Riday, May 27, 1977 THE DETFiflilf' JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Menahem Begin as Standard Bearer of Movement and Ideology Inherited from his Famous Mentor, Vladimir Jabotinsky . . . Old Prejudices Pursued by the Media in Judging the Next Israel P.M. Likud's Charter: Menahem Begin Recaptures Jabotinsky Image Menahem Begin's triumph at the polls in Israel marks the most notable achievement for his party in its entire Zi- onist history. What his mentor Vladimir Jabotinsky failed to attain — top leadership for the Revisionists who became the Herut Party in Israel — has been attained by the lead- er of the Likud, which is the party of contiuity that had its origin in the Revisionist Zionist party. Revisionism began with Jabotinsky's leadership in the 1920s. Therefore, the struggle that reached its fruition on Israel's election day, May 17, has a half-century history. There were the Revisionists, the Jewish State Party. Herut and now the Likud. Not to be forgotten are the bitter struggles between Jabo- tinsky and the early Zionist leaders, the Jabotinsky-Weiz- mann and Jabotinsky-Ben-Gurion controversies. They continued in the Knesset where David Ben-Gurion and Menahem Begin exchanged diatribes which became - personality conflicts. Now Begin is at the helm, and the former hatreds of him by Labor may be transformed into the ideological rather than the personal hatreds. The name-calling has been reduced with the years. The most damaging appellation for Begin and Likud is that of hawkishness. For Begin himself there is much admiration and great respect. He is a modest man. a Jewish in- tellectual with an aristocratic image. Begin is a religious man, and affiliation of the religious groups in whatever coalition government he may form is a certainty. He will undoubtedly impress the Washingtonians when he comes to the United States to confer with President Jimmy Carter. The Background of Revisionism and Vladimir JabotinSky To understand the backgrciund of the Herut and Likud it is necessary to know what Vladimir Jabotinsky stood for and how he operated. In a special article that appeared in the now ,defunct New York Herald, dated Sept. 10, 1948. soon after the proc- lamation•of Israel's statehood. Arthur Koestler, the prom- inent author, wrote about Jabotinsky and gave an inter- esting description of him, stating: Jabotinsky was a national liberal in the great 19th Cen- tury tradition, a rev- olutionary of the 1848 brand, a successor to Garibaldi and Mazzini. He was one of the most colorful figures that modern Jewry has produc- ed. He wrote prose in eight languages, poetry in four, trans- lated Dante and Poe into Hebrew, Hebr- ew poetry into Rus- sian; his pub- lications, under the VLADIMIR JABOTINSKY nen name Atalena, range from novels to studies in comparative phonet- ics. He was idolized by the youth, endowed with excep- tional personal charm, and was a brilliant public On one occasion this writer saw him keep an open air audience of serveral hulzdred thousand spellbound for five solid hours. Jabotinsky created the first Jewish fighting force in modern times: the so-called Judean Regiment, which fought under British command in Palestine in the 1914-18 war. When the Arabs rioted in 1920, he organiz- ed the Jewish self-defense, was sentenced for it by the British Military Administration to 15 years hard labor, but was released on amnesty after a few months. He was elected a member of the Zionist Executive in 1921, came into conflict with his colleagues almost from the beginning, resigned, and in 1925 created the party of Zionist-revisionists and the para-military youth organization Betar, out of which, through a proc- ess of fissure and budding, the terrorist organizations were to develop. The conflict between revisionism and official Zion- ism was mainly one of character and temperament; the long and bitter struggle between their respective leaders was as dramatic as that between Trotsky and Stalin. Coming from a race with a long history but without a political background, neither leader had the true political temperament. Dr. 'Weizmann is a distinguished chemist; his ap- proach to politics is the scientist's empirical, cautious- ly hesitant, step-by-step method, tinged with a certain self-righteousness and a deep distrust of the imagina- tive and unorthodox. Jabotinsky was a litterateur, By Philip Slomovitz the Left rejected it as contrary to Jewish tradition. At the same time the revisionists' economic liberalism was already vieux jeu and reactionary in the eyes of the Zionist labor movement. Begin 'as Counterpart of Vladimir Jabotinsky MENAHEM BEGIN with the artist's broad imaginative sweep, his in- tuition, impatience and emotionalism. Dr. Weizmann's background is that of the eastern Jewish masses; he was born in the small provincial town of Motl, near Pinsk, was brought up along traditionalist lines, and speaks the language to which the Jews of Pinsk are prepared to listen. Jabotinsky came from the in- tellectual center of Odessa, was brought up in a cos- mopolitan environment, hated everything connected with Pinsk, and spoke all of his eight languages with the accent of an Italian opera baritone, which is ana- thema to Jewish ears. Jabotinsky fought for the westernization of Israel which was to become the seventh Dominion of the British Commonwealth—for a change in spirit of Jew- ish education from that of a Talmudic seminary to that of the British public school. In short, while the psychology of official Zionism represented a contin- uation, Jabotinsky and his revisionists represented a complete break with it. Jabotinsky was doomed to defeat for reasons not un- like those which led to the defeat of that other cosmo- politan Jewish litterateur from Odessa, Leon Trotsky. The working classes were not ripe for a truly socialist international revolution,' and the Jews were not ripe for their Garibaldian march to revolution. Jabot- sinsky's insistence on a Jewish state as the ultimate aim of Zionism was a mortal heresy the official Zion- ist movement of 15 years ago (1933), and led to the revisionist's secession from it. Similarly, his demand for a Jewish army was branded as militarism and fascism, and his plan for the mass evacuation of the doomed Jews of Central