ABSTRACT
The Character of a Total Confrontation The critical Revisionist dismissal of the Labour movement, particularly the national philosophy and political methods of the labour parties led by Ahdut ha-Avodah (founded in 1919) and (from 1930 onwards) Mapai, coincided with the emergence of Ha-Zohar and Betar. The criticism focused on such principles as 'constructivist Socialism' and the feasibility of a synthesis of Zionism and Socialism, as well as on the moral image of the Labour movement, and the policies and practices of the General Federation of Labour, the Histadrut. This negative and critical disposition played an important role in shaping the mentality of the Revisionist movement, in the same way as the Labour movement's critical and dismissive attitude towards Revisionism was highly instrumental in shaping its spiritual world-view and guiding its political behaviour with regard to Zionism and the Jewish community in Eretz Israel. The Revisionists invested considerable intellectual and emotional efforts in combating the political attitudes of the labour parties, to try and prove how negative their contribution to the Zionist enterprise was. These efforts were reflected in the tremendous amounts of publicity, consisting of articles in newspapers and magazines, books, satirical and propaganda material, cartoons and caricatures, all of them aimed at undermining the ideological and moral basis of the Labour movement, by emphasizing its inner contradictions and the 'philistinism' which the Revisionists perceived in socialist Zionism. Already in the later 1920s virtually the entire ideological foundation of Revisionist criticism of the workers' parties was in place; during
the 1930s only a few new elements were added, in particular the emotional elements and the sense of an almost apocalyptical struggle, much of the inspiration for which derived from the prevailing social and political climate, the ideological and class struggles during the 1930s and the political conflicts between the European Powers. The resulting ideological and spiritual polarization prevented any attempts at a more rational and pragmatic approach to the relationship between the two movements.
