An Appreciation of Jabotinsky

 From this appreciation of Ze'ev Jabotinsky of Vladimir Frenkel:

"Jabotinsky:

“We have nothing to apologize for. We are a people, like all peoples; we have no pretensions to be better. As one of the first conditions for equality, we demand that we recognize the right to have our scoundrels, just like other peoples have them.

This is from the article "Instead of Apology", written back in 1911. It is clear that there is not a word about the future Jewish state. Of course, Jabotinsky does not “dream” about his own criminals - he simply recognizes the possibility of their presence in his people, as in any other people, and does not consider that this is a tragedy, that it is necessary to justify himself to someone because of this. In fact, the article was devoted to the "Beilis case" and the "blood libel", but its problems are much broader, and therefore it is interesting and relevant for us now.

Jabotinsky raises the question: why, in fact, do we Jews behave so strangely? He writes:

“For several years now, Jews in Russia have been sitting tightly in the dock. It's not their fault. But here's what is undeniably their fault: they behave like defendants. We make excuses all the time. […] Tell me, friends, aren't you tired of this rigmarole yet? […] Who are we to justify ourselves before them, who are they to interrogate us? What is the point in all this comedy of the trial of an entire people, where the verdict is known in advance? With what joy should we willingly participate in this comedy, consecrate the vile procedure of mockery with our defensive speeches? Our defense is useless and hopeless, the enemies will not believe, the indifferent will not listen. Apologies have outlived their time.

It is useful to re-read Jabotinsky. It's like it's written now. Helpful and sad. For the same reason. And it’s not so much that the world has not changed in relation to the Jews: they are still judging a whole nation, now a whole state, they are no longer judging in a figurative sense, but for real - shamelessness has gone so far . But that's not the point. This was to be expected. The fact is that the Jews themselves have not changed. Jabotinsky wrote that instead of excuses, at least contempt is necessary. Otherwise, disaster cannot be avoided.

“Our habit of constantly and diligently reporting to all sorts of rabble has already brought us great harm and will bring even more.”

Now the Jews have a state. But the habit remained. I would still formulate this habit differently: an irrepressible and stupid desire to appear before the whole world as “good” and the fear of being branded as “bad”. It has become commonplace to say that Israel does almost no explanatory work in the world media, that we lost the information war without even starting it. Which, in general, is true. Less indisputable is the assertion that it is precisely this, i.e. ignorance, and explains the hostile attitude towards Israel in European countries. But let's not be naive.

An adult is quite capable of distinguishing terror from defense, bandits from soldiers and even more so from civilians, rioters from demonstrators. If he can't , then he doesn't want to. So is it worth it to "explain" something?

The trouble is that when the Jews nevertheless begin to explain something, they still, as in the days of Jabotinsky, not so much explain as justify themselves: no, we are not Nazis, no, we do not have Auschwitz. What the hell! When a person speaks vile things against Israel, he does it not from “ignorance”, but from the fact that he wants to say an abomination, i.e. from hate. “They don’t like us not because all sorts of accusations have been leveled at us: they are accusing us because they don’t like us,” this idea clearly formulated by Jabotinsky should become the standard of our attitude towards everyone who likes to loosen their tongues, whether they are public figures, foreign ministers or conscienceless Nobel laureates.

Do not make excuses where you need to use power: in the time of Jabotinsky we did not yet have such an opportunity. What kind of power? Well, at least personally ban these gentlemen from entering Israel until the end of their lives. It won't make them any better, but at least others will hold their tongues. But no, we cannot do that, we are humanists, i.e., as Jabotinsky wrote, we curry favor with all sorts of rabble.

Here is Jabotinsky's first lesson: the woeful realization that the Jewish people lack an elementary sense of their own dignity. Of course, one can understand that the irresistible desire to appear "good" in front of the whole world was established among the Jews in the Diaspora, during the centuries when Jews everywhere and everywhere were in the minority, hated and often persecuted. It's like that. But the sad thing is that the same psychology has been preserved in their recreated country, and not even among the repatriates, but among the native Israelis.

Here the leader of some Islamic country (yes, already Islamic, although not so long ago - secular), with which Israel has diplomatic relations, does nothing but insult Israel. But what about Israel? But nothing - although any other country would at least recall its ambassador "for consultations."

So sometimes you think that if it is easier to take a girl out of a village than a village out of a girl, then it is just as easier to take a Jew out of the galut than the galut psychology - even from his descendants on their own land. Perhaps this psychology - pleasing to everyone - protected the Jews in the Diaspora, at least sometimes, but in its own state it is mortally dangerous. It seems that Jabotinsky foresaw this. And it is precisely for this that he deserved the dislike of his contemporaries, his people.

But really, why was Jabotinsky so hated by people who were by no means stupid or evil? Why does another name of his evoke an unreasonably nervous reaction even now? If we talk about his views - he was an undoubted liberal of the European persuasion, a supporter of all conceivable rights and freedoms, even, perhaps, a left-wing liberal. He even shared other delusions of his time, say, socialist ones, but at that time it was impossible for a person of the “progressive” camp to have a negative attitude towards socialist ideas. After all, one had to be a professional economist, like Boris Brutskus, in order to see even then the destructiveness of the ideas of socialism precisely for the economy."

"...“The political naivete of a Jew is fabulous and incredible,” Jabotinsky wrote, “ he does not understand the simple rule that you can never “go forward” to someone who does not want to go towards you.” I suspect that the word "naivety" was used here by Jabotinsky out of intellectual courtesy, it would be better to say - stupidity.

This is another lesson of Jabotinsky: to see things as they are, without indulging in illusions. It would seem simple, but it is, nevertheless, the most difficult. Whatever Jabotinsky wrote about, he struggled with the Jewish ability to create illusions that drove him to despair and never give them up, even at the cost of national and personal self-humiliation. Illusions that they will love us: we just need to better explain that we are good. Illusions that someone will protect our interests while we protect others, etc.

It seems to me that Jabotinsky suspected that there is some kind of hidden vice in the Jewish people, which simply will not allow this people to revive their country and their state. 

^