"What has been will be, and what we have done will be done; and there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiastes).
This week was the birthday of David Ben-Gurion and Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
88 years ago, in October 1934, at the height of an unprecedented political crisis and an unrestrained campaign of violence by the left against the right, the two rivals met in London in an attempt to reach the formulation of Zionist democratic rules of the game.
The attempt failed, and perhaps its consequences are with us to this day.
In June 1933, Chaim Arlozorov, one of the leaders of Mapai and who was in charge of the transfer agreements with the Nazi German regime, was murdered on the beach in Tel Aviv. This is the point to put the finger on the beginning of the bitter conflict between the right and the left. While Jabotinsky called on the Jews of the world to boycott Nazi Germany, the Yishuv's leadership preferred interest over ideals. The debate was more blatant, sharp and inciting than the 2022 Twitter brawls.
The left was convinced that Jabotinsky's men were responsible for the murder.
Ben-Gurion wrote an article "I Blame", in which he sued the entire revisionist movement.
Three right-wing people were arrested - Avraham Stavsky, Zvi Rosenblatt and Abba Achimair.
Sima Arlozorov, who claimed on the night of the murder that they were Arabs, changed her testimony.
Against the solid alibi for the suspects, a false witness was brought, who, under pressure from the Histadrut, testified that she saw Stavsky in Tel Aviv at the time of the murder.
Even the British police knew it was a lie.
The deputy chief of police said that it was clear to them that these were not the murderers.
The pressure from the Histadrut members was too heavy.
The left-wing press exploited the murder to the extent of a blood plot, and called for the right-wing to be taken out of the Zionist camp.
The right is not guilty because of its views, no, it is simply violent and crazy, inciting.
And violence must be answered with violence.
The left, then the majority in the settlement, attacked brutally.
The Hapoel companies repeatedly beat Beitar residents with nailed sticks in the streets of Tel Aviv, many against the few. Hundreds were injured. The Beitar children's march was attacked by adults and dispersed.
In Kfar Saba, Rishon Lezion and Hadera, Beitar nests were attacked with stones.
In Migdal Poalim Beitarim guests were beaten in their sleep and expelled from the colony. In Red Haifa, senior right-wing activists were seriously injured. Right-wing workers were fired. Under pressure from the Histadrut, shops and restaurants did not accept Beitarim customers.
In the kibbutzim they refused to provide first aid.
In accordance with the best Bolshevik tradition, a letter from a 13-year-old boy allegedly praising the murder was forged, in order to argue to the world about the wickedness of right-wing education.
In exile, the communists and Bundists also joined the attacks of the left.
The results - seriously injured in Warsaw, Lublin, Lodz, Bialystok, Vilna, Kielce and more.
Jabotinsky himself was stoned.
A bomb was planted in Lviv.
Dozens injured.
Children too.
But the campaign for justice led by Jabotinsky, who was joined by Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Milikovsky, Rabbi Uziel, Meir Dizengoff, Akiva Aryeh Weiss and Shaul Tschernihovsky, ended in a crushing victory in the trial.
Rosenblatt and Stavsky were acquitted.
Then, Jabotinsky surprises.
From the position of the moral victor, he offers reconciliation and peace.
In a letter to the Histadrut committee, Zebo called for negotiations between the movements, to establish rules of the game and joint action.
In the face of the warming Arab sector, the hardening of British attitudes and the life of the Jews in exile under the threat of the spread of Nazism, Jabotinsky saw an existential need to find common tracks.
At first the left ignored.
The Histadrut justified the violence against the people of Betar on the grounds that the right-wing violates strikes, an unforgivable sin in the Marxist world (look for the old but highly recommended Betar book. This is the chronicle of the movement).
The amount of acts of violence by the left is large in a newspaper column.
No less than terrorist attacks against senior officials and ordinary people.
In Haifa, walking with a Beitar sergeant was a pretext for the attack. The newspaper "Davar" justified the violence, claiming that non-membership in the Histadrut was a provocation. The right, as usual, protested but refused a fratricidal war.
In October '34, negotiations began on an apartment in London.
Jabotinsky and Ben-Gurion with four eyes.
The members of the Histadrut tried to thwart the negotiations and attacked a Beitar meeting in Haifa with tear gas bombs and stones. Dozens were injured. Following the attack, public criticism grew and the agency established an investigative committee. Now even Mapai had to condemn.
Ben-Gurion wanted the agreements.
He understood that the hatred and animosity had crossed the dangerous threshold.
Almost immediately, the first agreement on non-violence was signed.
After negotiations, an agreement was also signed to establish working relations, and with it an agreement to provide certificates to Beitar personnel.
Until then, the members of the apparatus refused to allow immigration to Beitar. Faced with the danger of the Nazis, Jabotinsky considered rescue and the establishment of a state of utmost importance. The leftists preferred to play a class war.
But Ben-Gurion's public opposed the agreement. While in Beitar, they were ready to put violence behind them. , the discrimination and the blood plot of the murder of Arlozorov, while the people of Beitar reached out for peace for the greater cause - the officials of the Histadrut dragged their feet.
The violence continued.
The incitement continued.
The agreements were not respected.
In Austria, for example, out of 117 certificates, Beitar, which was larger than all the other movements combined, received three. Certificates that had already been received - such as that of Yitzchak Rohchin - were revoked. Yitzchak later led the ghetto revolt to Hawa, and was killed. After six months, In the referendum of Histadrut members that was imposed on Ben-Gurion, the majority voted against the agreement.
Since the days of Jabotinsky and Ben-Gurion, the revisionist movement extended its hand for peace. Peace of equals and of brothers who fight together for Zionism. Since those days, the hand has been scornfully rejected as a leper's hand.
In the last year basic Zionism has been attacked.
The Muslim Brotherhood government stopped the Hebrew plantings.
Dependence on the Americans has broken records and threatens the very essence of Jewish sovereignty.
Now they are running away from the principles of democracy itself.
They are preventing a Knesset debate on a gas agreement due to a "disturbing opposition", and are undermining the remnants of ideology on the left.
The attempt to confiscate under false legal pretexts any cooperation with the leader of the largest party, brought us to the edge.
Precisely at a time when the security threat is increasing, the Hebrew government is busy with re-education.
In the 1930s we know where it ended, where will it end tomorrow?
Leftist and center Zionists, Jews and Democrats share with rightists concepts, a common heritage and basic Zionism.
All of our children enlist together in the combat units and risk their lives together.
Politics based on boycotting the leader of half the people is the same politics of rejecting the London agreements.
Enough of the irrational hatred.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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