ABSTRACT
Zionism has aptly applied such realist security measures. They matter far less, however, when it comes to identity insecurity and may even fall short when it comes to insecurity about the survival of the people and their polity. Modernity undermined the ethno-religious Jewish security, thereby opening the gate to the rise of the ethno-national option, namely Zionism, but it also allowed other political alternatives. Security in ethnic Jewish identity has served as a powerful moral axis for Zionism and Israel. Morality, declared Jabotinsky, comes before everything else and Zionism is "moral and just" since it subscribes to "national self-determination" as a "sacred principle." Every generation fearfully considered "itself the final link," but was nonetheless sure of being such a "link in Israel's chain." Freedom–the unique human capacity to choose, reason, act and take responsibility–stands at the heart of the Zionist revolution, has underpinned its coping with fears, and can still become a beacon of hope.
