For the first time, former Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin spoke with reporters about his decision to assassinate Rabin.

Yigal Amir, extreme Zionist, killed Rabin at a Tel Aviv rally on Nov. 4, 1995. Amir considered Rabin a traitor for signing the Oslo peace accords in 1993.

He told Israel’s Channel 10 TV, an interview recorded secretly, that he was inspired to kill Rabin by right-wing politicians such as Ariel Sharon, Rehavam Zeevi and Rafael Eitan.

Excerpts of the interview were published Thursday, the rest would follow today. However, the channel will not air the interview in its entirety due to complaints it received. Amir was not allowed to talk to any journalists, so he pretended he made phonecalls with his wife. In fact, however, he was talking to journalists who were recording him.

Many moderate Israelis fear that Amir may become more of a hero than he already is to extreme rightists. His wife is one of those people: Amir married her in jail. She was an ‘admirer’ who contacted him after he was imprisoned.