ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter it was explained how the immediate political aim of Revisionism was to create a suitable colonization framework and infrastructure, prior to the establishment of an independent Jewish state in historical Eretz Israel. We have also seen that only towards the end of World War II did it raise a formal, public demand for an immediate end to the Mandate and the simultaneous establishment of an independent Jewish state. The present chapter examines by what means the Revisionist movement intended to achieve Great Britain's eventual recognition of the Zionist aims and her purposeful and active cooperation in their realization. Once it became obvious that the political orientation was bound to fail, the resulting internal crisis within the movement led to the emergence of an armed underground and — as a logical corollary — recourse to armed underground struggle. This change in tactics — from an open political struggle to underground warfare — resulted from a radical change of objectives. Efforts to convert British officialdom in Eretz Israel into supporters of Zionism, preparatory to the establishment of a Jewish state, were superseded by the concept of a Hebrew state as the immediate, urgent and unconditional aim of Jewish nationalism.
