Revisionist maximalism

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The Revisionist Maximalism was a short-term Jewish Nazi ideology that part of the Brit HaBirionim fraction of Revisionist Zionism was (CRMs). It was founded by Abba Ahimeir . The representatives of this direction supported the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and sought the creation of the Israeli state according to fascist principles. In 1930 it became the largest faction within the ZRM, but broke up after Ahimeir's controversial decision to support Nazi Germany in its fascist and anti-communist stance and at the same time to fight its anti-Semitic policies. In view of the outrage he sparked, Ahimeir briefly revised his position and his supporters attacked German consulates. But the supporters Ahimeir had lost as a result of his flirtation with Nazi Germany did not return. Maximalism collapsed until it was re-established in 1938 under new leadership.

The designation as "fascists" is to be viewed critically, as the term was used excessively in the debates of the time, in the 1930s even social democrats were referred to by Stalin as fascists or "social fascists". In Palestine during this time, revisionist Zionists were often referred to as fascists by the leaders of the labor movement, and the revisionists attacked the Social Democrat-dominated General Alliance of Labor ( Histadrut ) and David Ben-Gurion with terms like “red swastika” and comparisons with fascism and Hitler on.

history

Abba Ahimeir, founder of Revisionist Maximalism

Revisionist maximalism was officially launched by Abba Ahimeir in 1930, a Jewish historian, journalist and politician who called on the revisionists of the ZRM to adopt the fascist principles of the government of Benito Mussolini in order to create an integralist "pure nationalism" among the Jews.

Originally a member of the labor movement that supported the October Revolution and called Jews to their own October Revolution, he later turned away with disappointment from Bolshevism , which he perceived more and more as a Russian nationalist movement, less as a movement to promote the international class struggle.

After this disappointment, Ahimeir developed more and more into a nationalist in the face of the outbreak of Arab-Jewish violence in 1928 and 1929.

Revisionist maximalism rejects communism , humanism , internationalism , liberalism , pacifism and socialism ; he condemned the liberal Zionists for advocating only the middle class instead of the Jewish nation as a whole. After the rise in anti-Jewish violence in the mandate area in the previous year, support for the Brit HaBirionim faction in the ZRM rose rapidly, and in 1930 it became the party's strongest wing.

In 1930, at the ZRM conference under Ahimeir's leadership, Brit HaBirionim publicly declared her wish to found a fascist state.

“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 order. Iron discipline; cult of the leader (on the model of the fascists); dictatorship. "

“It is not the masses that we need ... but the minorities ... We want to educate the people for the 'Great Day of God' (war or world revolution) so that they will be ready to blindly follow the leader into the greatest danger ... Not a party, but an order , a group of private (people) who dedicate themselves to the great goal and sacrifice themselves for it. They are united in everything, but their private life and livelihood are a concern of the Order. Iron discipline; Leader cult (modeled after the fascists); Dictatorship."

- Abba Achimeir, 1930

Ahimeir claimed the Jewish people would survive Arab rule in Palestine:

“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 ... "

“We fought against the pharaoh of the Egyptians, the Roman emperors, the Spanish inquisition, the Russian tsars. She. 'defeated' us. But where are you today? Can't we deal with some disdainful muftis or sheikhs? ... For us the ancestors, the prophets, the Zealots were not mythological ideas ... "

- Abba Achimeir, 1930.

The Revisionist maximalists, like Brit HaBirion, were opposed to pacifism and advocated militarism . In 1932 they demonstrated against Norman Bentwich's inaugural speech on peace, about which Ahimeir said, "We don't need a cathedral of international peace called Bentwichs, but a military academy called Ze'ev ('Wolf') Jabotinsky ". "We can defend the honor of Israel ... not by filling our bellies with peace speeches ... but rather by studying the teachers of Jabotinsky." Brit HaBirionim protesters distributed brochures outside the building declaring peace research a "work of the devil", "anti-Zionist measures, a stab in the back of Zionism".

Ahimeir believed he could create a "neo-revisionism" and advocated it at a meeting of the Hatzohar movement in Vienna in 1932.

“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 you a new form of social organization, one that is free of principles and parties ... I bring you Neo-Revisionism. "

“Zionism is permeated with the ghetto and pronouncements. The road to Jewish sovereignty has to cross a bridge made of steel, not a bridge made of paper ... I am bringing you a new form of social order, one that is free from principles and parties ... I am bringing you neo-revisionism. "

- Yaacov Shavit.

In 1932, Brit HaBirionim urged the ZRM to adopt its political program, the “Ten Commandments of Maximalism”, which was written “in the spirit of full fascism”. Moderate ZRM members refused, the moderate representative Yaacov Kahan, conversely, urged Brit HaBirionim to recognize the democratic nature of the ZRM and not to persuade the party to adopt dictatorial fascist goals.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Eran Kaplan: The Jewish Radical Right. Revisionist Zionism and Its Ideological Legacy. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI 2005, ISBN 0-299-20380-8 , p. 15.
  2. ↑ Colin Shindler: The Triumph of Military Zionism. Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right (= International Library of Political Studies. 9). Tauris, London et al. 2006, ISBN 1-8451-1030-7 , p. 13.
  3. ^ A b Joseph Heller: The Failure of Fascism in Jewish Palestine 1935–1948. In: Stein Ugelvik Larsen (ed.): Fascism Outside of Europe. The European Impulse Against Domestic Conditions in the Diffusion of Global Fascism. Social Science Monographs, Boulder CO 2001, ISBN 0-88033-988-8 , pp. 362-392, here pp. 364-365.
  4. ^ Joseph Heller: The Failure of Fascism in Jewish Palestine 1935–1948. In: Stein Ugelvik Larsen (ed.): Fascism Outside of Europe. The European Impulse Against Domestic Conditions in the Diffusion of Global Fascism. Social Science Monographs, Boulder CO 2001, ISBN 0-88033-988-8 , pp. 362-392, here p. 380.
  5. ^ Douglas Feith: Jabotinsky by Hillel Halkin. In: Wall Street Journal , May 30, 2014, (Review: wsj.com ).
  6. ^ Yaacov Shavit: Revisionism in Zionism. The Revisionist Movement. The Plan for Colonizatroy Regime and Social Ideas 1925-1935. Hadar, Tel Aviv 1978, p. 336, (Hebrew).
  7. ↑ a b c d e Colin Shindler: The Triumph of Military Zionism. Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right (= International Library of Political Studies. 9). Tauris, London et al. 2006, ISBN 1-8451-1030-7 , p. 156.
  8. ^ A b c Joseph Heller: The Failure of Fascism in Jewish Palestine 1935–1948. In: Stein Ugelvik Larsen (ed.): Fascism Outside of Europe. The European Impulse Against Domestic Conditions in the Diffusion of Global Fascism. Social Science Monographs, Boulder CO 2001, ISBN 0-88033-988-8 , pp. 362-392, here p. 377.
  9. ^ Joseph Heller: The Failure of Fascism in Jewish Palestine 1935–1948. In: Stein Ugelvik Larsen (ed.): Fascism Outside of Europe. The European Impulse Against Domestic Conditions in the Diffusion of Global Fascism. Social Science Monographs, Boulder CO 2001, ISBN 0-88033-988-8 , pp. 362-392, here p. 375.
  10. ^ Yaacov Shavit: Jabotinsky and the Revisionist Movement. 1925–1948 (= The Right in Zionism and in Israel. Vol. 1). Cass, London 1988, ISBN 0-7146-3325-9 , p. 202.