Samuel Jacobson, my great grandpa, was born on February 13, 1904. He was an outspoken Zionist, who advocated for the establishment of Israel. In fact, he wrote with Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a founder of Revisionist Zionism.
Revisionist Zionism began in the 1920s and it advocates for the Jewish state to be much larger–to take up both sides of the Jordan River, and all of the West Bank and Gaza. As you can imagine, it is a very controversial topic.
The fact that Israel could have been bigger is really interesting. What itches my brain is the thought of why? And why not? Why is it that the one area in the world spiritually amalgamated with the Jewish people is so special for many religions? Jews and Arabs live so peacefully together in Israel, yet outside of Israel there are problems. If the Jewish state had been bigger, and taken up all the West Bank and Gaza, could the current war have been avoided? Or would it have happened a lot earlier? It’s impossible to predict what would have happened, but it seems that wars in general with Israel are semi-inevitable because of the unfluctuating antisemitism in the world.
In my great-grandfather’s letter exchange with Ze’ev Jabotinsky in current Israel (which had been the British Mandate of Palestine) we don’t know exactly what they were talking about because we only have his response, but it said;
Dear Mr. Jacobson,
Many thanks for your letter of March 26th. It is very interesting. Yet, I don’t think we can start a petition of the kind you suggest, until we’ve conquered the Zionist congress. This is our next aim. Could you let us know what the thinking among the zionists in your district is like? Have you any sympathizers? Could you get them to form some sort of group? Kindly communicate with the revisionists in Montreal – Mr. Rodman ℅ zionists organization.
Yours sincerely,
V. Jabotinsky April 5th 1926
Ze’ev was elected to be the Russian delegate to the Sixth Zionist congress in 1903 and was elected leader of the right wing zionists after Herzl’s death in 1904. “The Zionist congress was established in 1897 by Theodor Herzl, as the supreme organ of the Zionist Organization (ZO) and its legislative authority” – Wikipedia.
What Ze’ev was fundamentally saying to my great-grandpa was “Could you start a group with revisionist sympathizers, until we can take over the Zionist Congress.” Ze’ev ended up leaving the national Zionist Congress later, and he took his followers with him. He fought for Arab equality within Israel once established, and it is said that
Jabotinsky clarified that if Arabs in Israel do not enjoy a political, cultural, and economic existence that is honorable, the whole country will suffer. – The Israel Democracy Institute
What I think is the real reason for Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s vision not happening is its lack of being realistic and practical. If the State of Israel had included all of Gaza, West Bank and Jordan it would mean incorporating more Arabs into the state of Israel. However, we would have needed a Jewish majority for Israel to remain a Jewish state. If there were too many Muslim Arabs in Israel, it would have been very hard if not impossible for Israel to remain a Jewish state.
So maybe revisionist zionism isn’t our reality, but maybe it doesn’t have to be. The country of Israel is thriving as it is, and people are happy. The most important thing at the end of the day is that there is a Jewish state. We don’t need a huge country to know that there’s a huge warm hug waiting for us when our diasporic journey is done.
