The facts are clear Jews are under attack worldwide. And while in Israel there is a Jewish army, worldwide Jewish communities are realizing the need for protection. Jews simply must have guns. And it seems that even in the United States, where Jews were once safe those times may also be coming to an end.
History repeats itself – especially when it comes to Jewish history of Jews not being safe in the Diaspora. And like many other things, the Zionist visionary Ze’ev Jabotinsky — the ideological forefather of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party — wrote about this in 1932:
“It is very, very sad that Jews are compelled to learn to shoot. But we are compelled and it is useless to argue against the compulsion of historic reality. That compulsion says you may be well educated, you may learn to plow the land and to build houses, you may speak Hebrew… but if you do not at the same time know how to shoot there is no hope.
“That is the lesson of the reality of our time and that is the prospect for the lifetime of our children. Where it is a question of war you do not stand and ask questions as to what is ‘better,’ whether to shoot or not to shoot. The only permissible question in such circumstances is on the contrary ‘what is worse’ to let yourself be killed or enslaved without any resistance or to undertake resistance with all its horrible questions.
“For there is no ‘better’ at all. Everything connected with war is bad, and cannot be ‘good.’ When you shoot at enemy soldiers do not lie to yourself or persuade yourself that you are shooting at ‘guilty’ ones. If you start calculating with what is ‘better’ the calculation is very simple; if you want to be good let yourself be killed and renounce everything you would like to defend: home, country, freedom, hope. The blackest of all characteristics is the tradition of the cheapness of Jewish blood.”
The words of Ze’ev Jabotinsky remain relevant today. The Jewish people must never forget the need to protect the Jewish people.
