Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Political aide to the governor of Gilan Province in northern Iran: Air defenses in Rasht shot down a small hostile drone flying over the city
Israeli media: The presence of General Qaani at the “victory celebrations” in Tehran puts an end to the rumors and earlier reports claiming he had been assassinated
Israeli media: There is division within the US administration itself over the extent of what the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities actually achieved
Israeli media: US intelligence also says Iran’s centrifuges remained largely intact
Israeli media: Netanyahu and Trump celebrated too soon, as US intelligence says Iran’s uranium stockpile was not damaged
Israeli Channel 13: The objectives set by Netanyahu for the operation against Iran have not been achieved
Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, CNN reports, citing sources
Israeli media platform: An additional soldier has been confirmed killed in the serious incident in Gaza, who had previously been considered "missing" for some time
Pezeshkian: History will not forget how Iran’s enemies broke their pledges and agreements, resorting to aggression and invasion even during negotiations
Israeli media: Between 14 and 16 soldiers were injured in the incident, which reportedly involved two separate units at the brigade and division level

Betar: The fascist group that produced three Israeli prime ministers

  • Hussam AbdelKareem Hussam AbdelKareem
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 17 Aug 2022 16:25
  • 8 Shares
7 Min Read

Former Israeli PM and renowned war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu once stated that Betar founder Vladimir “Jabotinsky's doctrine will continue to feed the flame of Zionism and guide our path”.

  • x
  • Betar: The fascist group that produced three Israeli prime ministers
    Betar: The fascist group that produced three Israeli prime ministers

By the beginning of the 20th century, Poland was home to the biggest Jewish population in the world, with 3.3 million Jews living in that country. In the period between the two world wars, Poland was an incubator for the development of extreme right-wing Zionism. Its leading proponent, the Russian-born Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, a poet, journalist and political activist, was the founder of Betar, one of the popular Zionist youth movements in Europe. 

Betar was built on a militaristic spirit, characterized by its staunch opposition to socialism, steeped in the exaltation of violence and loyal to Jabotinsky’s charismatic and authoritarian leadership. Although its core base was in Poland, Betar began to reach Jewish communities in other countries. By 1920s, its worldwide membership was about 60,000, of whom three-quarters lived in Poland. 

To left-wing and Labour Zionists, who would take command of the newly established “Israel” in 1948, Betarists were regarded “Jewish fascists”, as described by "Israel's" first prime minister David Ben-Gurion. Two of its members, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, would serve as "Israel's" prime ministers, while a third, Benzion Netanyahu, would be the father of "Israel's" longest serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 1915, Vladimir Jabotinsky immigrated to Palestine in order to fulfill his Zionist dream of a "Jewish state" in the “Promised Land”. But the then-Ottoman ruler of Palestine, Jamal Pasha, quickly discovered the Zionist plots and activities and suspected their loyalty to “the enemy” during wartime, so he decided to deport thousands of them, including Jabotinsky, to British-controlled Egypt. In Alexandria, Jabotinsky began organizing the Jews in a sort of para-military police force, and he soon offered his services to Great Britain proposing to the British commander in Egypt, General Maxwell, to establish a Jewish brigade to join the war effort under British command. But the British General wasn’t impressed and offered the Zionists a logistics role only. The Jews of Alexandria accepted General Maxwell’s offer and thus the “Zion Mule Corps” was formed. Jabotinsky felt humiliated and headed back to Europe.

Related News

What does the future hold for Ukraine?

A new phase of hybrid war

From the moment Jabotinsky set foot on Polish soil in 1927, he began working hard to transform Betar into a mass movement among the Jews. He founded the Union of Revisionist Zionists, challenging the mainstream Zionism that was already playing a significant role in the lives of Polish Jews in independent Poland which re-emerged after World War I. Jabotinsky also used Betar to enhance his own political status. He broke with mainstream Zionism, advocating a more aggressive, even violent, approach to dealing with the British colonial administration in mandate Palestine and with Palestinian Arabs, and calling for a "Jewish state" stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Peninsula and the Euphrates River in Iraq. Poland was a fertile recruiting ground and its Jewish youth were Jabotinsky’s most important disciples. Between 1919 and 1937, almost 250,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, half of them from Poland, giving Jabotinsky’s organization significant influence there.

In Poland, an environment of anti-semitism prevailed in the late 1930s. There was a feeling among the Poles that Jews were naturally predisposed to communism and were overrepresented in key sectors of the economy. Jews were being targeted by economic boycott, and anti-Jewish legislations were passed. These developments were advantageous to Jabotinsky’s cause. Poland extended diplomatic and military aid to Betar, lending public support to Revisionist positions at the League of Nations and providing military training and weapons to the Revisionists’ armed militia in Palestine, the “Irgun Tsvai Leumi”. Jabotinsky, in turn, presented the Polish government with a plan to send 1.5 million Jews to Palestine over a 10-year period. Polish officials responded warmly to it, regarding it as a practical solution to significantly reduce Poland’s Jewish population. Jabotinsky’s scheme was endorsed by senior Polish politicians, including the foreign minister, the Polish ambassador to Britain, and Poland’s consul general in occupied Al-Quds.

