Murder in the Name of God

Book excerpt: The first book to tell the complete, explosive story of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. A dramatic tale of treachery and betrayal, Murder in the Name of God investigates and recreates the historic events of November 4, 1995. On that night a twenty-five-year-old student named Yigal Amir assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, an act that abruptly changed the course of Israeli politics. Based on exhaustive research, including an exclusive interview with the assassin, Murder in the Name of God is the first book to give the full story of the people whose words and actions made Rabin's assassination inevitable: the nationalist rabbis who condemned Rabin by invoking an arcane talmudic ruling; the militant settlers and right-wing politicians who launched a sophisticated campaign of incitement against him; and the security experts who saw what was coming but failed to act. In a series of shocking revelations, the book ranges beyond Israel to expose the extent of American support--financial and ideological--for the movement that produced Rabin's killer. Far more than the tale of an assassination, Murder in the Name of God is a powerful indictment of a society's failure to examine itself honestly and to bring its own worst enemies to justice.