On July 1st, 2023, My dear online friend Myron Sugarman (charming@eclipse.net) has asked me:
Avner,
Your opinion of Herzl and Jabotinsky if you’re up to it?
I replied:
Dear Myron,
I'm not an expert in history. Since you asked, I made a short research, and I'll tell you my opinion based on my best understanding.
As far as I learned, Dr. Theodore Herzl was a phenomenal, and somewhat tragic figure.
It seems that unlike many other people in politics (especially these days), he really dedicated his life to finding a practical solution to the then-"Jewish problem", namely the Jews being a prosecuted minority, in times when other nations became free from foreign powers. And he paid a terrible price in health and family relations.
He had what most politicians these days lack - both a long foreseeing vision of the solution he had in mind - a liberal, democratic, secular, advances State that Jews would manage but will be free for all - and not for the Jewish religion; and he had the people skills, and charisma, to carry his ideas out. He was a journalist, playwright, author and a jurist who became a political leader, who mobilized hundreds of thousands in enthusiasm to go to a desert land (albeit not empty), and started a nation almost from scratch.
This activity took a terrible toll - he died at the age 44 from bad health. Historians today regard Herzl as a successful combination of a visionary, modern prophet (not in the sense of future teller, but as an educator of the public with his ideas), a diplomat and a political leader. To me, he is a combination of an idealist, a revolutionist and a Real-Politics person.
The tragedies never left his family. His wife tried to kill herself. His older daughter died at the age 40, her brother (who converted to Christianity and back to Judaism) took his life soon after. The younger daughter gave birth to a son, but suffered mental illness all her life, and died in the holocaust. Her son also killed himself.
Jabotinsky was a great leader, especially when you compare him to his "successors" - whom he would most certainly be ashamed of.
BTW, this is what he had to say about Herzl, after the one time that he heard him speak, in the 6th Zionist congress:
"Herzl made a huge impression on me - there is no other description that would fit: huge; And I will not bow down to personality easily - in general, from all experiences of my life, I do not remember a person who "made any impression on me", neither before Herzl nor after: only here I felt that I was truly standing before the chosen one of destiny, a prophet and a leader with supreme grace, who even when he errs and loses his way - he is still worth following..."
He was one of few who warned the Jewish world of the Nazi danger. He was a hard-liner, who always demanded action, and tended not to depend on foreign entities. Sometimes he was right, sometimes less so.
For instance: his activity to establish organic units of Jewish soldiers put the foundation to a future Jewish military. On the other hand, he was a maximalist, who demanded a full solution - or no action at all. He took this approach in the Tel-Chai case.
Tel-Chai was a Zionist community, one of 4 in the Hula valley, at the northmost tip of Ertz Israel. It was attacked by Beduins in March of 1921, eight residents were killed including Yossef Trumpeldor. The point was abandoned, but later on other communities were built in the area. Some historians claim that this battle and insistence led to the British to include the area in the Mandate, and later on in the State of Israel.
Jabotinsky did not support the defense on Tel-Chai and the other communities. Instead, he demanded that the British be held responsible for keeping this area under Jewish control...
I grew up in Kiryat Shmona, just 3 miles south of Tel-Chai. It is a town named after the 8 killed in Tel-Chai (we used to walk there from school in the Tal-Chai memorial days).
So I think that Jabotinsky was a combination of visionary, practical leader, and a non-realistic maximalist.
There used to be Likud members who could read, and they knew his books and papers; That includes Mr. Netanyahu - who has nothing but sheer disdain to the lower-class Mizrahi fans, who know nothing about Jabotinsky. Those "followers" of Jabotinsky today can't even spell his name correctly, let alone know anything about his history. There is nothing left from the "grace and glory" that Jabotinsky preached for.
Cheers,
Avner E.
