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Champion of ‘war on terror,’ Bill Kristol uses one euphemism after another for terrorism in paean to Shamir

Jim Lobe has a brilliant post up on Bill Kristol whiting out Yitzhak Shamir’s devotion to terror, though Shamir himself embraced the tactic. Here is a long excerpt from Lobe, ending just before a short catalog of some of Shamir’s terrorist acts. Go to the link to read that list. 

Bill Kristol’s eulogy for the late Israeli leader has not received the attention it deserves, particularly considering Kristol’s championship from the get-go of the “global war on terror”. His eulogy was included in the Weekly Standard’s lead editorial entitled “Profiles in Courage.”

“Yitzhak Shamir, who died June 30 also at age 96, immigrated to Palestine in 1935. After first serving in the Zionist military organization, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, he led the militant Lohamei Herut Israel—Fighters for the Freedom of Israel—in the 1940s in the fight for Israel’s independence. His means were not always respectable, and he did what he judged necessary—though no more. Founders cannot always be fastidious, and statesmanship involves moral dilemmas. Shamir resolved those dilemmas in favor of the safety and well-being of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Then, as foreign minister and prime minister 40 years later, he resisted pressure for concessions by Israel for the sake of a fanciful peace process—while opening wide the doors of Israel to massive immigration from Russia and elsewhere, immigration that has, as he foresaw, immensely strengthened the nation he served so selflessly and resolutely.”

Predictably, Kristol did not use the word “terrorist” in his description of Shamir’s role in the Irgun and Lehi, otherwise known as the “Stern Gang,” the group that he headed after its founder was shot dead by the British in 1942. Instead, he deployed a series of euphemisms: “not always respectable” is the closest he gets to any hint of disapproval, generously observing that “statesmanship involves moral dilemmas” — to describe Shamir’s activities.

Shamir himself was refreshingly blunter, writing in a 1943 article entitled “Terror” (hat tip to Nima Shirazi writing in ConsortiumNews.com), suggesting that he didn’t spend too much time agonizing over the kinds of moral dilemmas Kristol thinks he faced:

“Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war. … We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle.”

Writing a few days before Shamir’s death, Yossi Sarid listed a few “typical cases” of terrorist acts committed by the Irgun and Lehi in Haaretz:

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Ha!

“typical cases” in quotation marks.

“Yitzhak Shamir, who died June 30 also at age 96, immigrated to Palestine in 1935. After first serving in the Zionist military organization, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, he led the militant Lohamei Herut Israel—Fighters for the Freedom of Israel—in the 1940s in the fight for Israel’s independence. His means were not always respectable, and he did what he judged necessary—though no more.” – Bill Kristol

“If we are to understand Kristol correctly, all of this (not counting additional acts of terrorism by Lehi in the decade that followed), could be justified on the basis that they were for “the safety and well-being of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.” Which obviously begs the question of whether Kristol believes that similar acts of terror could be justified for any other group of people in any other land.” – Jim Lobe

Let’s try:

Osama bin Laden, who died May 2, 2011 at age 54, immigrated to Afghanistan in 1996 . After first serving in the Muslim military organization, the ‘mujahideen resistance’ in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, he led the militant Al-Qaeda—Fighters for the Freedom of Muslims. His means were not always respectable, and he did what he judged necessary—though no more.

“Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war. … We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle.” – Shamir

“Neither Muslim morality nor Muslim tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war. … We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle.” – Western propaganda. (And also Muslims get a lot of virgins for revenging murder of virgins).

Anders Yitzhak Osama Shamir bin Mohammed Behring bin Awad bin Laden Icchak Jeziernicky Breivik.

Crazy people…