Europe to Palestine immediately before the war was decried as utopian and irresponsible. Jabotinsky died in 1940 at the age of 60 while en- gaged in organizing an international Jewish force to fight with the Allied armies. In the light of present events,with the Jewish state an established reality, al- most every point in Jabotihsky's program has either been implemented by official Zionism, or vindicated by the trend of events—except for his stubborn fight against the partition scheme. But though Israel was not ripe for its Garibaldi, who was born a couple of decades too early and had to pay the usual price which history exacts from her pre- cious children, he is beginning to reap the posthumous awards which she bestows in such cases. In Israel's deficient pantheon, where whole centuries are repre- sented by empty towns, he will fill the place of the 19th Century liberal patriot — that missing link in the abrupt transition of eastern Jews from the Tsarist ghetto to the adVanced social experiment in Pales- time. Jabotinsky is a spiritual heritage; in party politics he was significantly unsuccessful. The revisionist party's development was unfortunate from its begin- nings. The gap in Jewish social history to which we have _repeatedly referred—the telescoping of centuries of social evolution into a few decades —left no room for a true national liberal party: it was crushed be- tween the ghetto and e Utopia. On the one hand, its national-revolutionary tenets and Western orientation went against the traditionalist in- stincts of the Eastern Jew, regardless of his political orientation. It is characteristic that Jabotinsky, the na- tionalist, fought for the Latinization of the Hebrew al- phabet to break down the barriers between Judaism and Western civilization, while the internationalists of It is imperative that the rise of Menahem Begin be judged in historic perspective. He is the counterpart of Vladimir Jabotinsky. He is an idealist and Ike his mentor in Revisionism, is a scholar, a linguist, an orator. How else would he have captured the imagination of his fellow citizens? Is it right to say that the appearance on Israel's political scene of Yigael Yadin and the Democrah. is Movement for Change. (shinui! ) is ascribable to t losses sustained by the Labor Alignment? It is more realis- tic to believe that many who voted for Yadin and his party — excluding the kibutz members, might have voted for Likud and Begin and the result might have been even more dramatic in Begin's favor. While time judges everything and everybody. it is more than visionary to say at this time that the Israelis turned to a gigantic figure in their midst when seeking a change in government. The 'Terrorist' Charge and Diplomatic Niceties • As was to have been expected, Menahem Begin became a target for the Arabs and for the news media. Remember- ing his leadership in Irgun Zvai Leumi, all that was consid- ered was that he was a militant and to those questioning his leadership he was a "terrorist. - And in the process there is the recollection of Deir Yassin and the death of some 250 Arabs in that village in 1948. Forgotten are the circumstances of those years, the fact that Jews in Palestine were fighting the British who had betrayed their trust to the Jews. Forgotten is the fact that Deir Yassin was one of many incidents in Israel's struggle for life, the Arabs in that village having lured the Irgun group with white flags denoting peace and then shooting at the invaders who had come to pursue a battle for pro- tection of Jewish posts in the new state. Forgotten is the fact that Israel admitted guilt for what had occurred in Deir Yassin—David Ben-Gurion apologized, told of his nation's sorrow, accepted responsibility. But while Israel admitted guilt for that occurrence there were scores like it committed by Arabs and never an apology for them. Were the Israelis "opting" for trouble,• saying "to hell with diplomacy' by voting preference for the Likud in last week's election? That's a columnist's sensationalism. The Israelis were fed up on Labor shenanigans and elected a challenger. This challenger speaks plain language when he says he is obligated to protect "our land." That's how he describes the Jewish legacy and it may prove more effec- tive in diplomacy than beating around the bush. The fact is that the concessions to Palestininans in the White House are muting the issue. The PLO says it will never merge with the Jordanians. but Jordan already is the home of Pa- lestinians who were granted a state there in the partition plan. Palestinians are members of King Hussein's cabinet. The new talk of Palestinianism is a scheme to create a battlefield whence to attack Israel on the West Bank. How can Israel tolerate such a danger? Why hasn't Presi- dent. Carter been alerted to this danger? Will Begin prove more effective in defining the realities to the President? Time may aid Begin to be a healer. * * * Lou Gordon: A Social Challenger Who Insisted on the Factual Lou Gordon learned well from his mentor, the late Drew Pearson: his main aim was to get at the facts in whatever case he tackled. That is why those who might have aimed at hiding truth didn't like him. He was hated because he exposed indecencies. He was tough on many of the notables he had inter viewed. It is doubtful whether too many left with a lack of respect for his programmatic methods of unearthing the facts. That took courage. Whether he criticized the Presi- dent, or the Governor, or the Mayor, he searched for the truth. He staunchly defended Israel and constantly pleaded for justice for the Jew who built Israel and the state that was redeemed. On this as on many other issues he was un- compromising. Therefore, because he would not yield an inch in his devotion to the Zionist dream which he had in- herited from a devout father, he disliked Henry Kissinger and disapproved of the former Secretary of State's con- cessions to the Arabs. Had he known him, Menahem Begin would have liked Lou Gordon, and given the chance Lou might have liked Menahem. In the history of television broadcasting. Lou Gordon has left a memorable page, a legacy for the militants who fight for justice. _That's an unchallenged record highly to he admired. It was good to have him as a friend.