100 years after Ze'ev Jabotinsky wrote the article "On the Iron Wall," he is still the pillar of Israel's security. Jabotinsky's principle that "the only way to achieve an agreement (peace) is to erect an iron wall" until the Arabs of the Land of Israel "lose a glimmer of hope of getting rid of us," has guided the Israeli spirit for 75 years.
Kingfisher forces in Kibbutz Be'eri and rescue of kibbutz residents | IDF Spokesperson
However, the Simchat Torah offensive obliges us to rethink the foundations established by Jabotinsky. Not because they are incorrect, but because they should perhaps be thickened and updated, if I may suggest it.
When the lines "On the Iron Wall" were written in Berlin, the Nazis had not yet come to power in Germany, the Holocaust had not taken place, no nuclear bomb had been dropped, and the Internet had not been developed that radically changed the world. In addition, in the State of Israel, which also did not exist at the time, we have accumulated a wealth of political and security experience that equips us with some insights that the author of the article did not have.
We have gone through difficult wars, one is only at the beginning. Thanks to the Iron Wall, we have established peace agreements with our neighbors – cold, hot and also failing. We learned that there are those among the Arabs and minorities living in the country who have made a bloody and true pact with us. On the other hand, the Simchat Torah war, with its horrors, horrors and paralyzing sympathy for the world, abruptly threw us into the ancient Jewish past – a bloody past of pogroms, pogroms and attempts at extermination.
Swastika on Jewish homes,
In other words, it seems that the Hamas attack is not "only" another chapter in the series of Jewish Yishuv wars over the Land of Israel, but a terrible landmark in the axis of Jewish history. For Hamas' vision, which we tended to scorn, is not only the "return" of the land that was supposedly stolen from them, but the destruction of the State of Israel. At the same time, Hamas supporters in progressive academia, in China, on the streets of London, Paris, Washington and Los Angeles, see every Jew as someone who has no place on earth.
This is the meaning of their call, "Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan, Palestine will be free." This is the explanation for the swastika spray-painted on the apartment in Lyon, where a Jewish woman was stabbed in her home. This is the motive for the murders of the two Jews in Detroit and Los Angeles last month. This explains the deafness of the world's supposed elite towards babies burned in ovens, girls whose limbs were amputated while being raped, soldiers beheaded, and old men dragged on motorcycles like sackcloths of potatoes.
It is worth dwelling for a moment on the point. This is not the first time that circles considered by themselves and others to be the most advanced in the world, and as those who set the moral tone for all of humanity, have shown indifference and even mild sympathy when it comes to slaughtered Jews. Just like American academia today, Germany of 90 years ago was considered the cradle of civilization. To this day, it is impossible to understand how the homeland of Bach and Beethoven created the most terrible genocide in history.
In every generation
We do not know the meaning of this abysmal hatred of the Jew. There are better or lesser hypotheses. The common denominator of all of them is that the Jew should be hated, regardless of the facts, when the excuses are only changing. In Egypt, it was claimed that "we will rise from the land." In Persia we were accused that "their religion is different from any people." In the Crusader era, we were accused of being responsible for the killing of Jesus, and in modern times, we were foreign planters, bloodsuckers, moneylenders or oppressive whites.
In our era, the excuse is "the Palestinians." This bluff connects Iran's Shiites with Hamas's Sunni haters, their historic rival Erdogan in Turkey, and even with many Western enlightened, who strongly oppose everything that other groups stand for. Only hatred of the Jews, or in its euphemistic name "the Palestinian problem," unites them.
Why is it so important to understand this, and what is the connection to the "iron wall"? Because if we don't diagnose the problem correctly, we won't detect the cure. Jabo wrote about a small Jewish minority that took the first steps of holding on to the land, while 95 percent of the world's Jews are scattered around the globe.
Ze'ev Jabotinsky. To add an up-to-date perspective to his article,
Today, when there is a state and a majority of the Jewish people in its land, Israel's existence is the guarantee of the security of Jews in the world and that "never again" – as indeed proved at a heavy price in Simchat Torah. On the other hand, Diaspora Jews bear the burden of accusations leveled at the Jewish state. It is impossible to separate their situation from ours.
A people alone will dwell
More importantly, the eternal hatred that was directed at a people scattered among all peoples is now directed at its state. We must acknowledge this axiom. One of the goals of Zionism was to provide a solution to the "Jewish problem" and to become "a people like all other peoples." But once again it has been proven that this aspiration is not realizable in the foreseeable future, no matter how normal we are or how successful the country may be.
What do we do with these conclusions? We are building a global iron wall, one that will protect us forever, both in Israel and around the world. That is, not only in the Land of Israel and not only until our enemies in the Land of Israel "lose a glimmer of hope of getting rid of us." They don't. This is what we learned at Simchat Torah.
Second, as we can see, even those Islamic forces that abhor Hamas's madness and want to be near us find it difficult to resist the erosion it creates. This means that in order to maintain political peace, we will have to be strong as iron for 1,000 years ahead. Without it, the wave of hatred will once again rise above us.
Third, it is our duty to defend the Jewish cause throughout the world, fiercely and vigorously. Do not run away from it. Don't hide behind the term "Israelis." Don't huddle in a corner in fear. We do not accept or restrain ourselves when hypocritical and false accusations are leveled at us, which are not directed at any other people in the world. Eliminate an apology for our existence.
Fourth, we must accept that preserving the Third Temple involves an eternal effort – security, political and economic, an effort whose end is not visible to the human eye. Yes, even when the reserve forces are released, the national mobilization must continue. We are the most attacked people and country in the world, and not just militarily. We do not have the luxury of resting anyone under our limbs and under his fig.
As in the early days of Zionism, the nation must enlist its best daughters and sons to build a security defensive wall, but also to strengthen international support, embrace friends and forge alliances with supporters – there are such masses, not the whole world is against us.
100 years later, the war that caught us by surprise forces us to build Iron Wall 2.0.
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