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Revisionist Zionism

Labor Zionism, although by far the largest organization in the Yishuv (the prestate Jewish community in Palestine), did not go unchallenged. The largest and most vocal opposition came from a Russian-born Jewish intellectual residing in Odessa, Vladimir Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky was both a renowned writer and the first military hero of the Zionist revival; he was commander of the Jewish Legion. While residing in Italy, Jabotinsky became attached to the notions of romantic nationalism espoused by the great Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi. Like Garibaldi, Jabotinsky viewed nationalism as the highest value to which humans can aspire. He called for massive Jewish immigration to Palestine and the immediate declaration of Jewish statehood in all of biblical Palestine. He viewed the world in Machiavellian terms: military and political power ultimately determine the fate of peoples and nations. Therefore, he called for the establishment of a well-armed Jewish self-defense organization.

Jabotinsky sharply criticized Ben-Gurion's single-minded focus on creating a Jewish working-class movement, which he felt distracted the Zionist movement from the real issue at hand, Jewish statehood. He gained wide popularity in Poland, where his criticisms of socialism and his calls for Jewish self-defense appealed to a Jewish community of small entrepreneurs hounded as a result of anti-Semitism.

For a while, Mapai, the major socialist-Zionist party, opposed (the right wing) Revisionist party attempts to make a Jewish state the goal of the Zionist movement. Instead, Mapai espoused binationalism and sought ways to win over prominent Arab leaders. But nothing came of numerous attempts by many leaders from various Zionist groups to devise a solution acceptable to major Arab groups. Ben-Gurion summed up two decades of such effort in the fall of 1939 with clarity and candor: "There is no example in history that a nation opens the gates of its country, not because of necessity.. but because the nation which wants to come in has explained its desire."

Only the right wing of the Zionist movement seemed to have a consistently clear perception of this fundamental truth. Early in the 1920s revisionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky declared: "The Arabs love their country as much as we do; their decision to resist us is only natural." Before the Peel Commission of Inquiry in the middle 1930s he acknowledged that "of course the Arabs have a strong case, of course they would prefer Palestine to be the fourth, fifth, or sixth independent Arab state"; it was simply a matter of the greater justice or the lesser injustice to support the Zionist cause.

When the British government was given authority over Palestine under the League of Nations Mandate after the First World War, the area compassed Transjordan as well, the western part of which also had extensive associations with the history of the Israelite tribes. In 1922 Transjordan was separated from western Palestine in order to create a territory for Emir Abdullah, Britain's client. The partition, which represented an arbitrary division of an area that had been homogeneous in Biblical times, disappointed the Zionists but was accepted by most of them as still providing adequate scope for the fulfillment of national objectives. The significant exception was the Revisionist Party, whose slogan was "Both Banks" -- that is, a Jewish state encompassing both East and West Banks of the Jordan. Initially, however, even Jabotinsky, the major Revisionist personality, accepted the partition. Before the Six Day War the Herut Party, the core of the annexationist group, continued to maintain a claim on both banks of the Jordan, a platform that dated back to the origins of the Revisionist Party in the 1920s.

Herut Founded in 1948, the Herut (Freedom) Movement represented the ideological continuation of the Irgun Zva'i Le'umi (the Irgun, also known as IZL or Etzel), one of the pre-state underground forces. During the period of the British Mandate, the Irgun was the military arm of the Revisionist Movement. Herut rose as an independent movement, separate from the Revisionist camp, due to ideological fissures that had opened up among the Irgun's internal factions during the group's last days. However, in spite of Herut's disagreements with veteran Revisionists, the movement assumed the role of successor to Zionist Revisionism and adopted Ze’ev Jabotinsky as its spiritual father.

The Herut Movement, located on the right of the political map, espoused a hawkish line on issues of foreign policy and security and opposed both the ceasefire of 1949 and the withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in 1956. Its platform spoke of the sanctity of the historic boundaries of the Land of Israel and of the integrity of the homeland. Accordingly, Herut demanded that the state's political boundaries include the whole territory of the British Mandate of Palestine, on both banks of the Jordan River, and accused Mapai and the religious parties of “anti-nationalistic defeatism." With respect to foreign policy, Herut called for a pro-Western and anti-Soviet alignment and strongly opposed diplomatic relations with Germany, a stance that culminated in violent demonstrations in Jerusalem, against the background of the reparations agreements between Israel and Germany.

On socio-economic issues, Herut defined itself as a liberal party and called for promoting private enterprise and blocking any attempt to establish socialism. However, on many occasions it submitted radical demands regarding wages and labor relations. Hoping to attract both working class and middle-class voters, Herut integrated social principles, such as the freedom to organize and labor rights, with advocacy for the interests of employers, independent professionals, and tradesmen.

In the first two decades of Israel's existence, Herut was the pariah of the political system under Mapai rule, with Ben-Gurion removing it from the list of acceptable coalition partners (“without Herut and Maki”). Seeking to present a real challenge to the rule of Mapai, Herut joined the Liberal Party in 1965 and established a joint list called Gahal. Within Gahal, and later, within the Likud, Herut kept its autonomous status until the 1988 establishment of the Likud as one unified party. At that time, Herut party institutions were disbanded.