Rabin's assassin says influenced by Sharon

Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, in his first interviews since the 1995 killing, said he shot the Israeli prime minister because Ariel Sharon and other hawkish ex-generals warned Rabin's land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians would bring disaster.

Yigal Amir fatally shot Rabin at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv on Nov. 4, 1995. He considered Rabin a traitor for signing the 1993 Oslo peace accord with the Palestinians, agreeing to return land Israel had captured in wars.

Amir told Israel's Channel 10 TV he was spurred into action by comments from Sharon, Rehavam Zeevi and Rafael Eitan. At the time of the killing, all three were leading right-wing politicians with long, distinguished military careers.

Asked who had an impact on his decision to kill Rabin, Amir replied: "Sharon, Raful, Gandhi, all of the people who understand the military and said this agreement would bring a disaster." He referred to Eitan and Zeevi by their respective nicknames, Raful and Gandhi.

Sharon went on to become prime minister from 2001 to 2006 and in 2005, ended Israel's 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip before he was rendered comatose by a stroke. Zeevi was assassinated by a Palestinian militant in 2001, and Eitan was killed when he was washed into a stormy Mediterranean in 2004.

Excerpts of Amir's interview were broadcast for the first time on Thursday and were to be aired in full on Friday. Later in the day, however, the station decided not to broadcast the full interview after the excerpts set off an uproar for giving exposure to Amir. The interview was a violation of a prisons service ban on Amir talking to the media. Channel 2, which also interviewed Amir, scrubbed its planned Friday broadcast as well. More