JERUSALEM: Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin said in interview excerpts broadcast yesterday that he decided to kill the Israeli prime minister because of warnings by three hawkish ex-generals that Rabin’s land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians would bring disaster to Israel.

Rabin was shot dead by ultra-nationalist activist Yigal Amir at the end of a peace rally on Nov. 4, 1995.

In his first media interview since the killing, Amir said he was spurred into action by comments by Ariel Sharon, Rehavam Zeevi and Rafael Eitan, at the time leading right-wing politicians with long military careers. Amir told Israel’s Channel 10 TV that he realized killing Rabin was possible after seeing him protected by only one bodyguard at a wedding they both attended.

After the Rabin assassination, many in Israel blamed hard-line politicians as well as hawkish rabbis for creating a divisive political climate that encouraged the assassin.

Amir said he paid little attention to the rabbis.

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

“You don’t need a rabbi for that. It’s not a matter of a rabbi,” he said.

Sharon went on to become Israel’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006, when he was rendered comatose by a stroke. Zeevi was assassinated by a Palestinian in 2001, and Eitan drowned in a stormy Mediterranean in 2004.

Amir said he realized that killing Rabin would be relatively simple when he attended a friend’s wedding to the daughter of a prominent rabbi. Amir was armed with a pistol, and Rabin was also there, protected only by one bodyguard.

It would have been easy to approach Rabin, Amir said: “I saw that it was that simple. If I could shake his hand, I could have easily shot him.”

Amir gave telephone interviews to Channel 10 and Channel 2 under the guise of conversations with his wife from his cell. He is serving life in prison.

As punishment for giving interviews without permission, Israel’s Prisons Authority moved Amir to solitary confinement in a different prison. He has been forbidden to use the telephone, receive visitors or hold conjugal visits with his wife, a statement said.

While in prison, Amir married an admirer, Larissa Trimbobler, and the two had a son last year.

The TV stations were criticized yesterday by Israeli lawmakers who said they should not give Amir exposure.

Zevulun Orlev of the National Union Party told Israel Radio: “I think the interviews with this despicable murderer broke the quarantine and the social exclusion that have rightly been put on Yigal Amir.”

Channel 2 backed down, while Channel 10 said it still plans to broadcast the full interview later.

Israelis will mark the 13th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination next week.