However, Betar’s policies so alarmed Labour Zionists that they warned of exporting “Jewish fascism” to Palestine. Chaim Weizmann, the president of the mainstream World Zionist Organization, was particularly concerned. He even compared Jabotinsky’s Revisionism to Italian fascism. Weizmann’s criticism of Betar was natural, considering the widespread belief that the 1933 assassination of Haim Arlosoroff, the powerful Labour Zionist leader in Palestine, had been the work of Betar activists.

With the eruption of World War II, Betarists, like Menachem Begin, fled the country. Having been imprisoned by the Soviets, he joined the British-controlled army of General Wladyslaw Anders and arrived in Palestine in 1942 where he defected and started his new life between his revisionist-Zionist fellows. During World War II, Avraham Stern, a Betar member, broke ranks with the Irgun and formed his own underground organization, Lehi. Scores of Polish Jewish immigrants flocked to Lehi, which attacked British assets in Palestine and reached out (unsuccessfully) to Italy and Nazi Germany. Yitzhak Shamir was a Lehi leader who personally supervised the brutal killing of the British State Minister, Lord Moyne, in Cairo. The British authorities in Palestine identified Shamir as the person who issued the order for the two assassins who shot Lord Moyne. His name was put on the “Most Wanted” list.

After "Israel" was declared, the Lehi and Irgun members, along with the whole revisionist Zionists were forced to lay down their arms and join the Israeli occupation forces, together with the Haganah of the mainstream Zionism under Ben-Gurion and Weizmann. They formed a political party, Hirut, advocating their extreme-right and expansionist ideology. They remained in opposition for 29 years until 1977, when they won the general elections under the “Likud” coalition and seized power. The old Betarists, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir successively served as prime ministers for a total of 14 years before handing over the leadership to the new generation of revisionist Zionism represented by Benjamin Netanyahu, the son of their old pal Benzion Netanyahu, who served as prime minister for 15 years.

Under Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ideas hail from Jabotinsky’s Revisionism, Betar’s philosophy of living by the sword has become the mainstream in “Israel”, while the old Labour Zionism faded away. In his book “A Place Among the Nations” Netanyahu wrote that “Israel" must display the maximum power towards the Arabs and that Palestinians can only live as “foreigners” under Israeli rule. On July 15, 2015, Benjamin Netanyahu stood at the memorial place of Vladimir Jabotinsky in occupied Al-Quds and very passionately said about his fascist idol: “Jabotinsky was the one who forged the foundations for the combat tradition of our youth over the last hundred years. It was one of his significant innovations. He was a pillar of fire lighting the way for our people”. Netanyahu went on and quoted Jabotinsky’s slogan “It is time to show the world a Jewish rifle with a Jewish bayonet". He concluded his speech by saying “Jabotinsky's doctrine will continue to feed the flame of Zionism and guide our path”.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Poland
  • Zionism
  • Israel
  • Fascism
Hussam AbdelKareem

Hussam AbdelKareem

Writer from Jordan

Most Read

All
At the time of Vanunu’s whistleblowing, Western governments and intelligence agencies had been aware of "Israel’s" development of nuclear weapons for almost three decades. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Mahdi Rtail)

Hidden history: How 'Israel' acquired nukes

  • Opinion
  • 13 Jun 2025
The wheels fall off of 'Gideon’s Chariots' in Gaza

The wheels fall off of 'Gideon’s Chariots' in Gaza

  • Opinion
  • 11 Jun 2025
Absent a full-scale American war on the Islamic Republic, Netanyahu has set up his regime and himself for a historic humiliation. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

The clock is ticking down to 'Israel’s' capitulation

  • Opinion
  • 18 Jun 2025
Trump's failures, 'Israel's' impasse and Iran's apocalyptic trump card

Trump's failures, 'Israel's' impasse and Iran's apocalyptic trump card

  • Opinion
  • 12 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
The Israeli occupation is facing increasing resistance in the West Bank and Al-Quds; not only public demonstrations and protests, but also armed struggle as well.

Palestine on the verge of new “Intifada”

This time, the alliance of factions Netanyahu is preparing to lead is quite different from his previous governments.

Netanyahu’s Comeback; Israeli Fascist Right Solidifies its Grip on Power

During Lula's presidency, the deforestation rate in the Amazon was cut down by almost two thirds; from 21,650 km2 in 2002 to 7,000 in 2010.

Lula's victory in Brazil is important to the world

Truce in Yemen is falling apart, Reasons and Background

Truce in Yemen is falling apart, Reasons and Background

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS