The Jewish people and the Jewish state are living through a period of danger that feels shocking to many-but should not be surprising to anyone who knows Jewish history. Periods of comfort have always been temporary,hatred has always returned, often faster and more violently than expected.
What is different today is not the hostility itself, but the shattered illusion that it would never come back after the Holocaust, and the painful realization that because of that illusion, many warnings were ignored. This is not a new chapter-it is a recurring one, written with familiar patterns, familiar silences, and familiar consequences.
The Jewish people, and the Jewish state are living through dark and dangerous times, but they aren’t new for anyone familiar with Jewish history.
In fact, Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, seen as a visionary leader and the “father” of Revisionist Zionism, warned us before WWII that Jew-haters were prevalent and Jews need to stand up.
As Jabotinsky wrote in one of his formidable articles:
“It is very, very sad that Jews are compelled to learn to shoot. But we are compelled and it is useless to argue against the compulsion of historic reality. That compulsion says you may be well educated, you may learn to plow the land and to build houses, you may speak Hebrew… but if you do not at the same time know how to shoot there is no hope. That is the lesson of the reality of our time and that is the prospect for the lifetime of our children.”
What Jabotinsky said in the 1930’s in Europe remains true today, although we wanted to believe that things had changed, except for Arab hostility to Israel's existence.
So, too do the words of his former secretary, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel’s father, who said in 2009: “The Holocaust didn’t end. It continues all the time.”
Brutal images of Jews being hunted in Australia and at Brown University could have come from any other tragedy in Jewish history. And yet from NYC to Toronto, London to Sydney, Jews are in shock after years of these warnings, and continued failure of Jewish leaders to act on them. A repeat of history.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky noted, “Where it is a question of war you do not stand and ask questions as to what is ‘better,’ whether to shoot or not to shoot. The only permissible question in such circumstances is on the contrary ‘what is worse’ to let yourself be killed or enslaved without any resistance or to undertake resistance with all its horrible questions. For there is no ‘better’ at all. Everything connected with war is bad, and cannot be ‘good.’
"When you shoot at enemy soldiers do not lie to yourself or persuade yourself that you are shooting at ‘guilty’ ones. If you start calculating with what is ‘better’ the calculation is very simple; if you want to be good, let yourself be killed and renounce everything you would like to defend: home, country, freedom, hope. The blackest of all characteristics is the tradition of the cheapness of Jewish blood.”
In the legendary essay “Ethics of the Iron Wall” on which historian Tom Segev said “Everything is rooted in ‘The Iron Wall’ idea. The ‘Iron Wall’ is the security policy of Israel”, Jabotinsky detailed the Jewish people’s defense policy.
As Jabotinsky wrote, “Human society is based on reciprocity. If you remove reciprocity, justice becomes a lie. A person walking somewhere on a street has the right to live only because and only to the extent that he acknowledges my right to live. But, if he wishes to kill me, to my mind he forfeits his right to exist - and this also applies to nations. Otherwise, the world would become a racing area for vicious predators, where not only the weakest would be devoured, but the best.”
The reality for Jewish people living in increasingly hostile nations is no longer theoretical, and no longer distant. It is visible in the streets, on campuses, and in institutions that once promised protection. Jabotinsky warned that history allows no permanent diaspora safety-that either the Jewish people take responsibility for their national future, or the diaspora would one day collapse under pressure and violence.
Jabotinsky taught us that “The ABC’s of Jewish youth need to be to learn to shoot.” In Israel, that is the norm for those enlisting.
Jabotinsky said “Eliminate the Diaspora or the Diaspora will eliminate you.” Lets hope more in this generation choose responsibility over denial.
Ronn Torossian is Chairman of Betar Worldwide, and a Board member of the Jabotinsky Institute based in Tel Aviv.