The Death of a Prophet

Dr. Gerardo Stuczynski
Israelnationalnews.com
17 August 09

Jabotinsky's astonishingly precise view of Israel.

Dr. Gerardo Stuczynski is President of the Latin American Zionist Confederation and a Member of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization.

On August 2, 1940, Zeev Jabotinsky died without having been able to see his dream come true. Sixty-nine years after his death, the almost mythical President Shimon Peres referred to this event in front of Jabotinsky's tomb on Mount Herzl. "It is likely that great leaders are bound to make great mistakes," said the endless Shimon Peres, referring to the fact that Jabotinsky was wrong about the geographical boundaries that the future State of Israel would have.

Undoubtedly, Jabotinsky was wrong when he considered "both banks of the Jordan" as boundaries of the sovereign territory of Israel. But it was mischief on the part of the president, who plays down his socialist and distant youth, to highlight that aspect, since it is one of the very few concepts in which Jabotinsky did not predict the future with precision.

In everything else, Jabotinsky's clairvoyance was such that many people (myself included) consider him a real modern prophet. Although his person is surrounded by prejudices, these are not based on knowledge of Jabotinsky's political thought, but on the slogans used by his detractors.

He was always convinced that a Jewish State was a historical need that would come to pass. That is why, in 1931, he proposed that the 17th Zionist Congress define its objective as the establishment of a Jewish State on both banks of the Jordan River. But the delegates, who refused to do so, did not reject the idea because of a geographical discrepancy, but because of a conceptual difference. They hardly dared to talk shyly about a Jewish national home. Needless to say, Jabotinsky was right as regards the need of a Jewish State, while other Zionist leaders were satisfied with much less than that.

Jabotinsky understood that the Hebrew language was a central element in the construction of the nation. Many had advocated the use of other languages.
Jabotinky predicted the Shoah explicitly. He made a call to end the Diaspora before the Diaspora put an end to the Jews. He issued his messages in a tone of urgency not shared by the other Zionist leaders. After the Holocaust, it seems unnecessary to go more deeply into who was right.

When the First World War broke out, Jabotinksy proposed the creation of a Jewish legion to support the Allies in the liberation of Palestine from the hands of the Ottomans, so as to earn the right to demand the creation of an independent Jewish State. Contrary to this position, the official Zionist leadership supported neutrality. David Ben-Gurion himself opposed the creation of the Zion Mule Corps. However, with the Balfour Declaration, his position changed to the point of becoming himself a member of such a brigade.

Jabotinsky does not seem to have been wrong either when he demanded the Zionist authorities modify their moderate policies concerning the restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine (the White Book) under the British Mandate. His movement led some of the first attempts to rescue Jewish people secretly.
(Continue)