New York Times Reporter Deborah Solomon Calls Zionist Terrorism "Romantic" During Interview with Israel's Tzipi Livni

Deborah Solomon, New York Times reporter, sparks outrage after saying Zionist terrorism was "romantic" during interview with Israel's Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni about her parents.

How could anyone call Zionist terrorism "romantic?" During a recent New York Times interview with Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel's centrist Kadima party, bragged that her parents, who were both members of the Zionist militant group Irgun in the 1940s, were the first couple to be married in the newly-formed state of Israel. She said, "both of them were in the Irgun," Livni said. "They were freedom fighters and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons." New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon then responded: "It was a more romantic era." Really? Zionist terrorism romantic? It is amazing that this got little mainstream media news coverage, but then again, the big news outlets are biased in their coverage of the news. That's just a fact.

How do you ignore the fact that Ms. Livni's parents belonged to a terrorist group? Irgun fought for the creation of a Jewish state and was responsible for bombing the King David Hotel in Jerusalem July 22, 1946, which killed 91 people and injured 46, including U.S. and British nationals. The attack was in response to Operation Agatha, which is known within Israel as "Black Saturday." The attack is widely believed to be the most deadly militant attack in history of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors. Further, Irgun's membership was absorbed into the Israeli Defense Force after the creation of Israel. Its political arm is a predecessor of today's Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister.

Many critics of Israel see Irgun as a terrorist organization that was no better than Hezbollah and Hamas. It is amazing that Deborah Solomon didn't challenge Livni on her parents' involvement with a terrorist organization,  but sought to dance around the issue, dismissing it as "romantic." We all know that had this been a leader whose parents were members of Hamas, the response would have been vastly different. Shame on Deborah Solomon and the New York Times!