The great Zionist leader and prophet Ze’ev Jabotinsky said many years ago that "The past lays a railroad track for the future." Indeed while the years go by, anti-Semitism remains a constant throughout world history.
And Jabotinsky’s gems can be studied for eternity.
We [Jews] do not have to apologize for anything. We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest.
While a terrorist organization fired rockets upon Israeli civilians, Israelis earned the wrath of many of the world’s nations for protecting themselves.Perhaps if Israel did not have the Iron Dome, more Jews would have died, and then Israel would have gained sympathy. This is the time to remember the ageless words of Jabotinsky, "We [Jews] do not have to apologize for anything. We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest.”
Jabotinsky once asked, "'Everybody is wrong and you alone are right?' No doubt this question springs by itself to the reader's lips and mind. It is customary to answer this with apologetic phrases to the effect that I fully respect public opinion, that I bow to it, that I was glad to make concessions....All this is unnecessary, and all this is untrue. You cannot believe in anything in the world, if you admit even once that perhaps your opponents are right, and not you. This is not the way to do things. There is but one truth in the world, and it is all yours. If you are not sure of it, stay at home; but if you are sure, don't look back, and it will be your way."
Israel should – and must – care less if it is condemned by other countries. Israel is on the side of good – against Iran, against terrorism.
As Jabotinsky said, “What is important is what you are demanding; what is important is in whose name it is being demanded. If the demand is presented in the name of a great mass of people, it is important that that mass itself make it clear from time to time that it is seriously interested in the subject. What is important is patience and stamina; and one of the most important factors is that the spokesman stating the case should be capable of stating it clearly as well as politely.”
Israel must keep communicating the needs of the only democracy in the Middle East – and the demands are of a civilized nation seeking peace, surrounded by demagoguery, cruelty and brutality.
I own a PR agency, and I see tens of thousands being killed in Syria and ignored by the world media.
Jabotinsky believed “every individual is a king”, and that the Jewish state’s economy must be based upon the Bible: “economic and social policy is one of freedom; rather than forbid or control economic activity, it deals with any negative results by means of institutions such as the Sabbath, tithing, the gleanings and corners of the field that were left for the poor, and the Jubilee.”
Indeed, the desert of Israel blooms, regardless of the barbarians - whose people are starving - at the doors of Israel.
Jabotinsky: "So long as the Arabs have a glimmer of hope to rid themselves of our presence, they will not give it up for all the sweet words and far-reaching promises in the world."
Only when "there is not a single breach in the iron wall . . . will they start honest negotiations with us" that can lead to the two peoples being "able to peacefully live together like good neighbors."
The "iron wall" of Israeli resilience, like the Iron Dome of Israel's ingenuity, allows Israel to survive surrounded by Arab nations, and allows the Jewish state to continue to survive.
The iron wall has not outlived its usefulness.
Ronn Torossian is a former National President of Betar North America – Jabotinsky’s youth movement.
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