Zionist-Revisionism: The Years of Fascism and Terror

Abstract

Menahem Begin's surprising rise to power in 1977, after a lifetime of opposition within the Zionist movement, created considerable interest in his personal career. However, for all his present fame and power, Begin would still refer to himself as nothing more than a disciple of Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940), the founder of his ideological tendency within the World Zionist Organization (WZO), and the man he considers the greatest Jew since Herzl. Not to know Vladimir Jabotinsky is not to fully understand Menahem Begin-or contemporary Israel. Jabotinsky was the most martial of the early Zionist leaders, organizing the Legion, a force of 5,000 soldiers as the WZO's contribution to the British conquest of Palestine during World War I. In 1920, Jabotinsky again organized the Haganah which, many years later, became the nucleus of the Israeli army. He was placed on the WZO world executive for his services, but resigned in January 1923, to build his Zionist-Revisionist World Union, founded in 1925, as the far-right opposition within the WZO to its President, Chaim Weizmann. After World War I, Britain dissolved the Legion and separated Trans-Jordan from the territory allotted to the Jewish National Home