Page 191 - big friday
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A utoemancipation has been achieved only now, in the Jews' fight for their political
independence and the establishment of the State of Israel. This is not merely a political and
military achievement, but also a revolutionary enterprise of the first order. It was supreme
historic necessity that gave rise to this revolution. We were not fully prepared, in soul and
spirit, for this revolution "against the entire world"; certainly, the world was not ready for
such an uprising on the part of the Jews.
T his Jewish struggle arose from our clear understanding that this time there was to
be no waiting for any outside miracle of deliverance; there was to be no relying on any
foreign aid or beneficence. But in the recesses of the Jewish heart there still lingered some
hope that perhaps some life-saving help would come – a non-Jewish miracle; perhaps
American, Russian, or international. And none came. Instead of life-saving help there
came schemes, malicious plots, apathy, non-intervention, reservations and evasion on the
part of the "great democracies", and displays of support and encouragement that failed to
ripen into life-saving action on the part of the other countries. And in the total and cruel
absence of any non-Jewish miracle there arose the quintessential, revolutionary military
and political Jewish miracle. Unstoppable necessity came to prevail in this struggle to
realize the aspirations of generations through the numerically small internal strength of
the Jews of the Land of Israel.
Perhaps the day will come when the Jewish People, in its state, will be grateful towards the
nations of the world for the great miracle of their complete and absolute lack of beneficence
in relation to the present Jewish struggle, for this decisive historic lesson – the greatest and
most eternal in the long history of the Jews amongst the nations. We will yet laud with
fondness the great and cruel service that the nations performed for us in uprooting from
our hearts the last remnant of any sense of dependence on their beneficence, and for
planting in its stead the first true and real sense of Jewish autoemancipation.
It is clear, of course, that this had not been the intention behind the position adopted
by the nations. It was not this lesson that they had intended to teach the Jews, but rather
a continuation of the old, familiar lesson that belonged to the eras and generations of
"Christian civilization" from ancient times; a lesson that taught that Jewish fate lay in the
hands of the gentiles, and that there could be no Jewish fate other than that permitted and
desired by the nations. This tradition, it seems, had not been forgotten by the nations – even
after that generous historic international resolution in which the UN General Assembly
recognized the national and political independence of the Jewish People in Eretz Yisrael at
Lake Success on November 29. It seems that, in relation to the Jews, even this resolution
was not considered binding.
M ax Nordau once defined the Emancipation of European Jewry as "an act of dry
intellect alone, and not of true feeling and awareness" by the civilized nations and states.
We have come to realize that the great gesture of the nations of the world on November
29 was not far removed from the spirit of the European civil Emancipation. Were this
not the case, the willingness to retract the international resolution to establish a Jewish
state would not have expressed itself so easily and with such astounding haste in view
After the Declaration 189
independence and the establishment of the State of Israel. This is not merely a political and
military achievement, but also a revolutionary enterprise of the first order. It was supreme
historic necessity that gave rise to this revolution. We were not fully prepared, in soul and
spirit, for this revolution "against the entire world"; certainly, the world was not ready for
such an uprising on the part of the Jews.
T his Jewish struggle arose from our clear understanding that this time there was to
be no waiting for any outside miracle of deliverance; there was to be no relying on any
foreign aid or beneficence. But in the recesses of the Jewish heart there still lingered some
hope that perhaps some life-saving help would come – a non-Jewish miracle; perhaps
American, Russian, or international. And none came. Instead of life-saving help there
came schemes, malicious plots, apathy, non-intervention, reservations and evasion on the
part of the "great democracies", and displays of support and encouragement that failed to
ripen into life-saving action on the part of the other countries. And in the total and cruel
absence of any non-Jewish miracle there arose the quintessential, revolutionary military
and political Jewish miracle. Unstoppable necessity came to prevail in this struggle to
realize the aspirations of generations through the numerically small internal strength of
the Jews of the Land of Israel.
Perhaps the day will come when the Jewish People, in its state, will be grateful towards the
nations of the world for the great miracle of their complete and absolute lack of beneficence
in relation to the present Jewish struggle, for this decisive historic lesson – the greatest and
most eternal in the long history of the Jews amongst the nations. We will yet laud with
fondness the great and cruel service that the nations performed for us in uprooting from
our hearts the last remnant of any sense of dependence on their beneficence, and for
planting in its stead the first true and real sense of Jewish autoemancipation.
It is clear, of course, that this had not been the intention behind the position adopted
by the nations. It was not this lesson that they had intended to teach the Jews, but rather
a continuation of the old, familiar lesson that belonged to the eras and generations of
"Christian civilization" from ancient times; a lesson that taught that Jewish fate lay in the
hands of the gentiles, and that there could be no Jewish fate other than that permitted and
desired by the nations. This tradition, it seems, had not been forgotten by the nations – even
after that generous historic international resolution in which the UN General Assembly
recognized the national and political independence of the Jewish People in Eretz Yisrael at
Lake Success on November 29. It seems that, in relation to the Jews, even this resolution
was not considered binding.
M ax Nordau once defined the Emancipation of European Jewry as "an act of dry
intellect alone, and not of true feeling and awareness" by the civilized nations and states.
We have come to realize that the great gesture of the nations of the world on November
29 was not far removed from the spirit of the European civil Emancipation. Were this
not the case, the willingness to retract the international resolution to establish a Jewish
state would not have expressed itself so easily and with such astounding haste in view
After the Declaration 189
