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Lehi (militant group)
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Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi
לח"י – לוחמי חרות ישראל
Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi
|Avraham Stern
Nathan Yellin-Mor
Yitzhak Shamir
Israel Eldad
|August 1940
|Late 1948
|Split from
|Succeeded by
|Fighters' List
Kingdom of Israel (group)
Semitic Action
|Revisionist Zionism
Fascism (until 1942)[2][3][4][5]
National Bolshevism (after 1944)[6]
Anti-imperialism (after 1945)[7]
|Political position
|Party flag
Lehi (Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈleχi]; Hebrew: לח"י – לוחמי חרות ישראל Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi"), often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang,[9][10][11][12] was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by Avraham ("Yair") Stern in Mandatory Palestine.[13][14] Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by resort to force, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state, a "new totalitarian Hebrew republic".[15] It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel,[1] upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later.[16] It defined itself as a terrorist group.[17][18]
Lehi split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during World War II. Lehi initially sought an alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, offering to fight alongside them against the British in return for the transfer of all Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine.[2] Believing that Nazi Germany was a lesser enemy of the Jews than Britain, Lehi twice attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis.[2] During World War II, it declared that it would establish a Jewish state based upon "nationalist and totalitarian principles".[2][19] After Stern's death in 1942, the new leadership of Lehi began to move it towards support for Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.[1] In 1944, Lehi officially declared its support for National Bolshevism.[6] It said that its National Bolshevism involved an amalgamation of left-wing and right-wing political elements – Stern said Lehi incorporated elements of both the left and the right[2] – however this change was unpopular and Lehi began to lose support as a result.[20]
Lehi and the Irgun were jointly responsible for the massacre in Deir Yassin. Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, and made many other attacks on the British in Palestine.[21] On 29 May 1948, the government of Israel, having inducted its activist members into the Israel Defense Forces, formally disbanded Lehi, though some of its members carried out one more terrorist act, the assassination of Folke Bernadotte some months later,[22] an act condemned by Bernadotte's replacement as mediator, Ralph Bunche.[23] After the assassination, the new Israeli government declared Lehi a terrorist organization, arresting and convicting some 200 members.[24] Just before the first Israeli elections,[24] a general amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government, on 14 February 1949. In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an "award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel", the Lehi ribbon.[25] Former Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister of Israel in 1983.
- 1 Founding of Lehi
- 2 Goals and methods
- 3 18 Principles of Rebirth
- 4 Relationship with fascism and socialism
- 5 Evolution and tactics of the organization
- 6 Wartime contacts with Italy and Germany
- 7 Later history
- 7.1 Assassination of Lord Moyne
- 7.2 Tel Aviv car park raid
- 7.3 British police station in Haifa
- 7.4 Operations in Europe
- 7.5 Death threat against Hugh Trevor-Roper
- 7.6 Cairo-Haifa train bombings
- 7.7 Deir Yassin massacre
- 7.8 Dissolution
- 7.9 Assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte
- 7.10 Lehi in politics
- 8 Service ribbon
- 9 "Unknown Soldiers" anthem
- 10 Prominent members of Lehi
- 11 See also
- 12 Notes
- 13 References
- 14 External links
Founding of Lehi
Lehi was created in August 1940 by Avraham Stern.[16] Stern had been a member of the Irgun (Irgun Tsvai Leumi – "National Military Organization") high command. Zeev Jabotinsky, then the Irgun's supreme commander, had decided that diplomacy and working with Britain would best serve the Zionist cause. World War II was in progress, and Britain was fighting Nazi Germany. The Irgun suspended its underground military activities against the British for the duration of the war.
Stern argued that the time for Zionist diplomacy was over and that it was time for armed struggle against the British. Like other Zionists, he objected to the White Paper of 1939, which restricted both Jewish immigration and Jewish land purchases in Palestine. For Stern, "no difference existed between Hitler and Chamberlain, between Dachau or Buchenwald and sealing the gates of Eretz Israel."[26]
Stern wanted to open Palestine to all Jewish refugees from Europe, and considered this as by far the most important issue of the day. Britain would not allow this. Therefore, he concluded, the Yishuv (Jews of Palestine) should fight the British rather than support them in the war. When the Irgun made a truce with the British, Stern left the Irgun to form his own group, which he called Irgun Tsvai Leumi B'Yisrael ("National Military Organization in Israel"), later Lohamei Herut Israel ("Fighters for the Freedom of Israel").
Stern and his followers believed that dying for the "foreign occupier" who was obstructing the creation of the Jewish State was useless. They differentiated between "enemies of the Jewish people" (the British) and "Jew haters" (the Nazis), believing that the former needed to be defeated and the latter manipulated.[citation needed]
In September 1940, the organization was officially named "Lehi".[16]
In 1940, the idea of the Final Solution was still "unthinkable", and Stern believed that Hitler wanted to make Germany judenrein through emigration, as opposed to extermination.[26][27] In December 1940, Lehi even contacted Germany with a proposal to aid German conquest in the Middle East in return for recognition of a Jewish state open to unlimited immigration.[26]
Goals and methods
Lehi had three main goals:
- To bring together all those interested in liberation (that is, those willing to join in active fighting against the British).
- To appear before the world as the only active Jewish military organization.
- To take over Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) by armed force.[29]
Lehi believed in its early years that its goals would be achieved by finding a strong international ally that would expel the British from Palestine, in return for Jewish military help; this would require the creation of a broad and organised military force "demonstrating its desire for freedom through military operations."[30]
Lehi also referred to themselves as 'terrorists' and may have been one of the last organizations to do so.[31]
An article titled "Terror" in the Lehi underground newspaper He Khazit (The Front ) argued as follows:
Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat. We are very far from having any moral qualms as far as our national war goes. We have before us the command of the Torah, whose morality surpasses that of any other body of laws in the world: "Ye shall blot them out to the last man."
But first and foremost, terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the present circumstances, and it has a great part to play: speaking in a clear voice to the whole world, as well as to our wretched brethren outside this land, it proclaims our war against the occupier.
We are particularly far from this sort of hesitation in regard to an enemy whose moral perversion is admitted by all.[32]
The article described the goals of terror:
Yitzhak Shamir, one of the three leaders of Lehi after Avraham Stern's assassination, argued for the legitimacy of Lehi's actions:
There are those who say that to kill [T.G.] Martin [a CID sergeant who had recognised Shamir in a lineup] is terrorism, but to attack an army camp is guerrilla warfare and to bomb civilians is professional warfare. But I think it is the same from the moral point of view. Is it better to drop an atomic bomb on a city than to kill a handful of persons? I don't think so. But nobody says that President Truman was a terrorist. All the men we went for individually – Wilkin, Martin, MacMichael and others – were personally interested in succeeding in the fight against us.
So it was more efficient and more moral to go for selected targets. In any case, it was the only way we could operate, because we were so small. For us it was not a question of the professional honor of a soldier, it was the question of an idea, an aim that had to be achieved. We were aiming at a political goal. There are many examples of what we did to be found in the Bible – Gideon and Samson, for instance. This had an influence on our thinking. And we also learned from the history of other peoples who fought for their freedom – the Russian and Irish revolutionaries, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Josip Broz Tito.[33]
18 Principles of Rebirth
Avraham Stern laid out the ideology of Lehi in the essay 18 Principles of Rebirth:[34]
- THE NATION: The Jewish people is a covenanted people, the originator of monotheism, formulator of the prophetic teachings, standard bearer of human culture, guardian of glorious patrimony. The Jewish people is schooled in self-sacrifice and suffering; its vision, survivability and faith in redemption are indestructible.
- THE HOMELAND: The homeland in the Land of Israel within the borders delineated in the Bible ("To your descendants, I shall give this land, from the River of Egypt to the great Euphrates River." Genesis 15:18) This is the land of the living, where the entire nation shall live in safety.
- THE NATION AND ITS LAND: Israel conquered the land with the sword. There it became a great nation and only there it will be reborn. Hence Israel alone has a right to that land. This is an absolute right. It has never expired and never will.
- Redemption of the land.
- Establishment of sovereignty.
- Revival of the nation.
- There is no sovereignty without the redemption of the land, and there is no national revival without sovereignty.
- These are the goals of the organization during the period of war and conquest:
- EDUCATION: Educate the nation to love freedom and zealously guard Israel's eternal patrimony. Inculcate the idea that the nation is master to its own fate. Revive the doctrine that "The sword and the book came bound together from heaven." (Midrash Vayikra Rabba 35:8)
- UNITY: The unification of the entire nation around the banner of the Hebrew freedom movement. The use of the genius, status and resources of individuals and the channeling of the energy, devotion and revolutionary fervour of the masses for the war of liberation.
- PACTS: Make pacts with all those who are willing to help the struggle of the organization and provide direct support.
- FORCE: Consolidate and increase the fighting force in the homeland and in the Diaspora, in the underground and in the barracks, to become the Hebrew army of liberation with its flag, arms, and commanders.
- WAR: Constant war against those who stand in the way of fulfilling the goals.
- CONQUEST: The conquest of the homeland from foreign rule and its eternal possession.
- These are the tasks of the movement during the period of sovereignty and redemption:
- SOVEREIGNTY: Renewal of Hebrew sovereignty over the redeemed land.
- RULE OF JUSTICE: The establishment of a social order in the spirit of Jewish morality and prophetic justice. Under such an order no one will go hungry or unemployed. All will live in harmony, mutual respect and friendship as an example to the world.
- REVIVING THE WILDERNESS: Build the ruins and revive the wilderness for mass immigration and population increase.
- ALIENS: Solve the problem of alien population [i.e. the Arab inhabitants of Palestine] by exchange of population.
- INGATHERING OF THE EXILES: Total in-gathering of the exiles to their sovereign state.
- POWER: The Hebrew nation shall become a first-rate military, political, cultural and economical entity in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean Sea.
- REVIVAL: The revival of the Hebrew language as a spoken language by the entire nation, the renewal of the historical and spiritual might of Israel. The purification of the national character in the fire of revival.
- THE TEMPLE: The building of the Third Temple as a symbol of the new era of total redemption.
