The Ashkenazi Revolution

143the Jewish State, but the Labor movement had no heaven of any kind. Thisadvantage of the Revisionists shifted the battle to its favor, not from anorganizational or practical standpoint but from an ideological standpoint.For in the end, people are willing to endure hardships and make greatsacrifices for only one goal: For heaven and hastening the arrival ofheaven. People are not willing to sacrifice themselves for the present, orthe assets of the present, since these assets already belong to them and theirpurpose is for people to enjoy them. He who flies the banner of the presentis flying the banner of pleasure but he who flies the banner of the future israising the flag of sacrifice. The beginnings of the Revisionist Movementwere ridiculously slow. It did not demand a Hebrew state immediately.Moreover: It did not demand that the role of security, in the Land of Israelunder British rule, be given to the Jewish Legion as an autonomous securityforce, but rather to the Jewish Legion as an integral part of the Britisharmy. But despite all this patience, that seems ridiculous in our eyes, theRevisionist Movement had a heaven, and in order to reach it, itimmediately created new and useful tools. For the duration of all thedevelopments in the years 1924-1944, Revisionism continued to develop itstools out of strong commitment to a specific acquisition, in its heaven.However, the Labor movement was noted for the opposite process – of aweakening and fading of values, because it had no heaven and it wastherefore automatically chained to the present and vulnerable to theprocesses of disintegration that rule in this area.Ben-Gurion was one of the few who discerned the pathetic ideological stateof the Labor movement. He saw the contradiction inherent in the fact thatthis movement, which mainly bears the yoke of the building of thesettlement, is not a general national movement but a movement ofLaborers, and it therefore limits its approaches and its goals. The motto ofBen-Gurion “from the elite to the people” came in order to broaden thehorizons for his party and to give it far-reaching goals. But it is impossible,with sound bites alone, to achieve this change in the Labor movement. HadBen-Gurion raised the banner of rebellion against British rule during thelate 1930’s, he would have achieved the change. Since he did not do this,his words remained merely words. In the end the Revisionists brought, to