Free Republic

JERUSALEM – Yehoshua Zettler, one of the founding members of a violent pre-state Jewish movement and mastermind of the assassination of a top U.N. envoy in 1948, has died in Israel. He was 91. His wife, Bella, another member of the LEHI movement, also known as the Stern Gang, said Zettler suffered a stroke and died last week. LEHI is a Hebrew acronym for Israel Freedom Fighters. Zettler was one of the original members of the militant Irgun group and its more extreme breakaway LEHI faction, serving under two future Israeli prime ministers — Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir.