Op-Ed: For the New Year: Words at the Grave of Jabotinsky

Arutz Sheva ^ | 19/9/12 | Menachem Begin

[Eleutheria5]

The following is the translated text of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin's speech at the grave of Ze’ev Jabotinsky on Har Herzl (Mount Herzl) in 1980, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jabotinsky. Ze'ev Jabotinsky was the heroic Revisionist Zionist leader and visionary, author, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odessa. He also helped form the Jewish Legion of the British army in World War I.

“Upon completion of the centennial of your birth – and this time only – we have come to address some remarks at your graveside. We report to you, Rosh Betar, that Jerusalem, the city that has become bound together, the eternal capital of Israel and of the Land of Israel, shall not be subjected to any division and is our liberated and indivisible capital and so it shall remain from generation to generation.

The western part of the Land of Israel is entirely under our control and it shall not be partitioned anymore. No part of this land shall be given over to a foreign administration, to foreign sovereignty.

We believe that a day will come when the two parts of the Land of Israel shall establish, peacefully, in agreement and understanding a covenant of alliance, a free confederation, for the purpose of join cooperation, and then we shall see the fulfillment of the words:

From the abundance in our land Shall prosper The Arab, the Christian and the Jew.

We defend the dignity of Jewish people....

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[Eleutheria5]

One never really appreciates Begin without reading him in Hebrew, though. It's been difficult for me despite my experience and fluency, but I'm about half-way done with his Revolt! in the original. He used a lot of bitterness, scorn and irony, as well as a ready knowledge of Scriptoral and Talmudic passages, which must get at least partially lost in translation. His friend and co-revolutionary Yaakov Meridor's prose (he wrote about his capture, ideology, and daring escape from prison) don't have that kind of power.

[SJackson]

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