Don't Mention the 'T' Word!

Writing about the parents of the new Israeli prime minister, Tzipi Livni, the Fairfax press simply called a spade a spade:

"Livni's parents were senior members of the British Mandate-era Jewish terrorist group, the Irgun, which was responsible for the 1946 bombing of the Mandate headquarters in the King David Hotel that killed 91 people. Born into such a large pro-Zionist family, Livni was long opposed to the idea of an independent state for Palestinians and was a firm believer in the dream of a so-called Greater Israel." (Livni the favourite to become Israeli PM, Jason Koutsoukis, Sydney Morning Herald 13/9/08)

The Murdoch press, on the other hand, reserves the 'T' word for Palestinians, Arabs, and more generally Muslims. Other, pre-9/11 terms, seldom heard in the ms media these days, and never before in Murdoch fish-wrapper*, were trotted out to describe Eitan Livni and Sara Rosenberg:

"Daughter of Eitan Livni and Sara Rosenberg, leaders of the Irgun guerilla movement, which fought to establish Israel in the 1940s." (Golda moment, The Australian, 19/9/08)

"However, the young politician initially stood out largely because of her revolutionary parents, both of whom had held key positions in the Jewish resistance, which had fought British rule before Israel's creation in 1948. Her parents... played key militant roles in the hardline nationalist group, Irgun, which had attacked the mandated British troops for 3** decades in a campaign that was labelled terrorism." (Child of revolutionaries secures real power, Martin Chulov, The Australian, 19/9/08)

Cute!

[*With one (1) exception: See my 6/8/08 post The 'R' Word. **Chulov and/or his editor is here playing fast and loose with the facts to fit with the myth of a heroic Zionist struggle for independence from the Zionist movement's colonial backer, rebadged as oppressor. For the Irgun terrorists to have been fighting British Mandate troops for "3 decades," the organization would have to have been around in 1918, 4 years before the British Mandate even began (1922), and 13 years before it actually came into existence (1931)! In fact, Irgun terrorists didn't begin knocking off British troops until 1944. Palestinian Arab civilians, however, were a different matter - See my 27/6/08 post, Breathtaking Zionist Hypocrisy.]