Jabotinsky's The Iron Wall

 by Vladimir Jabotinsky 1923

Original in Russian, Razsviet, 4.11.1923

Colonization of Palestine

Agreement with Arabs Impossible at Present

Zionism Must Go Forward

It is an excellent rule to begin an article with the most important point. But this time, I find it necessary to begin with an introduction, and, moreover, with a personal introduction.

I am reputed to be an enemy of the Arabs who wants to have them ejected from Palestine and so forth. It is not true.

Emotionally, my attitude to the Arabs is the same as to all other nations — polite indifference. Politically, my attitude is determined by two principles. First of all, I consider it utterly impossible to eject the Arabs from Palestine. There will always be two nations in Palestine — which is good enough for me, provided the Jews become the majority. And secondly, I belong to the group that once drew up the Helsingfors Program, the program of national rights for all nationalities living in the same state. In drawing up that program, we had in mind not only the Jews, but all nations everywhere, and its basis is equality of rights.

I am prepared to take an oath binding ourselves and our descendants that we shall never do anything contrary to the principle of equal rights and that we shall never try to eject anyone. This seems to me a fairly peaceful credo.

But it is quite another question whether it is always possible to realize a peaceful aim by peaceful means. For the answer to this question does not depend on our attitude to the Arabs, but entirely on the attitude of the Arabs to us and to Zionism.

Now, after this introduction, we may proceed to the subject.

My Iron Wall

by Scott Creighton

'"The Iron Wall" (O zheleznoy stene) is a 1923 essay by Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky that argued peaceful compromise with the Arab majority in Palestine was impossible until Jewish military strength made resistance hopeless'

It's high time the civilized world came to understand that Vladimir ("Ze'ev" meaning 'wolf') Jabotinsky was 100% correct in 1923 when he wrote The Iron Wall.  The Jewish majority population in Israel will never accept a peaceful compromise (recognition of Palestinian statehood and the end of the Greater Israel pipe-dream) until they are forced militarily to do so.

Spare the rod, spoil the child. 

The hope of a powerful regional player growing out of 'plucky little Israel' must be abolished in such a way that the Jewish population of that nation collectively understands the illness from which it was born in the first place.

As the Americans are being kicked once and for all out of Iraq this year following the same fortunes in Afghanistan all those years ago and as Ukraine is being forced out of Donbass at the same time, it is right and proper to compare the victories of those resistance forces to that of the Palestinian people. These relatively current examples show us that such outcomes are still possible even when a weaker nation is being occupied unjustly by a stronger one.

This can and will happen in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon (and congress?).