Unlike the left-wing Haganah and right-wing Irgun, Lehi members were not a homogeneous collective with a single political, religious, or economic ideology. They were a combination of militants united by the goal of liberating the land of Israel from British rule. Most Lehi leaders defined their organization as an anti-imperialism movement and stated that their opposition to British colonial rule in Palestine was not based on a particular policy but rather on the presence of a foreign power over the homeland of the Jewish people. Avraham Stern defined the British Mandate as "foreign rule" regardless of British policies and took a radical position against such imperialism even if it were to be benevolent.[35]
In the early years of the state of Israel Lehi veterans could be found supporting nearly all political parties and some Lehi leaders founded a left-wing political party called the Fighters' List with Natan Yellin-Mor as its head. The party took part in the elections in January 1949 and won a single parliamentary seat. A number of Lehi veterans established the Semitic Action movement in 1956 which sought the creation of a regional federation encompassing Israel and its Arab neighbors[36][37] on the basis of an anti-colonialist alliance with other indigenous inhabitants of the Middle East.[38]
Some writers have stated that Lehi's true goals were the creation of a totalitarian state.[39] Perlinger and Weinberg write that the organisation's ideology placed "its world view in the quasi-fascist radical Right, which is characterised by xenophobia, a national egotism that completely subordinates the individual to the needs of the nation, anti-liberalism, total denial of democracy and a highly centralised government."[3] Perliger and Weinberg state that most Lehi members were admirers of the Italian Fascist movement.[30]
Others counter these claims. They note that when Lehi founder Avraham Stern went to study in fascist Italy, he refused to join the Gruppo Universitario Fascista for foreign students, even though members got large reductions in tuition.[40][verification needed]
Evolution and tactics of the organization
Many Lehi combatants received professional training. Some attended the state military academy in Civitavecchia, in Fascist Italy.[41] Others received military training from instructors of the Polish Armed Forces in 1938–1939. This training was conducted in Trochenbrod (Zofiówka) in Wołyń Voivodeship, Podębin near Łódź, and the forests around Andrychów. They were taught how to use explosives. One of them reported later: "Poles treated terrorism as a science. We have mastered mathematical principles of demolishing constructions made of concrete, iron, wood, bricks and dirt."[41]
The group was initially unsuccessful. Early attempts to raise funds through criminal activities, including a bank robbery in Tel Aviv in 1940 and another robbery on 9 January 1942 in which Jewish passers-by were killed, brought about the temporary collapse of the group. An attempt to assassinate the head of the British secret police in Lod in which three police personnel were killed, two Jewish and one British, elicited a severe response from the British and Jewish establishments who collaborated against Lehi.[42]
Stern's group was seen as a terrorist organisation by the British authorities, who instructed the Defence Security Office (the colonial branch of MI5) to track down its leaders. In 1942, Stern, after he was arrested, was shot dead in disputed circumstances by Inspector Geoffrey J. Morton of the CID.[43] The arrest of several other members led momentarily to the group's eclipse, until it was revived after the September 1942 escape of two of its leaders, Yitzhak Shamir and Eliyahu Giladi, aided by two other escapees Natan Yellin-Mor (Friedman) and Israel Eldad (Sheib). (Giladi was later killed by Lehi under circumstances that remain mysterious.)[42] Shamir's codename was "Michael", a reference to one of Shamir's heroes, Michael Collins. Lehi was guided by spiritual and philosophical leaders such as Uri Zvi Greenberg and Israel Eldad. After the killing of Giladi, the organization was led by a triumvirate of Eldad, Shamir, and Yellin-Mor.
Lehi adopted a non-socialist platform of Anti-Imperialist ideology. It viewed the continued British rule of Palestine as a violation of the Mandate's provision generally, and its restrictions on Jewish immigration to be an intolerable breach of international law. However they also targeted Jews whom they regarded as traitors, and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War they joined in operations with the Haganah and Irgun against Arab targets, for example Deir Yassin.
According to a compilation by Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Lehi was responsible for 42 assassinations, more than twice as many as the Irgun and Haganah combined during the same period. Of those Lehi assassinations that Ben-Yehuda classified as political, more than half the victims were Jews.[44]
Lehi also rejected the authority of the Jewish Agency for Israel and related organizations, operating entirely on its own throughout nearly all of its existence.
Lehi prisoners captured by the British generally refused to present a defence when brought to trial. They would only read out statements in which they declared that the court, representing an occupying force, had no jurisdiction over them and therefore was illegal. For the same reason, Lehi prisoners refused to plead for amnesty, even when it was clear that this would have spared them the death penalty. In one case Moshe Barazani, a Lehi member, and Meir Feinstein, an Irgun member, committed suicide in prison with a grenade smuggled inside an orange so the British could not hang them.[citation needed]
Wartime contacts with Italy and Germany
In mid-1940, Stern became convinced that the Italians were interested in the establishment of a fascist Jewish state in Palestine.[45] He conducted negotiations, he thought, with the Italians via an intermediary Moshe Rotstein, and drew up a document that became known as the "Jerusalem Agreement".[46][47] In exchange for Italy's recognition of, and aid in obtaining, Jewish sovereignty over Palestine, Stern promised that Zionism would come under the aegis of Italian fascism, with Haifa as its base, and the Old City of Jerusalem under Vatican control, except for the Jewish quarter.[48] In Heller's words, Stern's proposal would "turn the 'Kingdom of Israel' into a satellite of the Axis powers."[49]
However, the "intermediary" Rotstein was in fact an agent of the Irgun, conducting a sting operation under the direction of the Irgun intelligence leader in Haifa, Israel Pritzker, in cooperation with the British.[50] Secret British documents about the affair were uncovered by historian Eldad Harouvi (now director of the Palmach Archives) and confirmed by former Irgun intelligence officer Yitzhak Berman.[50] When Rotstein's role later became clear, Lehi sentenced him to death and assigned Yaacov Eliav to kill him, but the assassination never took place.[47][51] However, Pritzker was killed by Lehi in 1943.[47]
Late in 1940, Lehi, having identified a common interest between the intentions of the new German order and Jewish national aspirations, proposed forming an alliance in World War II with Nazi Germany.[2] It offered assistance in transferring the Jews of Europe to Palestine, in return for Germany's help in expelling Britain from Mandatory Palestine.[citation needed] Late in 1940, Lehi representative Naftali Lubenchik went to Beirut to meet German official Werner Otto von Hentig (who also was involved with the Haavara or Transfer Agreement, which had been transferring German Jews and their funds to Palestine since 1933).[citation needed] Lubenchik told von Hentig that Lehi had not yet revealed its full power and that they were capable of organizing a whole range of anti-British operations.[citation needed]
The organization offered cooperation in the following terms. Lehi would support sabotage and espionage operations in the Middle East and in eastern Europe anywhere where they had cells. Germany would recognize an independent Jewish state in Palestine/Eretz Israel, and all Jews leaving their homes in Europe, by their own will or because of government injunctions, could enter Palestine with no restriction of numbers.
Stern also proposed recruiting some 40,000 Jews from occupied Europe to invade Palestine with German support to oust the British.[2] On 11 January 1941, Vice Admiral Ralf von der Marwitz, the German Naval attaché in Turkey, filed a report (the "Ankara document") conveying an offer by Lehi to "actively take part in the war on Germany's side" in return for German support for "the establishment of the historic Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, bound by a treaty with the German Reich."[46][52][53]
According to Yellin-Mor:
Lubenchik did not take along any written memorandum for the German representatives. Had there been a need for one, he would have formulated it on the spot, since he was familiar with the episode of the Italian "intermediary" and with the numerous drafts connected with it. Apparently one of von Hentig's secretaries noted down the essence of the proposal in his own words.[54]
According to Joseph Heller, "The memorandum arising from their conversation is an entirely authentic document, on which the stamp of the 'IZL in Israel' is clearly embossed."[55]
Von der Marwitz delivered the offer, classified as secret, to the German Ambassador in Turkey and on 21 January 1941 it was sent to Berlin. There was never any response.[56]
A second attempt to contact the Nazis was made at the end of 1941, but it was even less successful.[57] The emissary Yellin-Mor was arrested in Syria before he could carry out his mission.[58]
This proposed alliance with Nazi Germany cost Lehi and Stern much support.[59] The Stern Gang also had links with, and support from, the Vichy France Sûreté's Lebanese offices.[60]
Later history
As a group that never had over a few hundred members, Lehi relied on audacious but small-scale operations to bring their message home. They adopted the tactics of groups such as the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Combat Organization of the Polish Socialist Party in Czarist Russia,[61] and the Irish Republican Army. To this end, Lehi conducted small-scale operations such as individual assassinations of British officials (notable targets included Lord Moyne, CID detectives, and Jewish "collaborators"), and random shootings against soldiers and police officers.[62] Another strategy, adopted in 1946, was to send bombs in the mail to British politicians. Other actions included sabotaging infrastructure targets: bridges, railroads, telephone and telegraph lines, and oil refineries, as well as the use of vehicle bombs against British military, police, and administrative targets. Lehi financed its operations from private donations, extortion, and bank robbery. Its campaign of violence lasted from 1944 to 1948. Initially conducted together with the Irgun, it included a six-month suspension to avoid being targeted by the Haganah during the Hunting Season, and later operated jointly with the Haganah and Irgun under the Jewish Resistance Movement. After the Jewish Resistance Movement was dissolved, it operated independently as part of the general Jewish insurgency in Palestine.
