Sunday, September 29, 2013

What Would Ze’ev Jabotinsky Do?

A 20-year old Israeli, Tomer Hazan was killed in a terrorist attack this weekend by a Palestinian restaurant worker – and secret “peace” talks continue? The terrorist had hoped to use the soldier’s body as leverage to pressure Israel to release his brother from prison. Perhaps if Israel had released more terrorists or given back land then Palestinian Arabs wouldn’t have killed this 20-year old Jew whose life was just beginning? Can anyone on Earth actually believe that? The truth is clear – as many politicians said it – As Avigdor Lieberman said President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority “has no desire or intention of peace with the people of Israel.” And yet, farcical peace talks continue.

And a few hours later, an Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron Sunday night, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the immediate resettlement of Beit Hamachpela, a building near the West Bank city’s Tomb of Patriarchs which was previously boarded up by the Defense Ministry. As Netanyahu said “Those who try to uproot us from Hebron, the city of our forefathers, will only achieve the opposite.” And that must be remembered.

While the portrait of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the father of the Revisionist Zionist movement is always hung during Likud conferences, one wonders in times like these, what would Jabotinsky say? Ze’ev Jabotinsky the Jewish prophet would remind Israel’s leaders that during two thousand years of exile, the Jewish nation lost the habit of concentrating its willpower on an all important task, lost the habit of acting in unison as a people, lost the ability to defend itself, armed in case of emergency, instead, the Jews became accustomed to weakness.

Jabotinsky’s words of many years ago are still relevant today: “We were not created in order to teach morals and manners to our enemies. Let them learn these things for themselves. We want to hit back at anybody who harms us. Whoever does not repay a blow by a blow is also incapable of repaying a good deed in kind.” “The Latin proverb says “of two evils choose the lesser.” When we are in a position where – through no fault of our own – physical force dominates, only one question can be asked: what is worse? To continue watching Jews being killed and the conviction grows that our lives our cheap, and among the whole world that we are spineless?…the blackest of all characteristics is the tradition of the cheapness of Jewish blood, on the shedding of which there is no prohibition and for which you do not pay. The Jew “is everywhere in reach; he can be pointed out at any street corner; and he can be insulted or assaulted with only the minimum of risk, or with none at all. ..one permanent assignment that is entrusted to each of us, old and young, men and women, educated and ignorant, as a group and as individuals; this assignment is the defense of our people’s honor. …”

“It is always aimed at us, and we must respond. We must end this abuse of ourselves, at all costs. And it is very easy. They spit in our faces without fear, ‘in passing’, for no reason – not because our insulters are blessed with courage and want to pick a fight with us, but because this pleasure is so cheap for them: they will spit at us and go on their way, and nothing will happen. We must accustom them to the thought that from now on this pleasure will come at a hefty cost. A new commandment must enter our hearts: that even where there is only one Jew, the word ‘Zhid’ must not be heard without response.

Wise people will come and try to dissuade us – But it is not our purpose to win in every single incident. Our objective – to create about us the belief that a slur on our national feelings is no longer what it once was, a small diversion free of cost – but will rather, with an absolute certainty and a mathematical precision, result in a sharp and unpleasant confrontation.”

Action and words matter. Revenge is a Jewish concept, and a price must be paid for the Jews who were killed. Ze’ev Jabotinsky would say “Silence is Despicable!” – let the world know Israel will not compromise on the right to live.

Ronn Torossian is a NY-based entrepreneur, author and philanthropist.


SOURCE http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-would-zeev-jabotinsky-do/

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