2025-07-03 17:01 <br/> Tags: #EarlyZionism #KeyPeople #people #Israel #Yishuv ![[image-39.png|247x356]] # Ze'ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) - Ze'ev Jabotinsky was a radical right wing politician and militant Zionist in British Mandatory Palestine. Jabotinsky is the founder of [[Revisionist Zionism]]. Jabotinsky's legacy and ideology are incredibly influential in modern Zionism. - Jabotinsky grew up in Odessa, Russia, in the late 1800s. - Odessa was the only major Russian city under the Tsar in which Jews were permitted. - Odessa was considered similar to Warsaw in its Jewish population with one major difference. Warsaw was noted as majority Polish with a minority of Jews. Odessa had many minority races in their own smaller bubbles unable to unify against the Jews. This was seen as the far preferable dynamic for Jews to flourish. #RedPill *Jews benefit living amongst an ethnically diverse population. The many separate minority groups lack cohesion and cannot form a unified opposition to the Jewish population. This nation-weakening racial diversity has been the goal of left wing Jews since the end of WWII in the worlds powerful white countries.* - At the onset of WW1 Jabotinsky and many Russian Jews hoped for a quick German victory against Russia *(the country they lived in)*, with hopes of the Tsarist regime collapsing. - Jews viewed the Tsar as antisemitic. This is the reason wealthy Jews funded the Japanese against the Russians in the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese war. - After the Ottoman Empire joined WW1 on the side of the Central Powers in October 1914, the Zionist Jews of Europe saw an open door to Palestine. Jabotinsky now backed the British government hoping for the defeat of the Ottomans and subsequent British control of Palestine. *(Britain was seen as the most philosemitic European country at the time)*. - In WW1 Jabotinsky served in the all Jewish British 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, a unit he mostly founded although didn't lead. [[David Ben-Gurion]] and [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]] served in the 39th Battalion. Both were included in the Jewish Legion. Jabotinsky's goal for the Jewish force was to help take Palestine and thus be the force administering the territory after the war. - At the behest of [[Chaim Weizmann]], Jabotinsky was a founding member of the [[Jewish National Fund]] and [[Keren Hayesod]] in the early 1920s. Both organizations were formed to raise funds for the Zionist project in Palestine. Jabotinsky was in charge of their propaganda. - At his positions at the JNF and KH, Jabotinsky traveled to the United States to raise money for Zionism. - From 1921-1923 Jabotinsky was on the [[Palestine Zionist Executive]] council. - As early as 1908, but more overtly in the late 1910s Jabotinsky believed Jews must become a sizeable minority of the population in Palestine to take control. He imagined the Arabs would grow in fear and aggression as the Jews became a larger percentage. At 30% of the population Jabotinsky predicted a war could break out and that it would be enough for the Jews to take power. #RedPill *Jabotinsky saw the difference in Jews being 12% of the population and 30% being enough to flip the power balance, initiate a war, and take over. In 1948 when the Jews fought the Arabs to take over Palestine, they were 31% of the population. Now translate this demographic and power balance to our country today. If the native population is "replaced" even with just a sizable minority, the country can be conquered.* #### Revisionist Zionism - Jabotinsky founded the [[Revisionist Zionism|Revisionist Zionist]] youth group [[Betar]] in 1923 while on a speaking tour in Riga, Latvia. - *Betar predates the formation of the Revisionist Zionists as a political entity by about 2 years.* - Betar was the complete product of Jabotinsky, he was its nucleus and leader until his death. - The origins of name for [[Betar]] are twofold; for Josef Trumpeldor, who died fighting Arabs in Tel Hai (North Galilee) in 1920, and also the name of the ancient village near Jerusalem where the Jews made their last stand fighting the Romans in the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD. #RedPill *The recurring theme of Jews' harbored anger towards Europe and specifically the Romans. These feelings are present in Jewry today. Look up "Eric Weinstein Arch of Titus." It can be concluded that Weinstein, Jabotinsky, and collective Jewry share the same historic resentment.