Assassination of Lord Moyne
On 6 November 1944, Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, the British Minister Resident in the Middle East, in Cairo. Moyne was the highest ranking British official in the region. Yitzhak Shamir claimed later that Moyne was assassinated because of his support for a Middle Eastern Arab Federation and anti-Semitic lectures in which Arabs were held to be racially superior to Jews.[63] The assassination rocked the British government, and outraged Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister. The two assassins, Eliahu Bet-Zouri and Eliahu Hakim were captured and used their trial as a platform to make public their political propaganda. They were executed. In 1975 their bodies were returned to Israel and given a state funeral.[64] In 1982, postage stamps were issued for 20 Olei Hagardom, including Bet-Zouri and Hakim, in a souvenir sheet called "Martyrs of the struggle for Israel's independence."[65][66]
Tel Aviv car park raid
On 25 April 1946, a Lehi unit attacked a car park in Tel Aviv occupied by the British 6th Airborne Division. Under a barrage of heavy covering fire, Lehi fighters broke into the car park, shot soldiers they encountered at close range, stole rifles from arms racks, laid mines to cover the retreat, and withdrew. Seven soldiers were killed in the attack, which caused widespread outrage among the British security forces in Palestine. It resulted in retaliatory anti-Jewish violence by British troops and a punitive curfew imposed on Tel Aviv's roads and a closure of places of entertainment in the city by the British Army.[62]
British police station in Haifa
On 12 January 1947, Lehi members drove a truckload of explosives into a British police station in Haifa killing four and injuring 140, in what has been called 'the world's first true truck bomb'.[67]
Operations in Europe
Following the bombing of the British embassy in Rome, October 1946, a series of operations against targets in the United Kingdom were launched. On 7 March 1947, Lehi's only successful operation in Britain was carried out when a Lehi bomb severely damaged the British Colonial Club, a London recreational facility for soldiers and students from Britain's colonies in Africa and the West Indies.[68] On 15 April 1947 a bomb consisting of twenty-four sticks of explosives was planted in the Colonial Office, Whitehall. It failed to explode due to a fault in the timer. Five weeks later, on 22 May, five alleged Lehi members were arrested in Paris with bomb making material including explosives of the same type as found in London. On 2 June, two Lehi members, Betty Knouth and Yaakov Levstien, were arrested crossing from Belgium to France. Envelopes addressed to British officials, with detonators, batteries and a time fuse were found in one of Knouth's suitcases. Knouth was sentenced to a year in prison, Levstien to eight months. The British Security Services identified Knouth as the person who planted the bomb in the Colonial Office. Shortly after their arrest, 21 letter bombs were intercepted addressed to senior British figures. The letters had been posted in Italy. The intended recipients included Bevin, Attlee, Churchill and Eden.[69] Knouth aka Gilberte/Elizabeth Lazarus. Levstein was travelling as Jacob Elias; his fingerprints connected him to the deaths of several Palestine Policemen as well as an attempt on the life of the British High Commissioner. In 1973, Margaret Truman wrote that letter bombs were also posted to her father, U.S. President Harry S. Truman, in 1947.[70] Former Lehi leader Yellin-Mor admitted that letter bombs had been sent to British targets but denied that any had been sent to Truman.[70][71]
Death threat against Hugh Trevor-Roper
Shortly after the 1947 publication of The Last Days of Hitler, Lehi issued a death threat against the author, Hugh Trevor-Roper, for his portrayal of Hitler, feeling that Trevor-Roper had attempted to exonerate the German populace from responsibility.[72]
Cairo-Haifa train bombings
During the lead-up to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Lehi mined the Cairo–Haifa train several times. On 29 February 1948, Lehi mined the train north of Rehovot, killing 28 British soldiers and wounding 35. On 31 March, Lehi mined the train near Binyamina, killing 40 civilians and wounding 60.
Deir Yassin massacre
One of the most widely known acts of Lehi was the attack on the Palestinian-Arab village of Deir Yassin.
In the months before the British evacuation from Palestine, the Arab League-sponsored Arab Liberation Army (ALA) occupied several strategic points along the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, cutting off supplies to the Jewish part of Jerusalem. One of these points was Deir Yassin. By March 1948, the road was cut off and Jewish Jerusalem was under siege. The Haganah launched Operation Nachshon to break the siege.
On 6 April, the Haganah attacked al-Qastal, a village two kilometers north of Deir Yassin, also overlooking the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road.[73]
Then on 9 April 1948, about 120 Lehi and Irgun fighters, acting in cooperation with the Haganah, attacked and captured Deir Yassin. The attack was at night, the fighting was confused, and many civilian inhabitants of the village were killed.[74] This action had great consequences for the war, and remains a cause celebre for Palestinians ever since.
Exactly what happened has never been established clearly. The Arab League reported a great massacre: 254 killed, with rape and lurid mutilations. Israeli investigations claimed the actual number of dead was between 100 and 120, and there were no mass rapes, but most of the dead were civilians, and admitted some were killed deliberately. Lehi and Irgun both denied an organized massacre. Accounts by Lehi veterans such as Ezra Yakhin note that many of the attackers were killed or wounded, assert that Arabs fired from every building and that Iraqi and Syrian soldiers were among the dead, and even that some Arab fighters dressed as women.[75]
However, Jewish authorities, including Haganah, the Chief Rabbinate, the Jewish Agency, and David Ben-Gurion, also condemned the attack, lending credence to the charge of massacre.[76] The Jewish Agency even sent a letter of condemnation, apology, and condolence to King Abdullah I of Jordan.[77]
Both the Arab reports and Jewish responses had hidden motives: the Arab leaders wanted to encourage Palestinian Arabs to fight rather than surrender, to discredit the Zionists with international opinion, and to increase popular support in their countries for an invasion of Palestine. The Jewish leaders wanted to discredit Irgun and Lehi.
Ironically, the Arab reports backfired in one respect: frightened Palestinian Arabs did not surrender, but did not fight either – they fled, allowing Israel to gain much territory with little fighting and also without absorbing many Arabs.[78]
Lehi similarly interpreted events at Deir Yassin as turning the tide of war in favor of the Jews. Lehi leader Israel Eldad later wrote in his memoirs from the underground period that "without Deir Yassin the State of Israel could never have been established".[79][80]
The Deir Yassin story did not much sway international opinion. It did increase not only support but pressure on Arab governments to intervene, notably Abdullah of Jordan, who was now compelled to join the invasion of Palestine after Israel's declaration of independence on 14 May.
The conflict between Lehi and mainstream Jewish and subsequently Israeli organizations came to an end when Lehi was formally dissolved and integrated into the Israeli Defense Forces on 31 May 1948, its leaders getting amnesty from prosecution or reprisals as part of the integration.
Assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte
Although Lehi had stopped operating nationally after May 1948, the group continued to function in Jerusalem. On 17 September 1948, Lehi assassinated UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte. The assassination was directed by Yehoshua Zettler and carried out by a four-man team led by Meshulam Makover. The fatal shots were fired by Yehoshua Cohen. The Security Council described the assassination as a "cowardly act which appears to have been committed by a criminal group of terrorists".[81]
Three days after the assassination, the Israeli government passed the Ordinance to Prevent Terrorism and declared Lehi to be a terrorist organization.[82][83] Many Lehi members were arrested, including leaders Nathan Yellin-Mor and Matitiahu Schmulevitz who were arrested on 29 September.[82] Eldad and Shamir managed to escape arrest.[82] Yellin-Mor and Schmulevitz were charged with leadership of a terrorist organization and on 10 February 1949 were sentenced to 8 years and 5 years imprisonment, respectively.[84][85][86] However the State (Temporary) Council soon announced a general amnesty for Lehi members and they were released.[84][87]
Lehi in politics
Some of the Lehi leadership founded a left-wing political party called the Fighters' List with the jailed Yellin-Mor as its head. The party took part in the elections in January 1949 and won one seat. Thanks to a general amnesty for Lehi members granted on 14 February 1949, Yellin-Mor was released from prison to take up his place in the Knesset. However, the party disbanded after failing to win a seat in the 1951 elections.
In 1956, some Lehi veterans established the Semitic Action movement, which sought the creation of a regional federation encompassing Israel and its Arab neighbors[36][37] on the basis of an anti-colonialist alliance with other indigenous inhabitants of the Middle East.[38]
Not all Lehi alumni gave up political violence after independence: former members were involved in the activities of the Kingdom of Israel militant group, the 1957 assassination of Rudolf Kastner, and likely the 1952 attempted assassination of David-Zvi Pinkas.[88][89][90][91]
Service ribbon
In 1980, Israel instituted the Lehi ribbon, red, black, grey, pale blue and white, which is awarded to former members of the Lehi underground who wished to carry it, "for military service towards the establishment of the State of Israel".
"Unknown Soldiers" anthem
The words and music of a song "Unknown Soldiers" (also translated "Anonymous Soldiers") were written by Avraham Stern in 1932 during the early days of the Irgun. It became the Irgun's anthem until the split with Lehi in 1940, after which it became the Lehi anthem.[92][93][94]
Prominent members of Lehi
A number of Lehi's members went on to play important roles in Israel's public life.
- Geula Cohen, member of the Knesset
- Israel Eldad, leader in the Israeli national camp
- Boaz Evron, left-wing journalist
- Maxim Ghilan, Israeli journalist, author and peace activist
- Uri Zvi Greenberg
- Amos Kenan, writer
- Baruch Korff
- Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli prime minister 1983–1984 and 1986–1992.
- Shimon Tzabar
- Natan Yellin-Mor, member of the Knesset 1949–1951, leftist advocate of peace with Arabs.[95]
See also
- Roy Farran, letter bomb incident
- Hamaas, an official publication of the Lehi
- Jewish insurgency in Palestine
- ^ a b c Laqueur, Walter (2003) [1972]. "Jabotinsky and Revisionism". A History of Zionism (Google Book Search) (3rd ed.). London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 377. ISBN 978-1-86064-932-5. OCLC 249640859. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sasson Sofer. Zionism and the Foundations of Israeli Diplomacy. Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. 253-254.
- ^ a b Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 108.
- ^ Joseph Heller 1995, p. 86.
- ^ David Yisraeli, The Palestine Problem in German Politics, 1889–1945, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 1974.
- ^ a b Robert S. Wistrich, David Ohana. The Shaping of Israeli Identity: Myth, Memory, and Trauma, Issue 3. London, England, UK; Portland, Oregon, USA: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1995. Pp. 88.
- ^ Shapira, Anita (1999). Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948. Stanford University Press. p. 347. ISBN 0804737762.
- ^ Sasson Sofer. Zionism and the Foundations of Israeli Diplomacy. Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. 254. "Lehi's leader Stern stated that he incorporated elements of both the left and the right."
- ^ "This group was known to its friends as LEHI and to its enemies as the Stern Gang." Blumberg, Arnold. History of Israel, Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated, 1998. p 106.
