Ze'ev Jabotinsky

Today is the yahrtzeit (the anniversary of death) of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, one of the early Zionist leaders.  To commemorate this great leader of Israel, here is one of his most well-known essays, originally published in Russian in 1923.  Jabotinsky was significantly more prescient than most of Israel's leaders then, and more realistic than most of Israel's leaders now.

...That the Arabs of the Land of Israel should willingly come to an agreement with us is beyond all hopes and dreams at present, and in the foreseeable future. This inner conviction of mine I express so categorically not because of any wish to dismay the moderate faction in the Zionist camp but, on the contrary, because I wish to save them from such dismay. Apart from those who have been virtually “blind” since childhood, all the other moderate Zionists have long since understood that there is not even the slightest hope of ever obtaining the agreement of the Arabs of the Land of Israel to “Palestine” becoming a country with a Jewish majority...