Rather than focus on the many silly aspects of the article, I decided, for once, to focus on something worth praising. Describing Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, the Times writes:
"Mr. Rivlin champions the old-school nationalist but liberal democracy envisioned by the right-wing Zionist Revisionist movement of Zeev Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin, who pushed for a greater Israel territorially but were sticklers for defending minority rights and the rule of law."
This made me laugh out loud. The Times now declares that Jabotinsky and Begin were liberal democrats, “sticklers for defending minority rights and the rule of law.” What a change — and a welcome change — this is from how the Times covered Begin and Jabotinsky in years past.
Let’s review the record.
A January 27, 1935 news
article in the Times about an appearance by Jabotinsky in Manhattan reported, “As leader of the militant right wing of Zionism and frequently accused of Fascist leanings, Mr. Jabotinsky has been opposed by Socialist and Democratic Zionists.”
In 1948, when Begin was visiting the United States, the Timesgreeted him with a
news article reporting on a statement by Albert Einstein and 20 other “scholars and teachers” who denounced Begin and his followers as “terrorists” who “have preached an admixture of ultra-nationalism, religious mysticism and racial superiority.” The statement said that “like other Fascist parties…they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.”
(full article online)
‘Revisionist’ New York Times Suddenly Discovers New Love for Jabotinsky, Begin