- ^ "calling themselves Lohamei Herut Yisrael (LHI) or, less generously, the Stern Gang." Lozowick, Yaacov. Right to Exist : A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars. Westminster, MD, USA: Doubleday Publishing, 2003. p 78.
- ^ "It ended in a split with Stern leading his own group out of the Irgun. This was known pejoratively by the British as "the Stern Gang' – later as Lehi" Shindler, Colin. Triumph of Military Zionism : Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right. London, GBR: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, 2005. p 218.
- ^ "Known by their Hebrew acronym as LEHI they were more familiar, not to say notorious, to the rest of the world as the Stern Gang – a ferociously effective and murderous terrorist group fighting to end British rule in Palestine and establish a Jewish state." Cesarani, David. Major Faran's Hat: Murder, Scandal and Britain's War Against Jewish Terrorism, 1945–1948. London. Vintage Books. 2010. p 01.
- ^ "ELIAHU AMIKAM Stern Gang Leader" (Free Preview; full article requires payment.). The Washington Post. 16 August 1995. pp. D5. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
The [AMIKAM] Stern Gang – known in Hebrew as Lehi, an acronym for Israel Freedom Fighters – was the most militant of the pre-state underground groups.
- ^ "Definition of Stern Gang in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
- ^ Colin Shindler, 'Triumph of Military Zionism: Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right,' I.B.Tauris, 2009 p.218:'Stern devotedly believed that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' so he approached Nazi Germany. With German armies at the gates of Palestine, he offered co-operation and an alliance with a new totalitarian Hebrew republic.'
- ^ a b c Nachman Ben-Yehuda. The Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: Wisconsin University Press, 1995. Pp. 322.
- ^ Arie Perliger, William L. Eubank, Middle Eastern Terrorism, 2006 p.37:Lehi viewed acts of terrorism as legitimate tools in the realization of the vision of the Jewish nation and a necessary condition for national liberation.'.';
- ^ Jean E. Rosenfeld, Terrorism, Identity, and Legitimacy: The Four Waves Theory and Political Violence, 2010 p.161 n.7:'Lehi . . was the last group to identify itself as a terrorist one,'.
- ^ Leslie Stein, 'The Hope Fulfilled: The Rise of Modern Israel,' Greenwood Publishing Group 2003 pp.237-238.
- ^ Joseph Heller. The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics, and Terror, 1940–1949. Pp. 8.
- ^ Ami Pedahzur, The Israeli Response to Jewish Extremism and Violence: Defending Democracy, Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York 2002 p.77
- ^ Gabriel Ben-Dor and Ami Pedahzur,'Jewish Self-Defence and Terrorist Groups Prior to the Establishment of the State of Israel: Roots and Traditions,' in Ami Pedahzur, Leonard Weinberg (eds.), Religious Fundamentalism and Political Extremism,, Frank Cass, 2004 pp. 94–120, pp. 115–116:'one final terrorist act. . .'
- ^ Ralph Bunche report on assassination of UN mediator 27 September 1948, "notorious terrorists long known as the Stern group"
- ^ a b Ami Pedahzur, Arie Perliger Jewish Terrorism in Israel, Columbia University Press, 2011 p.28.
- ^ [The Stern Gang] LEHI – Fighters for the Freedom of Israel Ribbon on the Israeli Ministry of Defence website
- ^ a b c Colin Shindler (1995). The Land beyond Promise: Israel, Likud and the Zionist dream. I.B. Tauris. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-86064-774-1.
- ^ Colin Shindler, The Land Beyond Promise: Israel, Likud and the Zionist Dream, I.B. Tauris, 2002, p. 25: 'Stern perceived Hitler as the latest in a long line of anti-Semites who could be won over if the common interest was identified. In Palestine at that time, Stern was not alone in regarding Hitler as a persecutor and not an exterminator. The dream of attaining a Jewish state dominated Zionist thinking and the very idea of the Final Solution was unthinkable in 1940. Stern believed that Hitler wanted Germany to be judenrein through emigration'.
- ^ Ben-Ami, Eliezer "Yehezkel". "How was the Lehi symbol born?". Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association (FFI-LEHI).
- ^ Heller, p. 112, quoted in Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, pp. 106–107.
- ^ a b Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 107.
- ^ Calder Walton (2008). "British Intelligence and the Mandate of Palestine: Threats to British national security immediately after the Second World War". Intelligence and National Security. 23 (4): 435–462. doi:10.1080/02684520802293049.
- ^ a b He Khazit (underground publication of Lehi), Issue 2, August 1943. No author is stated, as was usual for this publication. Translated from original. For a discussion of this article, see Heller, p. 115
- ^ Bethell Nicholas, The Palestine Triangle: The Struggle between British, Jews, and the Arabs, 1935–48 (1979), page 278
- ^ Amichal, page 316, a copy on the web exists here
- ^ Israel Eldad, The First Tithe, p. 84
- ^ a b Diamond, James S. (1990). "We Are Not One: A Post-Zionist Perspective". Tikkun. 5 (2): 107.
- ^ a b Hattis Rolef, Susan. "YELLIN-MOR (Friedman), NATHAN". Encyclopaedia Judaica.
- ^ a b Beinin, Joel (1998). The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora. University of California Press. pp. 166
- ^ Heller, 1995, p. 70.
- ^ Amichal, 77
- ^ a b (in Polish) Jakub Mielnik: Jak polacy stworzyli Izrael, Focus.pl Historia, 5 May 2008
- ^ a b Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 109.
- ^ Boyer Bell, 1996, p. 71.
- ^ N. Ben-Yehuda, Political Assassinations by Jews (State University of New York, 1993), p. 397.
- ^ Heller, 1995, p. 86.
- ^ a b Heller, 1995, p. 86
- ^ a b c Nachman Ben-Yehuda (2012). Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice. SUNY Press. pp. 147–150, 185–188.
- ^ Heller, 1995 p. 86
- ^ Heller, 1995, pp. 78–79.
- ^ a b Yossi Melman (3 June 2011). "Undermining the underground". Haaretz.
- ^ Yaacov Eliav (1984). Wanted. Shengold Publishers. pp. 144–145.
- ^ David Yisraeli, The Palestine Problem in German Politics, 1889–1945, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 1974. Verified web copies: German English. Also see Otto von Hentig, Mein Leben (Goettingen, 1962) pp. 338–339
- ^ Lenni Brenner, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators 2004, p234
- ^ Natan Yellin-Mor, manuscript in English quoted by Lenni Brenner, 51 Documents (Barracade Books, 2002) p. 308.
- ^ Heller (1985) p.85
- ^ A Meeting in Beirut, Habib Canaan, Haaretz (musaf), 27 March 1970
- ^ Heller 1995, p. 91.
- ^ Heller, 1995, p. 91
- ^ "Stern Gang" The Oxford Companion to World War II. Ed. I. C. B. Dear and M. R. D. Foot. Oxford University Press, 2001.
- ^ James Barr, A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East, Simon and Schuster, 2011 p.255
- ^ Iviansky 1986, 72–73.
- ^ a b Bell, Bowyer J.: Terror out of Zion (1976)
- ^ Yitzhak Shamir, 'Why the Lehi Assassinated Lord Moyne', Nation, 32/119 (1995) pp. 333–37 (Hebrew) cited in Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 111.
- ^ Israel honours British minister's assassins, The TImes, 26 June 1975, p1.
- ^ "הרוגי מלכות גליונית זכרון - התאחדות בולאי ישראל".
- ^ http://www.israelphilately.org.il/catalog/series.asp?id=416 (detailed)
- ^ Randall David Law, Terrorism: A History, Polity, 2009 p.186.
- ^ Cesarani, David: Major Farran's Hat: The Untold Story of the Struggle to Establish the Jewish State (2009)
- ^ Andrew, Christopher (2009) The Defence of the Realm. The Authorized History of MI5. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9885-6. Page 922. Note 39. Pages 355-359.
- ^ a b Nachman Ben-Yehuda (2012). Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice. SUNY Press. p. 331.
- ^ Ira Smith and Joe Alex Morris, Dear Mr President, Julian Messner Inc. New York 1947 p. 230 writes that "the same kind of terrorist letters" which Lehi claimed responsibility for sending to British politicians had been detected in mail to the White House:
- ^ Rosenbaum, Ron. Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil. p. 63.
- ^ Silver 1984, p. 91.
- ^ Yoav Gelber, Palestine 1948, Appendix II
- ^ Ezra Yakhin (1992), Elnakam, pp. 261–272.
- ^ Yoav Gelber (2006), Palestine 1948, p.317.
- ^ Benny Morris (2003), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 239.
- ^ Benny Morris (2003), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 239. "the most important immediate effect of the atrocity and the media campaign that followed it was how one started to report the fear felt in Palestinian Arab towns and villages, and, later, the panicked fleeing from them."
- ^ Israel Eldad (1950), The First Tithe, pp. 334–335.
- ^ Heller, 1995, p. 209.
- ^ UNSC [1] resolution 57 (18 September 1948).
- ^ a b c Sprinzak, p. 45
- ^ Ami Pedahzur, The Israeli Response to Jewish Terrorism and Violence: Defending Democracy, Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York 2002 p. 77
- ^ a b Sprinzak, p47
- ^ Heller, p265.
- ^ "LHY leaders get 8,5 years", Palestine Post, 11 February 1949.
- ^ Heller, p267.
- ^ Baram, Daphna (10 September 2009). "Amos Keinan: Controversial Israeli journalist, writer and artist". The Independent. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
- ^ Melman, Yossi (13 August 2009). "Time bomb". Haaretz. Retrieved 8 September 2009.
- ^ Segev, Tom; Arlen Neal Weinstein (1998). 1949: The First Israelis. Macmillan. pp. 230–231. ISBN 0-02-929180-1.
- ^ Pedahzur, Ami, and Arie Perliger (2009). Jewish Terrorism in Israel. Columbia University Press. p. 31–33
- ^ Zev Golan (2011). Stern: The Man and his Gang. Yair Publishing. pp. 18–19, 81.
