Terrorism - an Israeli family business

He was born Yerucham Bzozowitch in Gerodna, Poland, in 1919 and arrived later in Palestine and at some time adopted the name Eitan Livini.. He became a member of the Irgun group, headed by Menachem Begin, later Israel’s Prime Minister. Irgun began a campaign of violent terrorism against the British administration in Palestine at the beginning of 1944.

Eitan Livni, had been on the British wanted list for several months. He was a member of the Irgun high command and Begin's righthand man.

He was captured and with 31 others, was tried in Jerusalem by a military court on June 27, 1944, and sentenced to 15 years. (pic is of the whore on Terror and Livni's daughter - she is on the left (of the picture) in Washington this week - just in time to meet those friendlt folks (and a few spies) in AIPAC)

His imprisonment was one of the reasons for the Irgun's decision to launch its most militarily spectacular anti-British operation: the attack on May 4, 1946, on the crusader fortress at Acre. The fortress, which was being used as a prison by the British, had successfully withstood a siege by Napoleon's forces in 1799 when it was in Ottoman hands and had been captured by Allenby in 1918.

The Irgun assault on the fortress was well planned both inside and outside the prison, explosives having been smuggled in beforehand. Livni masterminded the operation inside and the escapees included 30 Irgun men, 11 members of the Stern group an extremist breakaway group from the Irgun and many more Arab prisoners. Away from the fortress however they encountered a group of passing British soldiers and in the battle that ensued nine Irgun men were killed.

Livni then resumed his leadership role in Irgun, in spite of being hunted by the British, and in August 1947 was dispatched by Begin to organise Irgun's military activities against British targets in Europe. He returned nine months later on May 15, 1948, the day the British withdrew from Palestine and modern Israel was declared.

Only last week the official records office at Kew, London released details of Israeli terrorists sent to London to assassinate Foreign Minister Bevin and others. The MI5 files contain a report that Irgun carried out the attack after drawing lots with two other militant groups, Stern and Hagana. Stern drew the lot to attack British ships in the Mediterranean while Hagana were chosen to attack army camps.

In August 1946, the month after the King David attack, Major James Robertson, head of MI5’s Middle East section, warned London that both Begin’s group and Stern were sending five terrorist cells to the capital to mirror IRA tactics of bombing and assassination.

“In recent months it has been reported that they have been training selected members for the purpose of assassinating a prominent British personality. Special reference has been several times made to Mr Bevin.”

Bevin, the Labour foreign secretary, was an opponent of the creation of a Jewish state and had recommended that Jewish refugees in Europe should be forcibly prevented from emigrating to Palestine. It is difficult to believe that the release of these papers was a "coincidence". Miss Livni's dad was probably one of the terrorists sent to kill the Foreign Minister - maybe Jack Straw should take note.

In the war that then began (after the founding of Israel), with the Arab forces Levni led the first Irgun battalion into the newly-formed Israel Defence Forces and was a commander in one of the fiercest battles against the Arabs in the Sharon district east of Tel Aviv.

Following independence Livni became chairman of the Irgun veterans organisation but in the 1970s, as a result of pressure from Begin who was by this time the leader of the parliamentary opposition, he was elected a member of the Israeli Knesset. He remained there for three terms and helped to bring about the rightwing Likud coalition which gained power in 1977.

Eitan Livni died in February 1992.

His daughter Tzipi (short for the biblical name Tziporah) was taken to visit Begin every Saturday.

She grew up part of Likud's royalty as a child of what is known as a ''fighting family.' The heroes of the "palach".

Tzipi grew up to become a lawyer She served in the army, becoming a lieutenant, and at the age of 22 began working for the Mossad, the intelligence service, where she stayed for four years. She does not discuss those duties. ''It was wonderful,'' she said, laughing. ''But it taught me skills I cannot use.'' Oh yeah ?

She married Naftali Shpitzer, worked as a real estate lawyer and first ran for Parliament in 1999, eight years after her father died, when she was over 40. Despite the late start, she has risen fast, serving in five ministries and earning the deep trust of Mr. Sharon, who made her Justice Minister and allowed her into his inner circle, the security cabinet, which planned and carried out the painful pullout from Gaza last summer.

Tzipi Livni, 47, is the first woman to serve as Israel's foreign minister since (appointed Jan 16th 2006 and still serves as Justice Minister) Golda Meir did so half a century ago. Some think she may be the first since Ms. Meir to be Prime Minister.

This is what she said after joining her mentor Ariel Sharon into Kadima from Likud … Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people. This should be also the true meaning of the future Palestinian state...In other words, the establishment of a Palestinian state takes [care of] what the Palestinians call the 'right of return'." Now that’s what the rest of the world call apartheid.

Again she spells it out in the Washington Post …” My need as an Israeli and a Jew is to keep a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people, a sovereign, Jewish and democratic state with a Jewish majority. So how do we [do that]? The idea is to divide the land, to give up some of our rights on the land of Israel and to establish a two-state solution.”


Now 47 she regularly visits her father’s grave…. On his gravestone is written, "Here lies the Head of Operations of the Irgun -- the underground that fought for the establishment of the State of Israel." And on his tombstone he left a map of Greater Israel -- with both sides of the Jordan Valley being part of Israel.

When in London last week, this scion of terrorists (her mother was an Irgun heroine) was pressuring the British Government to find an immediate solution that would allow Brigadier-General Aviv Kochavi to arrive in the UK as planned for a year of studies at the Kimberly military academy. Kochavi is currently facing an arrest threat in Britain, due to his service as commander of the Israeli army in Gaza.

Tzipi Livni on Sunday reported to the cabinet ministers that in her visit to London last week, her counterparts in the country have also voiced their concern regarding the issue of Israeli’s visiting the UK facing charges brought by private citizens, and said they intend to resolve it as quickly as possible.

The British Foreign Ministry is currently formulating a solution to the problem that will not necessitate legal amendments to the constitution. According to this new procedure, which has already been approved by British legal officials, courts in the kingdom will be prohibited from issuing arrest warrants against foreign citizens without the authorization of the chief prosecutor.

This new regulation will enable the government to supervise over lawsuits and prevent the mass issuing of arrest warrants against IDF officers and other Israeli officials.

The British hope this new procedure will prevent damage to the relations between the two countries.

Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday that Britain has informed Israel it is close to finding a solution that will enable IDF officers to visit the UK without fear of getting arrested due to war crime lawsuits filed against them.

This is what she said to Newsweek last week ....

"Israel made clear in the last few months that the participation of Hamas in the Palestinian Authority elections is totally against any kind of democratic values," Livni says. "Abu Mazan says he is weak. When a leader is weak and cannot confront the terrorist organizations, this is the real importance of the international community -- to say it will not accept terrorist organizations as part of any parliament, any government."

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