If he were in charge...
A confidant of Torah leaders, HaRav Aharon Yeshaya Roter, says:
The first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, asked the Chazon Ish in a famous encounter, as follows: "Let us speak theoretically that it is decided that the Chazon Ish become Prime Minister. What would you promulgate? Would you give gemoras to all soldiers or would you provide them with sophisticated weaponry?"
The Chazon Ish replied by way of a parable which should serve as a road mark for us, a spotlight on the situation in which we find ourselves.
There was once a Jew who, in the bitter east European winters, felt his fingers about to become frostbitten. What did he do? Exactly what people there do in such a situation: he took some snow and rubbed it on his fingers. The warmth created by rubbing the water helped to thaw out his fingers. He was surprised at the efficacy of this act and announced very movingly, "Hashem, Creator of the world, thank You for having created the winter and the snow, for without them, how would I have been able to warm my limbs?"
And the Chazon Ish explained, "You established a state through the disillusion that it would protect you, but as a result, you are precisely in need of those arms to defend yourselves. We rebuff this disillusion. According to our beliefs, we have no need for weapons; we suffice with gemoras alone."
The concrete example exemplifying this outlook is the horrible pogrom and slaughter which took place in Hebron in the year 5689 (1929) by resident Arabs who brutally murdered and massacred the saintly students of the Chevron yeshiva. This example has been frequently thrown out by Zionists who argue that had those yeshiva students been trained in warfare, they could have protected themselves.
This may sound like a plausible proof of their approach, but it actually comes to contradict it, for it is known, as HaRav Moshe Blau testified, that the very massacre came about as a reaction of the instigation of the Beitarniks through an organized march to the Kosel, a march which the Arabs had warned against, promising that it would ignite a fire of hatred and death.
The leaders of Zionism paved their way through a course of bloodshed which they maintained was proof the justification of their way. It is almost certain that had it not been for that protest march and other similar incitement, we and our children would be sitting in that yeshiva in Hebron, delving in Torah in front of open gemoras without guns. Not that we justify the Arabs who live by their sword, but by the same measure, no one can use their method of instigation as proof and justification thereof.