- ^ s:Unknown soldiers (song)
- ^ Hayalim Almonim (in Hebrew)
- ^ Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1986, "Portrait of a Mideast Terrorist"
- (in Hebrew) Amichal Yevin, Ada (1986). In purple: the life of Yair-Abraham Stern. Tel Aviv: Hadar Publishing House.
- Bell, J. Bowyer (1977). Terror Out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, Lehi, and the Palestine Underground, 1929–1949. Avon. ISBN 0-380-39396-4
- Ben-Yehuda, Nachman (1998). "Political Violence: Political Assassinations as a Quest for Justice." In Robert R. Friedmann (Ed.). Crime and Criminal Justice in Israel: Assessing The Knowledge base Toward The Twenty-first Century (pp. 139–184). SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-3713-2.
- Golan, Zev (2003). Free Jerusalem: Heroes, Heroines and Rogues Who Created the State of Israel. Devora. ISBN 1-930143-54-0
- Golan, Zev (2011). Stern: The Man and His Gang. Yair. ISBN 978-965-91724-0-5
- Heller, J. (1995). The Stern Gang. Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-4558-3
- Hyams, Edward Terrorists and Terrorism
- Iviansky, Z. (1986) "Lechi's Share in the Struggle for Israel's Liberation," in: Ely Tavin and Yonah Alexander (Ed.).Terrorists or Freedom Fighters, Fairfax, Va.: HERO Books.
- Katz, E. (1987). "LECHI: Fighters for the freedom of Israel", Tel Aviv: Yair Publishers
- Lustick, Ian S. (1994). "Terrorism in the Arab–Israeli Conflict: Targets and Audiences." In Crenshaw, Martha (ed). Terrorism in Context (pp. 514–552). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-01015-0
- Marton, K. (1994). A Death in Jerusalem. Pantheon. ISBN 0-679-42083-5 — Bernadotte assassination
- Munson, Henry (2005). "Religion and violence". Religion. 35 (4): 223–246. doi:10.1016/j.religion.2005.10.006.
- Perliger, Arie; Weinberg, Leonard (2003). "Jewish Self-Defence and Terrorist Groups Prior to the Establishment of the State of Israel: Roots and Traditions". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 4 (3): 91–118. doi:10.1080/14690760412331326250.
- Ehud Sprinzak (1999). Brother against Brother. The Free Press. ISBN 0-684-85344-2.
External links
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lehi (group).


text:
|System: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3
|Dev: Namco Bandai
|Pub: Namco Bandai
|Release: TBD
|Players: 1
|Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p
by Angelo M. D'Argenio
Xenoverse… get it? Z-noverse? Dragon Ball Z-noverse? Well, at least that's the joke that Bandai Namco made when we got to see the game at E3 this year. Let's see what the next DBZ game has to offer.
Before I even talk about gameplay, let me make one thing clear: this is a gorgeous game. It's one of the best looking games I have seen so far on next-generation consoles. It's prettier than the Dragon Ball Z anime by far. The apocalyptic clouds overhead, the crumbling mountains as you fight, the ripples in the water as you change your ki, all look beautiful. Absolutely no detail was overlooked while designing this game, and I'd hazard that it's more fun to watch than play.
The reason I say that is that the gameplay system is pretty much the same DBZ system that we have gotten used to after so many years. The game takes place in full 3D and the camera is positioned over the shoulder. As is always the case with these games, half the game is just flying around trying to find your opponent before you even get to fight. Combos are still button mashy as usual, so don't expect this to be a serious fighting game.
That being said, there is a bit more depth to the game this time around. Combos appear to change depending on when and how you initiate them. Starting a combo above your opponent will be different than starting a combo below them. You can now cancel the startup of basically any move in your repertoire into a block or movement. This way you can string together your attacks into more complicated combos, or simply stop your onslaught in order to keep yourself safe.
Another element of strategy comes in when you consider the new dynamic maps. Remember all those fights in Dragon Ball Z where characters would dive into water to try and get away from their opponents? Well now you can do that. Diving into water makes it so that your opponent can't see you, nor can you see them, but you can still lock on to them and throw ki blasts.
Stages are also 100% destructible as well. Opponent hiding behind a mountain? Blow that mountain up! Hiding behind a building? Blow that building up! There's basically nothing that you can't blow up in this game. Heck, even if you aren't trying to blow up buildings, the terrain around you will inevitably change as a result of your epic battle. Each ki blast will leave a crater. Each time you throw an opponent into a wall, that wall will crumble. The environment is constantly shifting as you fight, and then you can use that destroyed environment to your advantage.
Another big thing that is returning to the game is real-time transformations. Instead of simply selecting Goku, Super Sayain Goku, and so forth, each character and all of their transformations are now all condensed into one character. As you transform, you power up and your move set changes. However, even so we were told that the game was aimed at being as balanced as possible.
There are two meters in the game aside from health, which appear to be power and stamina. The power meter only fills as you attack, and you need to use it in order to do quick teleports and dodges. This prevents you from being too terribly defensive the entire game. The stamina meter, however, seems to just fill over time, and it seems to fuel some of your more impressive special moves. So you will never be able to spam your biggest beam attacks.
The story in the game is… interesting. There appears to be some futuristic city that is hinted to exist outside time. Denizens from this city… maybe… are traveling back in time to see important events in DBZ history play out. However, there isn't a lot more that Bandai Namco could say other than that. But it appears as if this isn't going to just be another retread of the plot. Instead, it's going to be its own side-story. Granted, it's going to be a wonky fan-fictiony time-travel story, but it's a new story nonetheless.
I wouldn't say that Dragon Ball Xenoverse is going to reinvent the wheel when it comes to anime games. It's still wildly unbalanced, still incredibly mashy, still not very appealing to the pro fighting game crowd. However, it is remarkably beautiful and it accurately recreates some of the best moments in DBZ as well as letting you create your owns. That, and the devs said it was going to have a humongous roster. Frankly, I can't figure out what else a DBZ fan could want, and that along would probably make this game a success.
Angelo M. D'Argenio
Contributing Writer
Date: June 12, 2014
Game Features:

subset: commoncrawl


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Difference between revisions of "Oberyn Martell"
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[[A Clash of Kings]] (Mentioned)
[[A Storm of Swords]] (Appears)
[[A Feast for Crows]] (Mentioned)
[[A Dance with Dragons]] (Mentioned)
| Books = [[A Game of Thrones]](Mentioned)
[[A Clash of Kings]](Mentioned)
[[A Storm of Swords]](Appears)
[[A Feast for Crows]](Mentioned)
[[A Dance with Dragons]](Mentioned)
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[[Category:Members of the council|Martell, Oberyn]]
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Revision as of 19:59, 25 June 2014
Oberyn Martell by Amok©
|The Red Viper
|Prince of Dorne
House Martell
Second Sons (formerly)
|"Salty" Dornishman
|In 258 AC
|In 300 AC, at King's Landing
A Game of Thrones (Mentioned)
A Clash of Kings (Mentioned)
A Storm of Swords (Appears)
A Feast for Crows (Mentioned)
A Dance with Dragons (Mentioned)
|Played by
|Pedro Pascal
|TV series
|Season 4
Prince Oberyn Nymeros Martell, known as the Red Viper, is a member of House Martell and is Prince Doran's hot-headed younger brother. He has eight bastard daughters, called the Sand Snakes, the four youngest of which by his current paramour Ellaria Sand. Some rumors hold that he is bisexual.[1] His squire (and one of his many rumored lovers) was Daemon Sand. In the television adaptation Game of Thrones Oberyn is portrayed by Pedro Pascal.
Appearance and Character
- See also: Images of Oberyn Martell
Oberyn has a lined face with thin eyebrows, black "viper" eyes and a sharp nose.[2] His hair is lustrous and black with only a few silver streaks and recedes from his brow into a widow's peak.[1]
Oberyn is a forceful, lusty man with a quick wit and barbed tongue. He studied at the Citadel for a while, and apparently forged several maester links but eventually grew bored and left the order. Oberyn had traveled the world, and even founded his own mercenary company. He had a very close relationship with his sister Elia and they were inseparable as children.
Oberyn rides a black stallion with a tail the color of fire. He wears a pale red silk cloak and a shirt armored with overlapping discs of bright copper. His helm is adorned with a copper sun and he owns a steel round shield in the Dornish style that is decorated with the sigil of House Martell.[1]
Oberyn is an exceptional fighter, his speed and skill with both spear and sword are renowned. In battle, along with his brightly-polished round shield, Oberyn wields an ash spear eight feet long with a steel spearhead and spike. He chooses to wear lightly armored greaves, vambraces, gorget, spaulder and steel codpiece, in addition to supple leather and flowing silk. He wears a helm without a visor and scales of gleaming copper over his byrnie. [3]
Early Life
In his youth, Oberyn was fostered at Sandstone.[4] At sixteen, Oberyn was found in bed with the paramour of Lord Edgar Yronwood, so the lord challenged him to a duel. The duel was to first blood, given the prince's youth and high birth, and both took cuts. Lord Edgar's wounds festered and killed him. Oberyn has been known as the "Red Viper" ever since by friends and foes alike, due to rumors that he fought the duel with a poisoned blade.[1] Afterward, Oberyn was sent to Oldtown and then to Lys in temporary exile (though it was not called exile) in order for House Martell to make peace with House Yronwood, Quentyn Martell was sent as a ward to House Yronwood.[5]
Oberyn had traveled extensively in the Free Cities, where he learned much about poisons and perhaps even darker arts. He had studied at the Citadel, going so far as to forge six links of a maester's chain before he grew bored. He had soldiered in the Disputed Lands across the Narrow Sea, riding with the Second Sons for a time before forming his own company. It is said that he beds both men and women, and has begotten bastard girls all over Dorne. The Sand Snakes, men call them.[1]
Oberyn, however, does not let his children grow up wanting: he takes responsibility for them, and actively seeks to help raise all his children (something few lords do when it comes to their bastard offspring). He teaches them how to defend themselves and allows them great independence in growing up.
When Oberyn was young, the ruling Princess of Dorne planned to wed Oberyn or his sister, Princess Elia, to one of Lord Tywin's children, or both of them to his twins. For that purpose, they visited Casterly Rock, where they met Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion Lannister. However, they arrived shortly after Joanna Lannister's death, which left Lord Tywin unreceptive. He offered the newborn Tyrion instead, which was seen as an insult.
