SSK wrote:
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They taught you this stuff in hebrew school?!? I'm amazed. Yes SSK, yer right on this one. As I understand it was in fact a collaboration between Irgun and the Stern gang.
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To the Israelis, these ppl are probably heroes....
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That was my original point, that too many of us coddle our own historical terrorists because we support their cause. I think there is a difference between a good cause and the means used to achieve them.
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Before you start insinuating that I and/or my co-religionists support terrorism, you should realize that you are making assumptions. I merely said I learned about it in Hebrew School. Where did I say these people were extolled or their actions applauded by the school or community? Maybe you think I attended a Jihadist Madrasa.
Hang on son, you're making assumptions here. I'm not insinuating anything about you or anyone. Read the reply I just gave to Paiktis22, who thought I was gunning for Greeks. I suppose I did this right if people are getting ticked off.
Here's my post to Paiktis22:
Relax! I'm not targeting Greece in particular. My quiz points out that most terrorism historically existed with state sponsorship of some sort. Not all the questions were geared towards that end, but the over-arching theme was that terrorists usually have support from somewhere and are coddled by populations who call them heroes. Because of this terrorism will continue to survive and thrive as a legitimate political tool to be employed as a means to an end.
It's easy enough for us to point elsewhere to others' acts of terrorism but many - most? modern states have either benefitted from or at least supported terrorists at some point in their history, and I'm calling for some re-evaluation here. Again:
Very few countries anywhere come out looking squeaky clean on this question, so relax.
I certainly wasn't
excluding Israel, but nor was I targeting it. No axes to grind here. Relax a little.
As it happened I took a course called "Jewish Radicalism" and we read a book called "The Deed" by Gerrold Frank about the assassination of Lord Moyne by the Stern Gang. I think it is important that we all know about terrorists in the history of our heritage. There are terrorists in most of our backgrounds. Perhaps I should assume that Paiktis considers Greek terrorist groups "Heroes" because he knows his history, or the same of you Vrylakas with Hungary (I seem to remember you are Hungarian, yes?)?
I agree with the first part of what you've wrote, though not quite the 2nd. We do indeed all need to understand that there are terrorists in our respective pasts, but we also need to reject the "hero" label. Terrorists are terrorists. It is important to separate the causes which they claim to represent and the acts they commit. Most of us do learn to call our respective terrorists heroes or freedom-fighters, and that is a white-wash of what they really do. If we each accept our own terrorists, then what right do we have condemning anyone else's? A 20 year old postman was shot dead yesterday in Belfast, a Catholic man, murdered by the UDL. Isn't it odd to think that someone right now is celebrating his death, and justifying it through distorted historical arguments? Will an equally innocent Protestant man be murdered tomorrow for equally convoluted historical reasons? Terrorism is an evil unto itself that needs to be truly universally condemned and rejected.
No, I'm not Hungarian though I lived and studied in Hungary for 4 years. Close enough though - I derive from that general neighborhood in Central Europe, Poland.
By the way, it is interesting that Begin and Shamir, who as Eli pointed out were members of Irgun, turned out ultimately to be solid and productive civilian leaders. The Stern Gang was terrible.
Surprising perhaps that they indeed were able to settle into civilian life after such careers, but were their policies ultimately in Israel's best interests?
My ancestors are all from the "general neighborhood" of eastern Europe myself, but I avoid specifying a country since A) the land kept falling within different "cultural borders" 
every few years and B) the "native population" probably wouldn't have considered the Jews as part of their country anyway.
