What I Have To Put Up With
by Barry Chamish
Last Friday, Maariv's weekend magazine published a three page interview with Dr. Mordechai Gutman, Yitzhak Rabin's last chief surgeon. On the cover of the magazine was a photo of Gutman walking and a banner headline, "There Was No Third Bullet." I was ecstatic. The second biggest newspaper in Israel felt compelled on the fifth anniversary of Rabin's murder to answer my main contention: that Rabin was shot three times, once frontally, not twice in the back as our government insisted. The implication, of course, is that Yigal Amir never shot Rabin three times nor from the front. My work was having the impact I long fought for and desired.
Two journalists who received advance copies of the article were equally excited. "Gutman," said one, "is in for it. Everyone will spot his lies." And when I finally read the article, I discovered that Dr. Gutman didn't let me down. Not at all. In fact, I was thoroughly delighted by his disastrous presentation. Here is the letter I wrote to Maariv:
"Dr. Gutman tries desperately to prove, "There Was No Third Bullet," because no third bullet ever exited Rabin's body.
"Whoever claimed that one did? Certainly not me or my colleagues. We simply repeat Dr. Gutman's surgical notes which report that a bullet "passed through the upper lobe of the right lung, leaving a 3 cm. wound exit wound in the lung before continuing to vertebrae D5-6, then shattering them."
"Dr. Gutman is posing his own contradictions, then answering them. Further, he claims that this wound description was a case of mistaken inscription. If so, then he made the same mistake three times in one night, for he describes precisely the same wound in his Surgical Wound and Operation Summary.
"Dr. Gutman seems to forget that seven other doctors and nurses, including Health Minister Ephraim Sneh and Ichilov Hospital Director Gaby Barabash also reported the same third frontal wound that night. On top of that, Shimon Peres in a PBS interview says that he saw Rabin's body and it was wounded three times including once from a frontal shot that passed through the song sheet Rabin put in his front jacket pocket.
"So who is telling the truth, Sneh, Barabah, Peres et al or Gutman?
"And what are we supposed to say about Dr. Gutman and all the other doctors reporting that Rabin died of spinal shock, a shattering of the spinal cord, from this third shot? How do we explain that the State Pathologist concluded that there "was no damage to the spinal cord," or that the Shamgar Commission Of Inquiry chose to accept that conclusion over that of five other doctors, including Gutman himself?
"Gutman simply does not bring up this central of all issues in his interview.
"And how do we account for his lies? He says that the disputed section of the surgeon's report was taken out of context from a three page report. I have the full report and it is six pages long. And nothing is taken out of context. Dr. Gutman reports treating two other wounds and then describes his treatment of the third, frontal wound.
"The Rabin assassination must be reinvestigated and if Dr. Gutman is found to be lying, as I insist he is, then steps must be taken towards his permanent disbarment from the medical profession."
Today I received several phone calls and letters claiming someone was spreading a rumor that the Maariv article somehow discredited me. I was dumbfounded. For the past two days my phone hasn't stopped ringing. People throughout Israel read the interview and saw it as a major breakthrough. They knew the facts of the Rabin murder and saw right through Dr. Gutman's deceit. Clearly, I had underestimated the stupidity of the rest of the country.
Then I received a phone call from New York telling me the rumor monger was one Stephen Plut. "Not him again," I thought. This man has a sick obsession with my work that is hard to explain unless he is doing someone's dirty work. I've never met him so I called a colleague of his to find out why I have this scandal monger on my back.
He told me, "We worked together every now and then back in the late '80s. We were both committed to bringing a free market economy to Israel. He prepared a paper that was recognized in some economic circles and wrote regularly for the Jerusalem Post.
"He has long since been axed from the Post and faded into obscurity. He tries to make up for his fall from grace by writing from a 1970s conservative angle, you know, satires about feminism and the like, but he hasn't the talent to gain a following.
"He might actually be working for some agency but I think you're looking at a frustrated mediocrity, long ago left behind. You're the new wave and he's too shallow to understand why. While you are having books published worldwide, he is seething about a world which won't recognize his self-perceived greatness. Ignore him, he's not important to you or anybody."
Tonight, I hosted a high ranking military figure in my home. He heard my conversation from New York and added, "You know what the discrediters can't figure out? The more they attack you, the better your work gets known. They can't figure out that neglect is your greatest enemy."
And here's some news that will really tick off the Pluts of the world. I have a wonderful new American publisher for my latest book, The Last Days Of Israel. Write Dandelion Books at cadler@dandelionbooks.com
or call 1-877-517-9436
And as a final blow to mediocrity, the first reviews of the new edition of Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin have come in and they are wonderful. Call Brookline Books at 1 800 666 BOOK or write
brooklinebks@delphi.com
Please visit http://www.webseers.com/rabin
###
Carol Adler, MFA
Dandelion Enterprises & Dandelion Books
www.dandelionbooks.com
NOW TAKING ADVANCE ORDERS FOR:
THE LAST DAYS OF ISRAEL, by Barry Chamish [$16.95]
THE WAYS OF SPIRIT, by Susan Averett Lee ($25.95)
ADVENTURE CAPITAL, by John Rushing ($14.95)
GIZA-GENESIS, THE BEST KEPT SECRETS,
by Howard Middleton-Jones & James M. Wilkie ($16.95)
RETURN TO MASADA, by Robert G. Makin ($15.95)
SEVEN STRATEGIES IN EVERY BEST SELLER,
by Tam Mossman ($14.95)
THE WOMAN WITH QUALITIES, by Sarah Daniels ($14.95)
TOLL-FREE ORDERING - 1-877-517-9436
5250 South Hardy Drive - #3067
Tempe, Arizona 85283
Tel. - 480-897-4452
Fax - 480-897-4453
Ghostwriting, Editing, Publishing
Speeches, Memoirs, Media Kits
