From Jabotinsky’s Iron Wall to Gaza’s Graves: Zionism’s Fascist Alliances Then and Now - CounterPunch.org
Zionism was never a simple movement for Jewish refuge from persecution. It emerged in the late 19th century as a distinctly Western European settler-colonial ideology, shaped by the same imperial logic that carved up Africa and Asia. Its founding thinkers — Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, and others — explicitly looked to European colonialism as their model. Herzl, the father of political Zionism, openly described the future Jewish state as “a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism.” He actively sought charters from colonial powers to establish a Jewish colony in Palestine. This was never about coexistence with the indigenous population. It was about conquest and replacement. No figure better embodied the most aggressive strain of this ideology than Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism and spiritual father of Israel’s modern far-right. In his seminal 1923 essay “The Iron Wall,” Jabotinsky laid out the brutal truth with cold honesty. He openly acknowledged that the Palestinian Arabs would never voluntarily accept the transformation of their homeland into a Jewish state. The only solution, he argued, was to erect an “iron wall” of military superiority — a barrier of force so overwhelming that the native population could never breach it. Colonization, he insisted, must proceed “regardless of the native population.” This was not defense. It was a manifesto for settler-colonial domination. Driven by this fanatical vision, Jabotinsky actively courted the rising fascist powers of Europe. In 1934, with Benito Mussolini’s enthusiastic approval, he established the Betar Naval Academy in the Italian port town of Civitavecchia. There, young Zionist cadets trained under Italian fascist officers, wore uniforms modeled on Mussolini’s Blackshirts, and absorbed the militaristic, authoritarian spirit of fascism. The goal was explicit: to forge a ruthless Jewish fighting force capable of imposing Jabotinsky’s “Iron Wall” on the Palestinian people. The academy operated until 1938, when Italy’s growing alliance with Nazi Germany and the passage of anti-jewish race laws finally ended the partnership. Many of its graduates would later form the backbone of the early Israeli navy. Even more damning was the collaboration with Nazi Germany. In 1933, Zionist organizations signed the notorious Haavara Agreement with the Hitler regime. This cynical pact allowed tens of thousands of German Jews to emigrate to Palestine while transferring their assets in the form of German goods. For the Nazis, it was a convenient mechanism to expel Jews and boost exports. For the Zionists, it was a cold calculation to strengthen Jewish colonization of Palestine. While ordinary Jews faced escalating persecution, some Zionist leaders were striking pragmatic deals with the very regime that would soon unleash the Holocaust. These alliances were not anomalies. They reflected the core logic of a settler-colonial project that prioritized territorial conquest and state-building over morality and solidarity with other oppressed peoples. That same logic drives Israel today. The live-streamed genocide in Gaza since October 2023 is the horrific culmination of this colonial project. What began with Herzl’s imperial fantasies and Jabotinsky’s Iron Wall doctrine has evolved into a sophisticated system of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and mass killing. The deliberate starvation, the systematic destruction of hospitals and schools, the targeting of civilians — these are not excesses of Zionism. They are the inevitable outcome of a movement founded on the belief that the indigenous population must be subdued or removed so that the settler state can thrive. This historical continuity is visible in today’s political landscape. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government — whose political roots lie in the post-fascist tradition — continues to provide political cover, diplomatic shielding, and material support for Israel’s crimes, echoing the opportunistic alliances Jabotinsky once sought with Mussolini. In Germany, a country that claims to have confronted its Nazi past has instead transformed that historical guilt into unconditional backing of the Zionist state, blocking serious sanctions while supplying weapons components. In the United States, the Trump family’s own troubling history — from Fred Trump’s 1927 arrest during a Ku Klux Klan riot to Donald Trump’s embrace of evangelical Zionists and hardline pro-Israel extremists — reveals how deeply intertwined American power remains with this colonial enterprise. The Trump administration’s grotesque “Board of Peace” — a cabal of billionaire real-estate speculators, hardline Zionists, and evangelical extremists — perfectly embodies this depraved fusion of gangster capitalism and messianic zealotry. Tasked with reshaping Gaza after the genocide, this so-called peace initiative openly dreams of turning the ruins of Palestinian homes into luxury hotels, marinas, and beach resorts — a grotesque “Riviera of the Middle East” built atop mass graves. This is not diplomacy. It is the ultimate expression of colonial plunder: the same forces that finance settlement expansion and ethnic cleansing now salivate over the real estate once the killing is complete. Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir are not aberrations. They are the natural extremist outgrowth of Zionist thought, the logical heirs to Jabotinsky’s iron-fisted vision of domination. Their open calls for annexation, execution of prisoners, and demographic engineering are not deviations from Zionism — they are its fulfillment. The moral bankruptcy of the West continues to be staggering. European governments that lecture the world about human rights continue to arm Israel, shield it from accountability, and block any meaningful sanctions. Their complicity reveals a continent still trapped in old patterns of power, loyalty, and selective morality and colonialist thinking. Despite Israel’s hundreds of millions poured into hasbara propaganda, the mask has fallen. The sadistic reality of Zionism — apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide — is now visible to millions. The more Israel lashes out in arrogance and brutality, the faster the global awakening spreads. The historical record is damning. Zionism made deals with fascists and Nazis when it suited its goals. Today it carries out genocide with the full backing of Western powers. The continuity is unmistakable. The West must stop pretending this is merely a “conflict.” For justice to be served there must be an acknowledgement that the Palestinian genocide is the brutal continuation of a settler-colonial enterprise rooted in European supremacy and maintained through unrelenting force. The resistance grows — on the streets and at sea in the growing international movement demanding justice. The struggle for Palestinian liberation is the frontline of the fight against colonialism, apartheid, and imperialism in our time. Make Israel Palestine again. Michael Leonardi -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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