Oberyn is also primarily responsible for giving modern revitalization to the ongoing feud between his House and the Tyrells, because he accidentally crippled Willas Tyrell in a tourney, Oberyn struck Willas breastplate clean, but his foot caught in a stirrup as he fell and his horse fell on top of him. Oberyn even sent his own maestar to help treat Willas. Willas himself holds no grudge against Oberyn and the two correspond via raven message even after the accident as both share a passion for horses.[1] Prince Oberyn was unhorsed by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen at a tourney at Storm's End.[6] He was unhorsed by Ser Barristan Selmy at a different tourney at Storm's End.[7]
Events following Elia's murder
Oberyn had a very close relationship with his sister Elia. Following the Sack of King's Landing, when he learned that she was raped and murdered by a Lannister knight, Gregor Clegane, along with her son and how her daughter was killed by another Lannister knight (Amory Lorch), he attempted to raise Dorne for Viserys. The new Hand, Jon Arryn, was able to keep the peace, but Oberyn has desired revenge ever since.[1] He seldom left Dorne in a public capacity thereafter.[8]
He and his brother Doran worked in secret for years planning on bringing an end to the reign of Robert Baratheon and destroying House Lannister. Oberyn traveled to Braavos where Viserys Targaryen and Daenerys Targaryen were being kept by Ser Willem Darry and signed a secret pact that the Sealord of Braavos witnessed, promising Viserys the hand of Arianne Martell in return for Dorne's help in claiming the throne.
Recent Events
A Storm of Swords
Prince Oberyn comes to King's Landing to claim the seat on the small council on Prince Doran Martell's behalf and obtain justice for his sister Elia Martell's murderer, as was agreed with the acting Hand of the King, Tyrion Lannister.[1] However, it soon becomes clear that the new Hand, Lord Tywin Lannister, means to forgo that promise. Tywin plans on lying to Oberyn and claiming that the now deceased Ser Amory Lorch is responsible for all three deaths (Lorch was guilty of the death of only Rhaenys).[8]
Oberyn gives King Joffrey Baratheon a red gold scorpion brooch for the royal wedding. [9]
When Tyrion is accused of Joffrey's murder, Oberyn is one of the judges. The day before a judgement is to be pronounced, Oberyn offers to be Tyrion's champion in a trial by combat, if Tyrion tells who is guilty of the murder of Elia. Tyrion takes Oberyn up on his offer. He denies any involvement of his father but tells Oberyn that Lorch killed Rhaenys and Ser Gregor Clegane killed Elia and Aegon.[10] Oberyn knows already that Ser Gregor will be his adversary.
Despite his enormous physical disadvantage, Oberyn using speed manages to wound Clegane several times and cripple him by finding chinks in his armour and severing his hamstring after the Mountain tired from chasing him. As Oberyn prolongs Gregor's death, trying to wring a murder confession from him, the prostrated Clegane manages to grab hold of Oberyn and smash his armoured fist into Oberyn's face, killing him: dashing out his brains after first destroying his teeth and knocking out his eyes. Before killing Oberyn however, Clegane roars his guilt in killing Elia and Aegon for for all to hear. [3]
A Feast for Crows
Oberyn achieves posthumous vengeance by having coated his spear in a special kind of poison, leaving Clegane to die slowly and in tremendous agony.[2]
Oberyn's daughters, the Sand Snakes, seek vengeance for his death; Prince Doran Martell orders Areo Hotah to place them under arrest to keep the peace.[2]
A Dance with Dragons
Tyene Sand mentions that she knows about the poison her father used on the Mountain and that if his spear so much as broke Cleganes skin then he is dead. [11]
Quotes by Oberyn
– Oberyn and Ellaria Sand
Elia Martell, Princess of Dorne, you raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children.[8]
– Oberyn while fighting Gregor Clegane
Quotes about Oberyn
Oberyn has always been half-mad.[8]
– Tywin Lannister to Tyrion Lannister
– Jaime Lannister to Tywin Lannister
He knew the man only by reputation...but the reputation is fearsome...His tourneys, his battles, his duels, his horses, his carnality.[1]
- Thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Oberyn was ever the viper. Deadly, dangerous, unpredictable. No man dared tread on him.[11]
– Doran Martell to the Sand Snakes
References and Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 38, Tyrion V.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 2, The Captain Of Guards.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 70, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 21, The Queenmaker.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Arianne sample chapter
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42, Daenerys IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 67, Jaime VIII.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 53, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 59, Sansa IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 66, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 38, The Watcher.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 62, Jaime VII.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at House Martell. The list of authors can be seen in the page history of House Martell. As with A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


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News dominates TV while game developers go mobile
News and current affairs programs made up 36,500 hours of commercial TV programming last year, a new report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows.
"Nearly half the commercial TV content made in Australia during 2011-12 was news and current affairs programming," says William Milne, Director of Integrated Collections at the ABS, "that's out of the nearly 79,000 hours produced during the year."
"Perhaps not coincidentally, news and current affairs programming was also the cheapest programming to produce, with costs averaging about $14,000 per broadcast hour.
"That's considerably less than the production costs of drama, which was well over half a million dollars an hour.
The report also showed that income generated by film and video production businesses has increased, from approximately $1.6 billion in 2006-07, to $2.2 billion in 2011-12.
"The film and video post-production industry has fared worse, with the industry's total income dropping by one quarter, to $330 million," Mr Milne said.
"The total income of digital game developers fell from $137 million down to $89 million.
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Ladder Accessories
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Visit our pool store for pool ladders and accessories that will give your ladder a whole new look, and will keep the swimmers safe.


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Thickest skin
Last updated: October 13, 2017 at 21:42 pm
The sperm whale has the thickest skin of any living animal. The skin on its back and head—without any subcutaneous fat—is sometimes up to 35 cm (14 in.) thick. The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) has the thickest skin of any fish in the world. It is as thick as 23 cm (9 in) in places.
Verified by Diving Almanac & Book of Records official
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Largest white shark filmed underwater
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 11, 2017
6 m (20 ft) — In August 2015, biologist Mauricio Hoyos Padilla described what may be the largest white shark ever filmed. Based on the size of his boat [...]Read More
Most jellyfish [Lake]
By Jeffrey Gallant / May 19, 2017
Palau's Jellyfish Lake (Palauan: Ongeim'l Tketau, i.e. Fifth Lake) contains an estimated 10 million golden mastigia jellyfish (Mastigia sp.), a landlocked species which evolved [...]Read More
First Aqua-Lung dive
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 7, 2017
January 1943 — Jacques-Yves Cousteau tested the first Cousteau-Gagnan open-circuit scuba unit in the cold Marne River near Paris. The single-stage regulator worked [...]Read More
Deepest submersible dive [Ocean]
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 19, 2017
10,928 m (35,853 ft) — Victor Vescovo aboard the Limiting Factor (Triton 36000/2 model submersible) | April 28, 2019 | Challenger Deep [...]Read More
First underwater photo
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 9, 2017
1856 — William Thompson (UK) took the world's first underwater photo in the Bay of Weymouth. The camera inside a housing made of wood and iron was mounted on a tripod that was [...]Read More
Deepest saturation dive [Openwater]
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 12, 2017
534 m (1,752 ft) — COMEX Hydra 8, Hyperbaric Experimental Centre, Marseille, France, 1988. Breathing a gas mixture of hydro-heliox, it [...]Read More
Deepest shipwreck ever found
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 23, 2017
6,220 m (20,406 ft) — USS Johnston (DD-557), Philippine Sea. On October 30, 2019, Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. announced the discovery of the deepest [...]Read More
Longest stay in an underwater habitat [Europe]
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 23, 2017
36 days | Lacustris Programme (Romania) — Aquanauts Liviu Miron & Constantin Mihai set the European record of 36 days [...]Read More
Longest underwater human chain [Women]
By Jeffrey Gallant / Aug 3, 2018
107 — The group of women led by Divetech Grand Cayman, was linked in a human chain off Lighthouse Point to celebrate Women's Dive Day on July 20 [...]Read More
Deepest submersible dive [Solo | Men]
By Jeffrey Gallant / Apr 19, 2017
10,928 m (35,853 ft) — Victor Vescovo aboard the Limiting Factor (Triton 36000/2 model submersible) | April 28, 2019 | Challenger Deep [...]Read More
Oldest diver (Men)
By Jeffrey Gallant / Nov 30, 2017
99 — William Lambert (USA) celebrated his 99th anniversary with a birthday dive in Pearl Lake, Illinois, on September 5, 2019. He remained at the depth of 9.7 m (32 ft) for 20 minutes [...]Read More
World's deepest fish?
By Jeffrey Gallant / May 29, 2018
Depending on where you get your information, the Mariana snailfish, a.k.a. Swire's snailfish, is not the world's deepest fish nor is there a depth limit beyond which fish can live [...]Read More
Jeffrey Gallant is the Editor-in-Chief and Records Keeper of the Diving Almanac. He is also a contributing editor of DIVER Magazine, and the scientific director of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG). Jeffrey started diving in 1982.


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Q&A with Men's Crew Head Coach Zach Johnson
Related Links
The UC San Diego men's crew team is directed by Head Coach Zach Johnson and continues to improve each time out. UCSD is getting ready for the stretch run which includes the San Diego City Championships and Western Intercollegiate Rowing Championships in April, and the ECAC National Invitational Rowing Championships in May. Johnson recently took time to discuss the student-athletes' lives both on and off the water.
Q- What is the difference between this year's squad and last year's squad?
JOHNSON - The biggest difference has been a change in desire. Not only did we graduate a number of seniors from last year, but the Head Coach moved on as well. With a new Head Coach and different teammates, the athletes responded well to difficult circumstances and transitioned as if everything was status quo. They voiced their desire to raise expectations to a new level and responded well to changes in their training plan. They recognized the need to work even harder to reach their goals and embraced working at a high level.
Q- Who are your team captains and what strengths do they provide to the team?
