Euphemism of the year: Suicide bombings are “Violent, politically motivated attacks”

The Toronto Star wins the 2008 Euphemism of the Year Award for this sentence about the Israeli separation fence:

But defenders of the barrier say it has dramatically reduced the incidence of violent, politically motivated attacks launched against Israel by West Bank Palestinians.

There are so many euphemisms in this story, I may have to give out multiple awards. For instance:

“Violent, politically motivated attacks” = suicide bombings.

“West Bank Palestinians” = terrorists. (Also not true, many suicide attacks launched from the West Bank were by attackers from the Gaza Strip.)

“Attacks launched against Israel” = the second half of suicide bombers. I guess the Star wants us to be sure that we know the difference between Palestinian suicide bombers who attack Israel, and those who attack the Palestinians. Of course, the fact that there are no Palestinian suicide bombers attacking Palestinians (yet) doesn’t factor into this ridiculous example of politically correct speech on steroids.

And the editors are not quite finished using them, either:

But both sides agree that life here is a lot more peaceful now than it was just a few years ago.

According to Israeli figures, political violence has plummeted.

And then they break down the “political violence” into narrower categories:

In this region, which includes the Palestinian towns of Qalqilya, Tul Karem and Salfit, incidents involving firearms dropped from 166 in the second half of 2007 to 52 in the first half of 2008.

Those involving explosive devices fell from 112 to 56 during the same period.

For those of you who are not fluent in PC, they’re talking about shooting attacks and molotov cocktails, respectively, as well as the occasional bomber that is stopped at a checkpoint by a sharp-eyed Israel soldier.

But the PC Police missed a spot:

Resentments continue to fester on both sides of the fence, and stones and even homemade firebombs continue to be thrown on occasion, but life around here is undoubtedly calmer than it has been in years – and that is no small achievement.

Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! I think Canadian readers are going to have an attack of the vapours after reading that last paragraph. I think we should write a strong-worded letter to the editor (filled with euphemisms, of course) about the use of inflammatory language regarding Palestinians.

Wow. Can it get much worse than this? I mean, really. No wonder Ezra Levant had so much trouble with the Canadian PC Police. It’s endemic.