90	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bthan a meal. Man transcends the animal by his ability to bchoose greatness, to choose sacrifice, to relate to ideals. The bunderstanding of this and the gathering of steel to translate bthat understanding into practice despite the interminable bobstacles, is something that must be acquired.

5. BITACHON

b“Bitachon—Faith in the indestructability of the Jewish bpeople. We believe with perfect faith that the Jewish people bis indestructable. A people which has suffered the cruelty, bthe oppression, and the holocausts of the great, long night bof Exile which has descended for so many centuries upon bthem and nevertheless survived each and every one of its bmore powerful enemies, cannot be destroyed.

b“. . . We believe with perfect faith that the Jewish bpeople—though buffeted by the storms of history and bplucked at by the vultures and jackals of all time—must live. bIt is this firm belief that is echoed every year at the Passover bSeder table: ‘In every generation they rise up to destroy us, bbut the Holy One, Blessed Be He, rescues us from their bhands.’

b“. . . And this survival is accomplished without allies. bThere are no allies for the Jew. At best, nations are moti- bvated by self-interest, and we, the smallest of peoples, offer blittle to the practitioners of realpolitik. At worst, there is a bdeep and abiding antipathy to the Jew, his cause, his land. bWhom can the Jew trust? None but himself. To whom can bhe look for assurance and guarantees? Only to himself.

b“It is this faith in the permanence and survival of the bJewish people that in turn, gives faith in the ultimate success bof the Jewish Defense League. No matter how difficult, no bmatter how impossible the task may seem, if it is a good task, bif it is a holy task, it will succeed because it must. The Jewish bDefense League adherent carries this belief in his people band its survival as an article of faith within him. It is a fire bthat, once kindled within him, will never be extinguished. It bis a confidence, it is a guarantee. He believes it firmly and, bbecause he believes it, it is so. Because it is so, he and his bphilosophy must emerge victorious.”