Monday, December 10, 2012

Ze’ev Jabotinsky

I, Ronn Torossian was educated in the Betar youth movement of Ze’ev Jabotinsky and it is just great to see his influence continue on Jewish and Israeli life.

“It seems that the Zionist feuilletons of Zev Jabotinsky, on which so many were brought up at the beginning of this century, continue to influence and guide others.” Menachem Begin, “The 1972 Jabotinsky Ferment Among the Jews of Russia.”And today, in the Israeli government, Ze’ev Jabotinsky a great Zionist prophet who died in 1940 continues to have many followers in the halls of power in Israel.  The man founded the Betar youth movement and his thoughts  continue to have such a role in Israeli public life.

In some of his writing he stressed that  “..the Zionists wanted “civilized public opinion to know that our cause is just and that our opponents are in the wrong.” Jabotinsky noted that there were two compelling aspects to the Zionist problem: Jabotinsky was firmly convinced of the moral justness of Zionism, Jabotinsky noted the Jewish claim to Palestine while historic, was not based solely on historic rights, which he argued were only valid when supported by actual necessity. “When this is the case, the historic right becomes at once a factor of supreme magnitude; and there is no more striking example of historic connection between a race that lost its land and a country severed from its people than the connection between Israel and Palestine.” He believed (in the 1920’s and 1930’s) that this connection “was recognized by the conscience of all the civilized peoples of the world and was one of the most widely known facts of history.”

Ze’ev Jabotinsky spoke constantly of Jewish pride – as was reflected in the Betar anthem: “

Even in distress the Jew is a prince. No matter if a slave or a tramp, You were created son of kings, Crowned with the diadem of David…”

And in a rarity of his day, he was a proud capitalist – “[T]he first consequence of ‘every man a king’ is, obviously, universal equality, and the second consequence [is] individual liberty.” “In every-man’s life and activity—in his individual ‘kingdom’—as much as possible should be left outside of the state’s interference; the best rule would be that as long as one ‘king’ does not encroach upon his neighbour’s ‘sovereignty’, he should be left alone; if that is really impossible, for there unfortunately are dangers without and needs within which compel a collective effort, let it be strictly limited to the really inevitable minimum.”

He often said “Silence is Despicable” and spoke of the need to speak truth to power, which is why today people shouldn’t be afraid if condemned for the right reason.“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” -Winston Churchill.

Ronn Torossian is an entrepreneur, author and philanthropist.


SOURCE
http://www.jewocity.com/blog/author/ronn_torossian

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