Revisionist Zionism

Revisionist Zionism is a right wing tendency within the Zionist movement. The ideology was developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky who advocated a "revision" of the "practical Zionism" of David Ben Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, which was focused on independent settlement of Eretz Yisrael. Revisionist Zionism was instead centered on a vision of "political Zionism", which Jabotinsky regarded as following the legacy of Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism.

Revisionist Zionism: Ideology

Ideologically, Revisionism advocated the creation of a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River, i.e. a state which would include all or part of the modern state of Jordan, which was split off of Mandate Palestine as an Arab state later, in 1946. All three streams, Centrists who advocated a British style liberal democracy, and the streams who would become Irgun and Lehi, supported Jewish settlement on both sides of the river (and so did some parts of Labour Zionism, such as Ben Gurion's Mapai party), but in many cases, differed on how this would be achieved. Jabotinsky wanted to gain the help of Britain, while Lehi and the Irgun wanted to conquer both sides independently of the British. The Irgun stream of Revisionism opposed power-sharing with Arabs. Jabotinsky's statements were ambiguous on the topic of "transfer." In some writings he supported the notion, but only as an act of self defense, in others he argued that Arabs should be included in the liberal democratic society that he was advocating, and in others still, he completely disregarded the potency of Arab resistance to Jewish settlement, and stated that settlement should continue, and the Arabs be ignored. Most Zionist groups favored, tacitly, at least a partial transfer of the Arab population out of Mandatory Palestine in order to ensure a Jewish majority.

Related Topics:
Jordan River - Jordan - Liberal democracy - Mapai - Lehi - Irgun - Transfer

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National-messianism vs. Jewish nationalism

Up to 1933, a number of leaders from the national-messianist wing of Revisionism were inspired by the fascist movement of Benito Mussolini. These leaders, such as Abba Achimeir were attracted to fascism for its staunch anti-communism and its focus on rebuilding the glory of the past, which national-messianists such as Uri Zvi Greenberg felt had much connection to their view of what the Revisionist movement should be.

Related Topics:
Fascist - Benito Mussolini - Abba Achimeir - Anti-communism

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Abba Achimeir's ideology was based in Oswald Spengler's monumental study on the decline of the West, but his Zionist orientation caused him to adapt its ultimate conclusions. Achimeir's basic assumption was that liberal bourgeois European culture was degenerate, and deeply eroded from within by an excess of liberalism and individualism. Socialism and communism were portrayed as "overcivilized" ideologies. Fascism on the other hand, like Zionism, was a return to the roots of the national culture and the historical past. According to Achimeir, Italian Fascism was not anti-Semitic, whereas communist ideology and praxis were intrinsically anti-Semitic: in his view, Communism was anti-Zionism, Fascism was not.

Related Topics:
Oswald Spengler - Liberalism - Individualism - Anti-Semitic - Communism - Anti-Zionism - Fascism

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He also developed a favorable attitude toward fascist praxis and its psycho-politics, such as the principle of the all powerful leader, the use of propaganda to to generate a spirit of heroism and duty to the homeland, and the cultivation of youthful vitality (as manifested in the fascist youth movements). Achimeir joined the Revisionist movement in 1930, but before joining he wrote a regular column entitled "From the Notebook of a Fascist" in the unaffiliated but pro-Revisionist magazine Doar Hayom. He crafted his pro-fascistic views in these columns, and also wrote an article in 1928 titled "On the Arrival of Our Duce" to celebrate Jabotinsky's visit to Palestine, and propose a new direction for the Revisionist movement, more in line with Achimeir's views. (Segev, Tom, The Seventh Million: Israelis and the Holocaust pg 23.)

Related Topics:
Praxis - 1930 - 1928

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When Achimeir was on trial in 1932 for having disrupted a public lecture at Hebrew University, his lawyer, Zvi Eliahu Cohen, argued "Were it not for Hitler's anti-Semitism, we would not oppose his ideology. Hitler saved Germany.' This was not an unconsidered outburst". An editiorial in the Revisionist newspaper Hazit Haam praised Cohen's "brilliant speech." It continued, that "Social Democrats of all stripes believe that Hitler's movement is an empty shell (but) we believe that there is both a shell and a kernel. The anti-Semitic shell is to be discarded, but not the anti-Marxist kernel. The Revisionists would fight the Nazis only to the extent that they were anti-Semites."(Segev, Tom, The Seventh Million: Israelis and the Holocaust pg 23).

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In 1933, when Hitler came to power the newspaper, whose editors were Revisionist Party members, praised Nazism as a German national liberation movement and said that Hitler had saved Germany from Communism. Jabotinsky responded by threatening to have the newspaper's editors expelled if they repeated such "kow-towing" to Hitler. (Schechtman, Fighter and Prophet, p.216.)

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The national messianist wing (which inspired Lehi) differed from the ideological vision of Jabotinsky to the extent that on August 9 1932, Jabotinsky wrote to tell Abba Achimeir that his romantic ideas and the zeal of his followers were considered excessive. Ha-Zohar, he wrote, was a democratic political movement of a patrician rather than populist or Romantic kind. As a consequence, he argued, the behavior of Achimeir and his friends threatened Jabotinsky's own movement. He also argued that if Achimeir's views were indeed similar to those which he expressed in his articles and letters, there was no room for the two of them in the same political camp.

Related Topics:
Lehi - August 9 - 1932

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Irgun to Likud

The Irgun largely followed the Centrists' ideals but with a much more irredentisticly inclined, hawkish outlook toward Britain's involvement in the Mandate, and an ardently nationalist vision pertaining to society and government. After the establishment of the State of Israel, it was the Irgun wing of the Revisionist Party that formed Herut, which in turn eventually formed the Gahal party by absorbing the centrist General Zionists. In 1977 the new Likud Party, a right wing coalition dominated by the Revisionist Herut/Gahal, came to power and has been an important force in Israeli politics ever since. In the decades since first taking power, particularly in the last decade, Likud has undergone a number of splits to its right, including the 1998 departure of Benny Begin, son of Herut founder Menachem Begin. Although the party platform has been consistent with Revisionist ideology, most supporters believe that Prime Ministers from the party have consistenly deviated from what many see as their mandate.

Related Topics:
Irredentist - State of Israel - Irgun - Herut - Gahal - General Zionists - Likud - 1998 - Benny Begin - Menachem Begin

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The National Union and other parties to Likud's right now claim that they are the true representatives of Revisionist Zionism, and that Likud has abandoned its ideology.

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While the initial core group of Likud leaders such as Israeli Prime Ministers Begin and Yitzhak Shamir came from Likud's Herut faction, later leaders, such as Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon have come from or moved to the "pragmatic" Revisionist wing.

Related Topics:
Israeli Prime Ministers - Yitzhak Shamir - Benjamin Netanyahu - Ariel Sharon

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