anti-Oslo Right to rescue the country from Oslo. If the country is destroyed by Oslo, these people will bear their fair share of the blame.

The simple fact of the matter is that not a shred of REAL evidence has been produced by them that there was any conspiracy beyond the Amir brothers in the Rabin assassination. The conspiracy cultists have produced "evidence" consisting of "questions" regarding such cosmic mysteries as why someone near the assassination might have yelled "Blanks Blanks". Every single one of these "questions" has reasonable alternative simple answers that do NOT involve any conspiracy. Occam’s Razor is something these cultists have never heard of.

The possibility that someone just thought blanks were being fired, that real bullets are often mistaken for blanks such as at the Colorado school shooting, or that people nearby just found it hard to believe real bullets were being fired, is all dismissed by the cultists. (The cultists also insist that anyone who questions their "evidence" must himself be part of the global conspiracy.) Lots of people watching the attacks on the WTC did not think they were real, and suspected a Hollywood film was being shot. Instead, the cultists insist that if someone said Blanks Blanks, this proves that Yigal Amir fired blanks and that therefore the REAL killers on some grassy knoll, no doubt Shin Bet agents hired by Peres, REALLY killed Rabin.

Some "evidence"! Except no one bothered to let Amir in on the conspiracy; he still insists that he fired hollow-point bullets into Rabin.

Meanwhile, the conspiracy cultists claim victory because some segments of the Israeli public now think there was really a conspiracy to kill Rabin. What they overlook is that, thanks to six years of media McCarthyism, most of those Israelis who think there was a conspiracy actually think it was a conspiracy of Likud/Rightist /anti-Oslo people, not a flaky conspiracy theory about Peres and the Shin Bet. The conspiracy cult people also pat their own backs when the Rabin family members say THEY think there are "unanswered questions" about the assassination. The only problem is that the Rabin family have been at the forefront of the McCarthyist campaign to paint all anti-Oslo dissidents as criminal murderers who were really responsible for Amir, and so the Insane Right plays right into their hands by spouting its conspiracy theories. The "unanswered questions" raised by the Rabins are about how Netanyahu and the Likud and anti-Oslo Rabbis somehow inspired Amir.

The rest of the "evidence" produced by the Insane Right is no more persuasive. Someone told Leah Rabin not to ride in the car with her husband? Proof the Shin Bet was planning to murder Rabin on the way to the hospital, say the cultists. The possibility that they just did not think she should be in the seat with her husband gushing blood is just one more imponderable.

Someone claims that Dalia Rabin-Filosof claims that her mother Leah Rabin claimed that someone (we do not know who) told her he thought some sort of drill was going on when the shots were heard - THAT is "evidence" in the minds of the cultists that a conspiracy of Peres and the Shin Bet killed Rabin and used Amir as patsy. The fact that someone might have said he thought a drill was going on (IF anyone said it) simply because he mistakenly thought one was going on? Like those people thinking the attacks on WTC were a film or accident? Imponderable, say the cultists. Must reopen the Shamgar investigation due to these rumors, they insist.

Rabin had three bullet wounds when Amir fired two? Proof the Shin Bet murdered him, insist the cultists. Never mind that the emergency room hospital people long ago clarified. He had two bullet wounds, but at first they thought three cause he had so much damage thanks to the hollow-point bullets Amir prepared but the cultists insist he never fired. The admission staff at the hospital were in error at first. As they often are.

How did Rabin walk after his spine was cut by a bullet? More proof of Shin Bet cabals, insist the cultists. In fact, the spine was never cut, a vertebra bone was chipped. Initial hospital admissions evaluation before thorough evaluation was wrong, as it often is in hospitals. ALL of the rest of the "evidence" of a conspiracy is of similar value and similar nature. "Questions" that prove nothing and have simple explanations. The cultists use similar standards of proof, the same standards by which Barry Chamish has proved that UFOs control life on earth and CFR agents run Israel.

Avishai Raviv heard about Amir’s plans and urged him on cause the Shin Bet wanted Rabin dead, insist the cultists. Never mind that Rabin was performing the work of the Peres Left wonderfully when he was killed. The possibility that Raviv, like everyone else, dismissed Amir’s talk as bravado? Imponderable, say the cultists.

Now the problem here is that Raviv actually WAS involved in some nasty political dirty tricks designed to discredit the Right, ordered by his handlers, and the Israeli Left HAS demonstrated little interest in democracy and free speech, and routinely behaves in an anti-democratic fashion. Some anti-Oslo dissidents are so mad about that, and enraged at Peres, they are willing to grasp onto any infantile conspiracy theories as "revenge" against the leftist establishment. Instead, they simply succeed in consigning themselves to irrelevance and impotence by such nonsense.

The anti-Oslo Right will never have any impact on events in Israel as long as it fails to distance itself from the conspiracy cultists of the Insane Right.

The Prophet Jeremiah warned people not to believe in conspiracies. So does the wonderful book by Daniel Pipes.

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission