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Revisionist Maximalism was a short-lived right-wing militant political ideology and Jewish militant ideology [1] which was part of the Brit HaBirionim faction of the Zionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM) created by Abba Ahimeir. [2] [3]
The ideology and political faction of Revisionist Maximalism was officially created in 1930 by Abba Ahimeir, a Jewish historian, journalist, and politician. Abba Ahimier was born in Russia in 1897 and migrated to Palestine at the age of fifteen. After the end of World War I, Ahimier entered the University of Kiev in Russia, then traveled to Liege and Vienna to complete his academic studies. He then returned to Palestine and became close in contact with other socialist circles, and organizations. In 1928 Ahimier joined Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Revisionist movement and became one of the movement's important activists. [4]
He called for the Zionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM) to adopt the principles of totalitarianism to create an integralist "pure nationalism" amongst Jews. [5] Ahimeir was originally a member of the Jewish Labour Movement who supported the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, and called for Jews to have their "own 1917" and spoke of the need for an October Revolution in Zionism. [6] However Ahimeir grew disillusioned with Russian Bolshevism which he began to see as a Russian nationalist movement rather than a movement to promote international class struggle. [6] Having become disillusioned with communism, Ahimeir grew nationalistic after the Arab-Jewish violence occurred in the British Mandate of Palestine from 1928 to 1929. [6] Revisionist Maximalism rejects communism, humanism, internationalism, liberalism, pacifism and socialism; condemned liberal Zionists for only working for middle-class Jews rather than the Jewish nation as a whole. [2] [6] After the rise of anti-Jewish violence in the British Mandate of Palestine one year prior, support for the Brit HaBirionim faction of the ZRM soared, Brit HaBirionim quickly became the largest faction within the ZRM in 1930. [7] In 1931 Jabotinsky, and members of the Revisionist movement launched an attack on the 17th Zionist Congress, in order to force Chaim Weizmann to resign as president of the World Zionist Organization. Jabotinsky along with the other Revisionist Zionists, wanted to obtain all of Eretz Yisrael, (Land of Israel) and establish a Jewish state, and did not settle for a two state solution in Palestine. [8] Soon, Abba Ahimier the poet Uri Zvi Greenberg, and Wolfgang von Weisl, the chairman of their Palestine central committee, became the ideological leaders of the Revisionists, after Jabotinsky was banned from returning to Palestine by the British authorities, due to his political activities. [4]
During the 1930s, Abba Ahimier Joshua Yevin, and Uri Zvi Grunberg began to establish their own newspaper, Hazit HaAm , and would publish the idea of "Jewish Labor" and emphasized that Jews should be self-reliant and economically independent. [4] In December 1932 Ahimier, along with Weisl, Gruenberg, and his supporters organized a strike-breaking "union" at the Froumine Biscuit Factory in Jerusalem by providing scabs. Then on February 27, 1933, the Maximalist tried to break a building strike in Petah Tikva, where dozens of strikers were arrested for battling the scabs. [9]
In 1930, Brit HaBirionim under Ahimeir's leadership publicly declared their desire to form a fascist state at the conference of the ZRM, saying:
"It is not the masses whom we need ... but the minorities ... We want to educate people for the 'Great Day of God' (war or world revolution), so that they will be ready to follow the leader blindly into the greatest danger ... Not a party but an Orden, a group of private [people], devoting themselves and sacrificing themselves for the great goal. They are united in all, but their private lives and their livelihood are the matter of the Orden. Iron discipline; cult of the leader (on the model of the fascists); dictatorship." Abba Achimeir, 1930 [10]
Ahimeir claimed that the Jewish people would outlast Arab rule in the region of Palestine, saying:
"We fought the Egyptian Pharaoh, the Roman emperors, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian tsars. They 'defeated' us. But where are they today? Can we not cope with a few despicable muftis or sheiks? ... For us, the forefathers, the prophets, the zealots were not mythological concepts..." Abba Achimeir, 1930. [11]
Revisionist Maximalism and the Brit HaBirionim movement were fierce opponents of pacifism, while promoting militarism and demonstrated in 1932 against Norman Bentwich's inaugural lecture on peace to which Ahimeir saying that "It is not a cathedral to international peace in the name of Bentwich that we need, but a military academy in the name of Ze'ev Jabotinsky" and said "we can defend the honour of Israel ... not by filling our bellies with lectures on peace ... but rather by learning the doctrine of Jabotinsky". [6] Brit HaBirionim demonstrators outside handed out leaflets declaring that peace studies were "the work of Satan" and were "an anti-Zionist measure, a stab in the back of Zionism.".
