Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky is another big name in Israel's hall of fame with many a street named after him, a right-wing extremist to some, a Zionist hero to others. Well, in order to separate fact from fiction and help me to form my own opinion of the man, I decided to pay a visit to the Jabotinsky Institute on King George Street.A talented poet and writer from his youth, Jabotinsky turned ardent Zionist pioneer after reporting the horrors of the Kishinev pogrom for a Russian Journal in 1903. His "Revisionist" Zionist idealogy was more hard-line than that of the World Zionist Organisation in that he believed there was to be absolutely no compromise with respect to a Jewish State being established through the full territory of the British Mandate, and any opposition should be confronted with an "Iron Wall" of total Jewish military supremacy. That's not so say, however, that he encouraged unnecessary violence, as he publicly stated his ideal, "We will settle there without expelling one single person from the country and without oppressing anyone."
Jabotinsky considered his greatest contribution to the Zionist cause to be the estabilishment of the "Beitar" Zionist youth movement, which spread the zionist pioneering ideals amonst the jewish youth throughout Europe and successfully mobilised many to the cause. More controvertially, he was responsible for establishing the "Irgun" underground military force in the belief that more military pressure was needed in opposition to the restrictions of British Mandate rule than was being applied by the Israeli Defence Force.Prior to the later controversial acts of the Irgun, it, together with Beitar played a key role in the "Af-Al-Pi" operation, concieved by Jabotinsky, which successfully smuggled 20,000 European Jews to Israel in 34 ships, before and during the Second World War, thus saving them from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis. For this and also for his tireless lecturing to Jews all over Europe prophesizing the eventual Holocaust and trying to convince them to go to Israel before the war, Jabontinsky is undoubtadly a hero. His premature death in 1940, can be considered kind, as it prevented him from seeing the horrific extent of his prophecy.
It was only after his death that the acts of the Irgun became more aggressive, many of which were terrorist acts, which makes me wonder whether Jabotinsky would have approved; I guess we'll never know. The list of Irgun leaders after his death reads like a who's-who of familiar street names in Israel including David Raziel, Yaacov Meridor and of course Menachem Begin. The numerous operations of the Irgun, including raids on ammunition stores and the infamous Acre prison break are admirable in their audacity, though less admirable are the King David Hotel bombing in Jerusalem and, shockingly the British Embassy bombing in Rome; yes exported terrorism, uncomfortably familiar, but to more recent times.
As horrible as some of the acts of the Irgun were, in the end, it's hard to deny that they did play a key role in accelerating the British departure from Palestine and the establishment of the Jewish State, which, as a Jew in Israel today leaves me with mixed, rather uncomfortable feelings towards Jabotinsky and his version of Zionism.Well who says everything has to be black or white, so I suppose i'll just have to live with them!
