Saturday, June 7, 2008

Words To Live By (I): "MEN OF THE IRGUN!"

Jewish Odysseus hereby inaugurates a regular (we hope) feature, "Words To Live By." Given these dark days of Western self-deception and cowardice in the face of this same "cruel enemy," it seems appropriate to begin with this address--we can all benefit from the powerful clarity, determination, and courage of this man, who escaped both the Holocaust and the Gulag to become one of the great heroes of the 20th century:

"Men of the Irgun! We are going out to conquer Jaffa. We are going into one of the decisive battles for the independence of Israel. Know who is before you, and remember whom you are leaving behind you. Before you is a cruel enemy who has risen to destroy us. Behind you are parents, brothers, children. Smite the enemy hard. Aim true. Save your ammunition. In battle, show no more mercy to the enemy than he shows mercy to our people. But spare women and children. Whoever raises his hands in surrender has saved his life. You will not harm him. You will be led in the attack by Lieutenant Gideon. You have only one direction: forward."

--Irgun commander Menachem Begin, addressing his forces on April 25, 1948

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Words for all Western Democracies to live by indeed. Thanks J.O.

Anonymous said...

Well, not sure here but; those that surrendered were neither moved nor swayed by compassion, nor were they any example of detourance. On the contrary. What is the point of a life/death struggle with the beast only to spare their lives and let them reproduce their numbers? Hope that view put the compassion of Israel into proper perspective. Compassion is a risk. In a life death struggle their is no room for compassion in the hands of a survivor unless you wanna capture bring all their kids home and raise them yourselves.

I applaud Begin, a real man and hero. He would have moved me to compassion I am sure.

dw

Jewish Odysseus said...

This attitude of "compassion" is also widely recognized at the optimal way to MILITARILY defeat your enemy with a minimum of casualties to your side. If the this is where enemy believes surrender will lead to death, they will be less likely to surrender.

Post-war considerations are [SHOULD] be handled relatively easily, once military victory is achieved. This is where Israel's leadership has fallen down after EVERY victory. There should obviously have been a much greater raking out of the anti-Jewish population than was done.

It shd be remembered that the leaders after the biggest victories (1948 and 1967) were LABOR...the same idiots who allied w/the Brits against the Irgun.

Jewish Odysseus said...

Ooops, shd have read:

"If the enemy believes surrender will lead to death, they will be less likely to surrender."