April 11, 1923
Vladimir “Ze’ev” Jabotinsky (October 17, 1880-August 3, 1940) was a Russian-Jewish intellectual, writer, soldier and political activist who founded the Revisionist Zionist movement. A charismatic orator and prolific author, Jabotinsky broke with mainstream Zionist leaders like Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, believing they were too willing to compromise with British colonial authorities and Arab opposition. He advocated for the immediate establishment of a Jewish majority and statehood in all of historic Palestine, emphasizing national pride, self-defense and the use of force when necessary.
Jabotinsky was one of the earliest and loudest voices arguing that Zionism must be backed by Jewish military power, not just diplomacy or moral appeal. His demand for a Jewish army and the right to self-defense — even pre-emption — marked a sharp contrast to the labor and mainstream Zionist leadership, which favored gradualism, diplomacy and compromise with both the British and the Arab population.
His 1923 essay “The Iron Wall” was a metaphor for a foundational core for Revisionist Zionism that insisted that a strong Jewish military force was necessary for the creation of a strong Jewish state in Palestine. He believed that only Jewish physical power would convince the Arabs that resistance was futile, force them to negotiate and recognize that the Jewish presence in Palestine was irreversible.
Writing in response to a few Arab leaders and leftist Zionists who favored compromise between the communities, Jabotinsky in “The Iron Wall” contends that peaceful coexistence with the Arabs is not immediately possible because of their natural and understandable resistance to Jewish immigration and statehood. He argues that no people ever willingly accepted control by another national movement and that the Arabs of Palestine are no exception.
Further, he claims that this realism is more ethical and ultimately more effective than wishful thinking or moral persuasion. Jabotinsky maintains that a strong military is humane because it seeks to prevent bloodshed through deterrence rather than appeasement. He emphasizes that the goal of Zionism is not to displace the Arabs, but to establish a secure homeland for Jews, who have no other refuge.
The “Iron Wall” Zionist ideology remains influential in Israeli political thought, symbolizing the tension between security imperatives and the hope for peace through strength. Jabotinsky’s views clashed with contemporaries such as Ben-Gurion, Weizmann, Berl Katznelson and Moshe Shertok (Sharett), hisphilosophy has exerted profound ideological influence over such later politicians as Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Looking back more than a century after “The Iron Wall’s” call for a strong Jewish military — along with significant Palestinian Arab and Arab state rejection of Jewish sovereignty — a strong military has sustained Israeli sovereignty and been a major reason for diplomatic recognition from six Arab states since 1979 and the PLO in 1993. Israel’s army and doctrine of pre-emption — “do unto others before they do unto you” — were central to Israel’s strike against the Egyptian air force in June 1967, destruction of Iraqi and Syrian nuclear reactors in 1981 and 2007, and attack on Iran’s nuclear program in June 2025.
— Ken Stein, June 17, 2025