JOHNSON - This year we have two team captains. Brenden Carriker is a senior and second year captain. He is an extremely gifted oarsman and leads by example. He is social, but tends to only vocalize his opinion when he thinks it is needed. The rest of the time he spends showing the other athletes how hard to work by doing it himself. Our second captain is Anthony Rubino and he has a style of his own. Much like Brenden he tends to show others how to work by outworking everyone else. Anthony however was a Marine prior to starting school and has brought that intensity to our team. He is a no nonsense individual and the athletes respect the confidence he brings to their boats.
Q- What is a typical week like for the men's crew team?
JOHNSON - It is defined by hard work. A typical day for a Men's Crew athlete starts at when they have to leave to drive to the boathouse for practice at every day, six days a week. They will then participate in a practice in which they will row anywhere from 10 to 20 thousand meters at a time. After rushing off for class they then have an additional afternoon practice involving either core strengthening to avoid back injuries and increase leverage or they will be back on rowing machines for up to an additional 15 thousand meters. It is a strenuous schedule and why rowers are some of the best conditioned athletes in sport.
Q- Can you discuss some individuals on the crew team?
JOHNSON - It is hard to discuss individuals in a sport defined as ultimate teamwork. The athletes we have here are one of a kind. I came from a large university where great athletes grew on trees, but they lacked the work ethic. Here I found student-athletes who don't always have the same athletic potential, but are far better oarsmen because they work hard at it. They approach their sport the same way they approach school. They are used to putting in hard work and getting good grades. The same is true in rowing, if you put in the work you will see the results and they have.
Q- What is the outlook/goals for the rest of the season?
JOHNSON - We have one main goal this year and that is to win the big races. In the past few years we have become one of the fastest teams in our conference and shown consistent speed. We seem to win all of our dual races and place well at our conference championships, but we have failed to win the big race. Crew Classic, WIRA Conference Championships and ECAC National Championships. Those are our goals for this year. We want to have at least one big win, something that will define this team and finally make that jump from 2nd place to grand champion. We have the team to do it this year.
Q- What types of activities does the crew team do together in the off-season?
JOHNSON - Rowing is a unique sport in that it is the only one I know of where a large group of athletes will spend four hours a day together every day. The athletes become extremely close and the result is everything ends up being done together. Our athletes go snowboard in the Winter and surf in the summer. They take road trips and go camping and any other activity imaginable. They are a close group and their friendships normally last lifetimes.
Q- Do you have a favorite crew team roadtrip?
JOHNSON - I think that our team enjoys our trip to WIRA Conference Championships the most. Each year we load up the boats and bus to
Previous Q&A Articles
Michelle Osier (Women's Basketball) March 7, 2007
Brooks Dierdorff (Men's Volleyball) March 1, 2007
Scott Clement (Baseball) February 15, 2007
Chelsea Ambort (Women's Fencing) January 29, 2007
Meaghan Noud (Women's Basketball) January 15, 2006
Susan Bell (Women's Swimming) January 6, 2007
Tim Fuller (Men's Swimming) December 20, 2006
Alexis Mezzetta (Women's Basketball) December 10, 2006
Clint Allard (Men's Basketball) November 30, 2006
Kristin Halvorsen (Women's Volleyball) November 18, 2006
Adnan Jerkovic (Men's Water Polo (November 1, 2006)
Caitlin Ryan (Women's Soccer) October 24, 2006
Amber Ries (Women's Volleyball) Sep. 24, 2006
Chase Douglas (Men's Soccer) Sep. 13, 2006
Diane Dunn (Women's Cross Country) Sep. 5, 2006
Jesse Casellini (Men's Water Polo) Sep. 1, 2006
Nicole Courtney (Women's Volleyball) Aug. 18, 2006
Chelsey Campbell (Women's Soccer) Aug. 9, 2006
Dan Holligan (Men's Cross Country) Aug. 2, 2006)
Tony Salerno (Head Track and Field Coach) - June 8, 2006


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VEDA distributes information sheets, books, and videotapes about balance disorders, BPPV, Meniere's disease, endolymphatic hydrops, nutrition, hearing loss, and management of acute attacks of dizziness. Serial publication: On the Level (newsletter), quarterly--includes articles on medical treatment advances, research, rehabilitation, diet, exercise, stress reduction, support groups, and related matters.
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Songs by Elgar, Thurlow, Skempton, Birtwistle and Britten
- Orford Parish Church, Orford, Suffolk, IP12 2LW IP12 2LW (map)
Lesley-Jane's wide-ranging vocal skills are reflected in the variety of concert work she undertakes. Her concert diary illustrates not only an interesting mix of composers but also the typical demand for "greats". For further concert details, click on each event below or get in touch. To view Lesley-Jane's past concerts, click here.
Heralded as one of the most versatile soloists of today, soprano Lesley-Jane Rogers is renowned for her captivating and evocative performances. An established concert soloist, she specialises in oratorio, "vocal concertos", solo cantatas, recitals and contemporary music, and is praised for her sensitivity and thoughtful interpretation.


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The Jets lost running back Shonn Greene in free agency—he signed a three-year, $10 million contract in Tennessee—but they imagined they had found a perfect under-the-radar replacement, in the Raiders' Mike Goodson. Playing every so often, Goodson averaged 6.3 yards per carry. What's not to like? Plenty, actually, according to the New Jersey state police.
Goodson was stopped early this morning on I-80 West, where he was a passenger in an SUV. Police said he and the driver were intoxicated, evidently sufficiently enough that both were sent to a hospital before police processed them. Later, Goodson was hit with a bundle of charges: unlawful possession of a handgun, possession of a loaded handgun, possession of a hollow-point round, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. He's presently in jail in Morris County.
Will the Jets cut Goodson? Maybe. He's replaceable, and the team recently dumped two non-roster rookies who were arrested on simple marijuana possession charges. Hope Goodson hasn't already spent that $1.925 million signing bonus.


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Check out what the media is saying about It's Just Lunch. (Spoiler alert: Very good things!)
by Michelle HackmanAfter four years of misleading photos, cheating boyfriends and messages that didn't quite sound authentic, Natasha Topinka decided she was through with online dating. So the 41-year-old pharmaceutical saleswoman, who lives in Oklahoma City, decided to try an old-fashioned approach. Not friends of friends. Not a blind date. She signed up for a bona fide matchmaking service. Read the full article >
Brielle Gregory
"…If those methods don't work, you can also try a matchmaking service like It's Just Lunch, says Laino. Although they can get expensive, these services offer a more personalized experience, so you're more likely to get a strong match right out of the gate. "You're not just fishing online; you're actually having someone narrow down a potential mate or two for you," says Laino."Read the full article >
Shelby Slauer
Breakups are hard, especially if you weren't ready for one. If your relationship is still healthy overall or you broke up because of external reasons, you probably weren't ready.
INSIDER spoke with relationship experts about signs that you weren't ready to break up with your partner.Read the full article >
Amber Brooks
Editor's Choice Award of Excellence — It's Just Lunch® Matchmakers Inspire Singles to Stop Swiping & Start Meeting in Person
The Short Version: Since 1991, It's Just Lunch has helped busy professionals meet and build long-term relationships. This global matchmaking firm streamlines the dating process by arranging first dates for clients in 150 cities worldwide. As a leader in the industry, It's Just Lunch has won our Editor's Choice Award of Excellence in recognition of its exceptionally passionate and dedicated team.Read the full article >
In 2010, Heleen Devos, a native of Belgium who works in corporate social responsibility and communications for a French energy company, was heading to Cuba for a United Nations climate change conference.
"I had seen him and found him handsome," Ms. Devos said dreamily of a Chilean in her row. Yet she was unsure of his relationship with the older woman next to him.Read the full article >
And skip to the best parts of dating.


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IRS adds to campaign finance mess
The Wild West just got wilder.
The Internal Revenue Service is reeling from a scandal that will surely leave the agency even more impotent against the rise of anonymous political cash, campaign finance watchdogs say — and there's plenty of groups from both sides waiting to take advantage.
Story Continued Below
Congressional Democrats and reform groups have been begging the IRS to investigate the nonprofits — a role the agency never asked for and isn't very good at — but they fear the new scandal means those calls may go unanswered.
( Also on POLITICO: 5 key players in IRS mess)
In fact, there could be less oversight than ever before.
"Even though the targeting appears to be a local problem of a career employee, it may cause the IRS to be even more timid enforcing the laws on election spending," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Targeting groups because of their politics is wrong, Whitehouse added, "but so is lying to the government to achieve phony tax status and hide the donors behind political attack ads."
Super PACs have a catchy name and get most of the attention, but 501(c)(4) control real — and more importantly, anonymous — money. According to OpenSecrets, they spent at least $250 million of dollars on political activities last cycle — and the real figure is likely much higher since they don't have to disclose all their spending until years after the election.
( Also on POLITICO: Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill)
The nonprofits include groups that on their face certainly look like political operations, such as the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, the Karl Rove-linked Crossroads GPS and the pro-Barack Obama Priorities USA. Organizing for Action, the successor to Obama's campaign, is a 501(c)(4), as is the new FWD.us group from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
For critics of the campaign finance system, especially after the 2010 Citizens United decision, the problem is those groups spending millions of untraceable dollars are allowed to act with impunity.
"I think the IRS caving too quickly on this," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Any time the IRS tries to enforce any laws regarding the abuse or misuse of C4 status, the Republicans scream," Sloan said.
( Also on POLITICO: Acting IRS chief knew of targeting in 2012)
An irony of the IRS subjecting various new tea party groups to extra scrutiny is that they aren't exactly been big spenders.
Several regional tea party nonprofits raised only a few thousand dollars – if they raised any money at all, according to their 2011 tax reports, the latest available to the public. For example, the Georgia Tea Party raised nearly $15,000; Richmond Tea Party Patriots, $43,000; and Tea Party Patriots of Southern New Jersey, $9,500.
Meanwhile, some of the c4 arms of the biggest liberal nonprofits – Media Matters and others have not even applied for tax exemption, which they're not obligated to do (they also have c3 arms that do have tax exempt status).


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Siemens expands its electric utility arm
- Dec 8, 2011 7:00 am GMT
- 657 views
Without doubt, the big news of the week was Siemens Industry, Inc.'s announcement that an agreement had been signed to acquire eMeter Corporation this month.
