"MY BROTHER DID IT"

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Shortly after Israeli Security officials revealed that they had failed to act on a tip about a plot to kill Yitzhak Rabin last June, the assassin's brother, Hagai Amir, appeared in court Sunday proclaiming his innocence. "I have nothing to do with it," said Hagai. "My brother did it. He [Yigal] is not crazy. He did what he did after a lot of thinking." Also in the courtroom were the parents of the two brothers. Though Geula Amir has already denounced Yigal -- "He is not mine" -- she held up a sign in court reading, "Hagai, be strong. We love you and will give you a lawyer." Hagai has been accused of helping prepare the bullets his brother used to kill Rabin as well as hiding weapons and explosives at his home. The June tip, Israel authorities are now saying, came from Shlomo Halevy, a friend of Yigal Amir, who reported it to his army commander. But it remains unclear how he heard about it. "They think now that he heard about it from his girlfriend and made up a story about hearing it in a bus station bathroom to protect her," says McGeary. "The bottom line here is the total failure of the vaunted Israeli security system. And what does seem clear is that they didn't treat threats from Jewish extremists the same as they did those from Arab extremists."