Ahimeir believed that his ideology would constitute a "neo-Revisionism" within the Zionist movement that he criticized, and advocated it at a meeting of the Hatzohar movement in Vienna in 1932, saying:
Zionism is imbued with the ghetto and pronouncements. The path to Jewish sovereignty has to cross a bridge of steel, not a bridge of paper. ... I bring to you a new form of social organization, one that is free of principles and parties ... I bring you Neo-Revisionism. [12]
In 1932, Brit HaBirionim pressed the ZRM to adopt their policies which were titled the "Ten Commandments of Maximalism", which were made under "In the spirit of Complete Fascism", according to Stein Uglevik. [10] Moderate ZRM members refused to accept this and moderate ZRM member Yaacov Kahan pressured Brit HaBirionim to accept the democratic nature of the ZRM and not push for the party to adopt fascist dictatorial policies. [10]
The Revisionist Maximalist borrowed principles from totalitarianism, fascism and inspiration from Józef Piłsudski's Poland and Benito Mussolini's Italy. [1] Revisionist Maximalists strongly supported the Italian fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and wanted the creation of a Jewish state based on fascist principles. [5] The Revisionist Maximalists became the largest faction in the ZRM in 1930 but collapsed in support in 1933 after Ahimeir's support for the assassination of Haim Arlosoroff. [13]
The Maximalist goal was to "extract Revisionism from its liberal entrapment", as they wanted Jabotinsky's status to be elevated to a dictator, [14] and desired to force integrate the population of Palestine into Hebrew society. [15] The Maximalists believed that authoritarianism and national solidarity was necessary to have the public collaborate with the government, and to create total unity in Palestine. [16]
The label of "fascist" has nevertheless to be regarded with reserves because in that period as later it was used often abusively in the disputes between opposed political non-fascist factions, as in the 1930s even the Social Democrat parties were accused by Stalin and the communists of being "fascists" or "social-fascists". In the same way in Palestine Revisionist Zionists themselves were often qualified in the 1930s as "fascists" by the Labor Zionist leaders and the Revisionists attacked the social democratic dominated General Confederation of Labor (Histadrut) and Ben Gurion by use of terms like "Red Swastika" and comparisons with fascism and Hitler. [17] [18]
Ze'ev Jabotinsky was a Revisionist Zionist leader, author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odessa.
Revisionist Zionism is a form of Zionism characterized by territorial maximalism. Revisionist Zionism promoted expansionism and the establishment of a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River.
Hatzohar, full name Brit HaTzionim HaRevizionistim, was a Revisionist Zionist organization and political party in Mandatory Palestine and newly independent Israel.
Haim Arlosoroff was a Socialist Zionist leader of the Yishuv during the British Mandate for Palestine, prior to the establishment of Israel, and head of the political department of the Jewish Agency. In 1933, Arlosoroff was assassinated while jogging on the beach in Tel Aviv.
Abba Ahimeir was a Russian-born Jewish journalist, historian, and political activist. One of the ideologues of Revisionist Zionism, he was the founder of the Revisionist Maximalist faction of the Zionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM) and of the clandestine Brit HaBirionim. Colin Shindler contends that the title of 'Father of the Revolt' should be shared equally between Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Ahimeir.
Brit HaBirionim was a self-declared faction of the Revisionist Zionist Movement (ZRM) in Mandatory Palestine, active between 1930 and 1933. It was founded by Abba Ahimeir, Uri Zvi Greenberg and Yehoshua Yeivin.
"The Iron Wall" is an essay written in 1923 by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. It was originally written in Russian and published by the Russian press.
Fascist movements gained popularity in many countries in Asia during the 1920s.
Aryeh Altman was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Herut and Gahal between 1951 and 1965.
The common definition of Zionism was principally the endorsement of the Jewish people to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine, secondarily the claim that due to a lack of self-determination, this territory must be re-established as a Jewish state. Historically, the establishment of a Jewish state has been understood in the Zionist mainstream as establishing and maintaining a Jewish majority. Zionism was produced by various philosophers representing different approaches concerning the objective and path that Zionism should follow. A "Zionist consensus" commonly refers to an ideological umbrella typically attributed to two main factors: a shared tragic history, and the common threat posed by Israel's neighboring enemies.
Jewish fascism is a term that is applied to Jewish political factions which are on the far-right wing of the political spectrum.
Captain Jeremiah Halpern was a Revisionist Zionist leader in Palestine who first came to prominence when he served as aide de camp to Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s when the latter was head of the Haganah in Jerusalem.
The Betar Naval Academy was a Jewish naval training school established in Civitavecchia, Italy in 1934 by the Revisionist Zionist movement under the direction of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, with the agreement of Benito Mussolini. The titular head of the Academy was the Italian maritime scientist Nicola Fusco but Betar leader Jeremiah Halpern ran the School and was its driving force. The Academy trained cadets from all over Europe, Palestine and South Africa and produced some of the future commanders of the Israeli Navy.
The Training School for Betar Instructors was founded in Tel Aviv in 1928 as a military academy for revisionist youth in British Mandatory Palestine.
The Brit HaHayal was a Revisionist Zionist association of Jewish reservists in the Polish Army formed in December, 1932 in Radom. The first branch was established Warsaw in February 1933 with the aim of "taking part in the struggle of the Jewish people for the reconstruction of the Jewish State on both sides of the Jordan River.
Labor Zionism or socialist Zionism was the left-wing, socialist variant of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist faction of the historic Jewish labour movements of Eastern Europe and Central Europe. Labor Zionism eventually developing local movements in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann, Labor Zionists did not believe that a Jewish state would be created by simply appealing to the international community or to powerful nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, or the former Ottoman Empire. Rather, they believed that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class making aliyah to the Land of Israel and raising a country through the creation of a Labor Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim, and an urban Jewish proletariat.
Yehoshua Heschel Yeivin was an Israeli doctor, writer, translator, journalist, and leader within the Revisionist Zionist movement.
Far-right politics in Israel encompasses ideologies such as ultranationalism, Jewish supremacy, Jewish fascism, Jewish fundamentalism, Anti-Arabism, and ideological movements such as Neo-Zionism and Kahanism.
Conservatism in Israel is mostly based around upholding Jewish tradition, promotion of forms of Zionism that tend to be more irredentist in nature, promoting Israeli national security, maintaining the role of religion and the Rabbinate in the public sphere, support for the free market, and closer ties with the United States. However, a variety of ideological trends exist within Israeli conservatism, and not all hold up every single one of these ideals or points of view.