We spoke both to Siemens and to eMeter about the agreement, and its ramifications for 2012.
Siemens is looking strategically at its smart grid play, and venture capital-funded startup eMeter (with whom it has had a working partnership agreement for the past three-plus years) was a logical acquisition, and a signficant footprint in meter data management.
The logical first question I asked Kevin O'Hara, vice president and general manager of Siemens Smart Grid Services for the U.S. and Canada, and Craig Cavanaugh, Siemens' director of metering services, was: "What's next in terms of Siemens' acquisitions? Will there be a meter company acquisition in the mix?"
"Stragically, at the moment, we don't have any plans to be a meter provider. We work with meter vendors and meter providers," O'Hara said.
But as far as other companies in the market are concerned? "Across our portfolio, all are fair game. We are strategically looking for companies that fit our focus," Cavanaugh said.
For eMeter, the acquisition by Siemens just plain made good sense. "We're very excited," said Kyle Artega, eMeter's global head of corporate communications and a spokesman for the company. "What makes the merger more natural is that we know each other really well. We have 17 mutual customers in three countries: Germany, Austria and the United States."
Cavanaugh concurs: "We entered 2011 as a partner with eMeter of six customers. We are exiting 2011 with seven to eight new (mutual) customers."
Siemens and eMeter have been working together since 2007, so when eMeter began looking at new funding to step up its efforts, and announced its intent, it received two unsolicited offerings, as well as new venture capital (VC) offerings. Compared against its VC offers, Artega said, "Siemens came through. We have received a level of attention from Siemens that we haven't seen before (in others), and a vision we haven't seen before. We really think (Siemens) can significantly accelerate our business."
eMeter's entire 175-person staff will be joining Siemens, but for eMeter CEO Gary Bloom, who is leaving the company, according to a report by online Xconomy.com. Bloom, who joined eMeter 20 months ago, revealed in a Q&A with Xconomy correspondent Wade Roush that, coming from a background as a software CEO, adapting to doing business with the utility industry has been what he termed "a fun challenge."
It's a sure bet we'll see Bloom heading up another fast-moving industry start-up in 2012. I met with him at DistribuTECH earlier this year, to talk about eMeter's move into the cloud, and he was logical and straight-to-the-point in a way that some others were not. "I see it as business management," he said. "They (utilities) see is as: is IT really my business? Why not hand off IT to everyone in the cloud?" At the time, eMeter had taken the step others had not yet tread: the company bore the banner of being the first energy service in the cloud. Bloom called it "the birth of the energy cloud."
"For us, this is an additional reach into the marketplace," he told me. "Architecturally, this product is ideally designed."
On the Siemens-eMeter front, expect great things in 2012. Artega, who reports that eMeter, which has a number of partners, such as SAP and IBM, says that, "In general, our customers have been excited, for the most part, and so have our partners."
And then there's that industry triple play: analytics.
"Siemens also buys into our vision regarding analytics," Artega told me. "Our analytics play could exceed our MDM play."
Siemens' Cavanaugh agrees. He says there are two pieces of the portfolio, and one of them is MDM as a conduit of customer data back into the enterprise (utility). "We clearly see it as a critical cornerstone platform into the processes we are developing," he said.
And the meter data management platform sits, in a most visual way, as the octupus head of a multi-armed opportunity within the electric utility industry. "Your octopus analogy is very apt," Cavanaugh said, "because of where the application sits within utilities and the data landscape." MDM intercepts a lot of data, and the granularity a utility is able to get from that data is extremely useful in terms of new offerings, better planning, and even, perhaps, generation procurement in the future.
Siemens will be announcing, within the next few months, a number of new utility deployments. Will they also be announcing new acquisitions? Stay tuned here for the answers.
Kate Rowland
editor-in-chief, Intelligent Utility magazine
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At The Trop
One of the better things about being on the road is the pregame meetings with the manager. At home, the interview sessions are so structured because of the higher volume of home media. On the road, sometimes we only have four or fives guys traveling. What is the benefit of this? Well, with John Gibbons, a lot of times it leads to lengthier meetings in which we don't just get our day-to-day info for our notebooks, but also a lot of just sitting around and talking, telling stories, jokes — stuff like that.
Gibby had a nice anecdote today about his time at the All-Star Game. He said Tampa Bay was probably going to be running on the basepaths with Halladay on the mound on Tuesday — something a lot of teams have increasingly done against Doc, who doesn't have a traditional slide step. The approach was something that led to a funny exchange at the ASG in Pittsburgh.
When Halladay was on the mound for the American League, two runners stole bases against him. Gibbons was on the bench when he overheard one of the White Sox players ask manager Ozzie Guillen about the pair of swipes:
"One of the White Sox players said to Ozzie, 'How come we never try to steal when Halladay pitches?'" Gibbons said on Tuesday. "Guillen says, 'Because nobody ever gets on.'"
Other notes:
Obviously, there was no post yesterday. For those of you out there with good detective skills, that probably meant I didn't attend Gustavo Chacin's rehab outing in Dunedin, after all. That'd be correct. It was raining sideways at my hotel and I didn't want to be sitting at a potential rainout at Knology Park on my day off — not going to lie to you.
Well, Chacin gave up five runs on six hits with four walks in 4 2/3 innings. Not the best stats, but Gibbons and Brad Arnsberg, the pitching coach, insist that results aren't what they are looking at in a rehab start. They are looking at the fact that he's been able to throw a lot of pitches and not experience any pain in his elbow. So he's scheduled to start Saturday in Baltimore.
No word yet on who will be removed from the bullpen and added to the roster when Chacin returns. Toronto will most likely return to 13 position players and 12 pitchers. That would mean Chacin is up, two relievers are down, and a position player is added. If I had to venture a guess: Add catcher Jason Phillips and option Francisco Rosario and Jason Frasor or Dustin McGowan. We'll see what happens.
Gibbons said he expected injured pitcher Justin Speier (forearm) to join the team on the current road trip. He wasn't sure if that'd be in Tampa or in Baltimore, though. Neither Gibbons nor Arnsberg know when Speier will begin throwing again, but Gibby said today he'd expect him back in September. Speier's estimation was that he'd begin throwing a week after he got hurt, which would be tomorrow. It'll probably be more than a week.
I saw Jose Canseco at the airport in Tampa. Nothing else to report on that — literally just a random sighting.
Check out the blogs of my colleagues Mark Feinsand at Yankees.com or Ian Browne at RedSox.com. I have links to them on the left side of this site. Check out how many comments they get. All of you Blue Jays fans need to spread the word and use this blog as a discussion board. Let's get the comments rolling, the discussions churning, and show that the Jays fan base can be just as active their East rivals. Just had to say my part.
Stay tuned for more…
9 Comments
why would they send down frasor? when I saw him pitch on MLB.tv the other day he looked much improved to me. He hasn't done anything bad since he came up. All leaving McGowan in the majors would do is lower his confindence. Wouldnt they just send McGowan and Rosario down and keep Frasor on the roster?
p.s. I'll try and keep the comments rollin
Yeah, McGowan is more likely than Frasor. I was merely throwing out the names of possible candidates and those were the three that jumped out. Frasor has only pitched one inning since coming up — what that means, if anything, I don't know. I'm allowed to be wrong from time to time, you know. Phillips might not be the one to get the call, either. I would think he gives the Jays more options at C/DH/1B, though. But yes, more than likely it'll be McGowan and Rosario to go down. We'll see.
It's bad enough that SportsCenter et al don't list the Jays on the division or wild card standings, but with the Football preseason gearing up, they're freeing up time for that coverage by cutting down on the amount of the Jays game they recap. The first play they showed from tonight's game was the lineout double play in the 6th. That and the Jays' 3rd run, and they cut to the box score. At least they mentioned at the start of the bit that the Jays would be leading the NL wild card right now, but I guess when the home team gets fewer than 10k attendance and the away team is from a market that doesn't get the channel, they're not going to spend much time recapping it.
I SO agree. I think it's a shame that the NHL season ended several months ago, and it will still usually get the first story on sports channels like TSN and The Score. I hate how Canada doesn't like its baseball enough! Maybe a World Series will solve that…?
As usual.. we canadians go un-reconized. Even when our Jays are one of the most talented teams in the league.
I should have mentioned that I was referring to SportsCenter on ESPN… I guess TSN renamed SportsDesk to SportsCenter at some point. (Then again, Baseball Tonight is no better.) I'm surprised that TSN's version wouldn't give the Jays much play, although they are owned by a competing media company.
The 2nd Frasor demotion this year still strikes me as being odd. From what i understand they wanted him to keep his pitchcount down, so they sent him to the minors to fix it up (and he came up with a slider, and got rid of his curveball?)
I don't recall seeing him in a game since he's been recalled – though i've missed a few, so i could be wrong.
Dustin McGowan needs to step into a starting roll, whether it be in Toronto or the minors. Every team that turns the corner from pretender to contender (detroit, chicago, cleveland last year, etc) has had their young arms step into a starting roll and give a strong performance. The blue jays need this to happen, and McGowan seems to be the kid with the stuff that can do it. He needs confidence. Send him down and let him pitch. A lot.
Jordan – who do you see the jays targeting in the offseason as free agents? Gil Meche has been getting thrown around a lot – do you think they'll gun for him? Or will they depend on Marcum/McGowan to step into the rotation next year (of course, all this is based on lilly leaving toronto)?
There's talk of Matsuzaka from the Japan leagues getting posted to the MLB next year. Will the Jays be able to afford to put in a bid on him? I noticed that several Japanese companies took out advertising space in the Rogers Centre when the Mariners came to town, but that those ads stayed up for the remainder of the homestand. (I assume Rogers Centre has a minimum duration requirement on stadium ads.) The extra advertising revenue from companies like Miura Boiler and Dandy House (which didn't appear to replace existing ads for the most part) could offset some of the cost of picking up a big name from Japan like Matsuzaka, but do you think the Jays would go down that path?
they won't sign Matsuzaka..He'll cost upwards of $100,000,000. He'll go to new york (if they don't get zito).