* - The Revisionist Zionist party was formed in 1925 shortly after Jabotinsky and his inner circle in Paris coalesced around their newfound revisionist ideology. - The Revisionist Zionists grew in their share of delegates to the Zionist Congress but always remained lesser minority compared with [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s left wing labor Mapai party, or [[Chaim Weizmann]]'s center-left General Zionists. - In August 1935, Jabotinsky formed the New Zionist Organization, a separate group no longer affiliated with the [[World Zionist Organization]]. - Jabotinsky was the original territorial maximalist regarding the physical land a Jewish state should control. The land east of the Jordan River was, in 1922, split by the British into Transjordan, which today is the country Jordan. Jabotinsky saw all of Transjordan as rightfully Jewish land along with the West Bank and Gaza. - The idea of a right to both sides of the Jordan River along with a vast amount of land from neighboring countries is today called "greater Israel." Greater Israel territorial machinations are core to the Revisionist right wing throughout the history of Israel. - Land from Egypt, Saudi, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Turkey, along with all of both Lebanon and Jordan are included in different forms of greater Israel. Jabotinsky is the ideological founding father of these territorial ambitions. ![[image-43.png|470x313]] *Jabotinsky with Betar leaders in 1939. [[Menachem Begin]] is in the bottom left.* #### Irgun Paramilitary - The Irgun formed in 1931 was a radical terrorist offshoot of the [[Haganah]]. - They were independent of the Jewish Agency and the WZO. Because of this independence, they did not answer to the British. - The Irgun's founders were mostly [[Betar|Betarniks]]; followers of Jabotinsky who were younger and more extreme than their Haganah compatriots. - Jabotinsky led the Irgun in the early 30s within the confines of a supervisory committee of Irgun officials from various political factions. - In 1936-1937 Jabotinsky seized full control of the Irgun, having it organized under his New Zionist Organization and placing his son Ari in charge of [[Betar]] in Palestine (Jabotinsky was banned from Palestine in 1930 and never returned). - After the Arab Revolt's resurgence in 1939, Jabotinsky went full terrorist advocating for Arab civilians to incur violence he felt they had been safe from for too long. #### Legacy - In 1935 Paramount Pictures bought the film rights to Jabotinsky's 1927 novel *Samson the Nazarite*. - Paramount paid $666 for the rights. - They grossed $9 million on the 1949 film debut of *Samson and Delilah*. - "Jabotinsky Day" is the Israeli national holiday commemorating Jabotinsky. - Jabotinsky day falls on the 29th of Tammuz on the Hebrew calendar. This translates to roughly around the day Jabotinsky died, August 4th. - The right wing [[Herut]] and then [[Likud]] party (Begin, Sharon, Shamir, Netanyahu, etc.) is the continuation of Revisionist Zionism in Israel. The Likud abruptly took power in the 1977 Israeli elections and has been mostly in power ever since. - [[Leo Strauss]] was an intellectual disciple of Jabotinsky. Strauss is the philosophical forefather of [[Neoconservatism]]. #### Quotes A few quotes I found relevant: - "Separateness, distrust, vigilance at all times, a club in ones hand at all times. There is no other way to survive the war of the wolves." - *1908* - "Jews need to be protected, whether with God's help or of the devil's." - *1921* - "If I were to know that the only way to a state was via socialism, or that this would hasten it by a generation, I'd welcome it." - *1935 letter to from Jabotinsky to his Zionist arch rival [[David Ben-Gurion]] in a period of cooperation.* - "If you don't want to harm the innocent, you can die. If you don't want to die, shoot and don't blabber. This lesson was taught to me by my teacher Ben-Yosef." - *1939 quote referencing Shlomo Ben-Yosef, an Irgun terrorist hanged by the British for attempting to explode and gun down a bus full of Arab civilians.* - "He [Arabs in Tel Aviv] gets up in the morning and sets out and knocks on the Jews' door and says 'Good morning, I've brought some vegetables.' - and nothing happens. He's not afraid of being harmed... how long can this go on? Forever?" - *1939* #### Recommended Reading Ze'ev Jabotinsky - Hillel Halkin The Jewish Radical Right - Eran Kaplan #### References - **“Ze’ev Jabotinsky.”** _Wikipedia_. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze%27ev_Jabotinsky. - Halkin, Hillel. _Jabotinsky: A Life_. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014. - Kaplan, Eran. _The Jewish Radical Right: Revisionist Zionism and Its Ideological Legacy_. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. - **“Jabotinsky Day.”** _Wikipedia_. Last modified **29 June 2025**. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabotinsky_Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabotinsky_Day).