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The Betar Movement is a world Zionist youth movement founded 85 years ago by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Betar members played important roles in the creation of Israel. Today the Betar Movement is active in many world branches and is involved in Jewish and Zionist activism.
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| The Idea of Betar |
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| Ideology | ||||||||||||||||
Page 2 of 14 2. THE JEWISH STATE The basis of the Betarian viewpoint consists of one idea: the Jewish State. In this simple idea however, lies a deep meaning indeed. What do the nations of the world symbolize? They symbolize that every nation must contribute its own share to the common culture of mankind, a share which is distinguished by its own specific spirit. This contribution should not and cannot consist merely of the ideas and good advice to other nations; it must serve as a living example of ideas and ideals, tangibly realized, expressed not only in books but in the collective life of the people as well. For this purpose, every nation must possess its own "laboratory", a country wherein the nation alone is master and can freely suit the common life in accordance with its own conception of good and evil. A people's own state is such a laboratory. There was prevalent for a long time the opinion among Jews that although the Jewish nation has a "mission" of its own, a complexity of ideals which it must contribute to civilization, we can, nevertheless, best serve this mission by remaining scattered among the nations of the world. Thus we will be able by closer contact, they maintain, to offer our ideas to every nation so that it should follow our advice in its collective life. This is a grave mistake. As already stated, one cannot be taught by precept alone. The world is prone to learn even new ideas from tangible examples only. England has, for instance, given to the world an important social idea - self government of a free citizenry. How then did the English nation teach other peoples to understand and regulate such a parliamentary system? Certainly not by being scattered among the nations and so convince them; just the opposite is true. Thus it became an example from which the world learned. In a like manner, the French nation carried out its mission of instructing the world the teachings of liberty and equality which it accepted during the great French Revolution The only right way to offer mankind some good is to show practically, and not verbally, how to achieve it. It is not true that the Zionists have ignored the idea of mission, the mission of the Jewish nation in the world; rather we believe that the world will yet learn from us many truths, truths still unknown to it. However, the single way leading to this is the creation of the Jewish State. |
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