WhatsappInternational security crises are rarely fought by a single nation alone.
U.S. President Donald Trump recently called on Western allies to help secure shipping lanes in the Gulf, urging European navies and other partners to contribute forces to protect global commerce and regional stability. The request highlights a longstanding reality of international conflict: Wars and security crises are rarely fought by a single nation alone. Coalitions form, partners contribute in different ways and throughout history, even peoples without a sovereign state have found ways to organize and fight alongside larger powers.
Long before the creation of the State of Israel, stateless Zionist Jews lobbied and organized in the United States, Britain, Canada, pre-state Israel and elsewhere to form independent fighting units to fight alongside the Allies. These units joined the struggle against the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and later, against Nazi Germany in World War II.
In World War I, the Zion Mule Corps—about 650 Jewish soldiers—served at Gallipoli under British command. It was followed by the Jewish Legion, which eventually numbered about 5,000 soldiers. During World War II, the Jewish Brigade—some 30,000 Jewish soldiers—served as part of the British Army, building on the precedent established during the First World War.
The men responsible for organizing and leading the Jewish soldiers in World War I and agitating for a Jewish fighting force in World War II are some of the most colorful and amazing individuals to ever be part of the Zionist movement.
The Jewish soldiers of World War I were led by British officer John Henry Patterson, the most famous African lion hunter in British history. Patterson’s exploits inspired the 1996 film “The Ghost and the Darkness,” starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. Patterson himself wrote two books about his experiences with Jewish soldiers: With the Zionists in Gallipoli and With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign.
The Zionist leaders who organized the Jewish soldiers were Yosef Trumpeldor and Ze’ev Jabotinsky.
Trumpeldor was a decorated veteran of the Russo-Japanese War who had lost an arm in combat and endured captivity as a prisoner of war. In 1920, he and seven other Zionist defenders were killed defending the Galilee village of Tel Chai against a much larger Arab force. A large lion statue now stands at the site in his honor, and the nearby Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona—“City of the Eight”—is named for the fallen defenders. The statue may well be the closest physical tribute that Israel has to Mount Rushmore, with the name of the current operation against Iran called “Roaring Lion.”
Kiryat Shmona, a civilian community, has been repeatedly targeted by Hezbollah since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Netanyahu’s words from Feb. 28 are well worth repeating: “Dear citizens of Israel, there is great symbolism in the fact that today is the 11th of Adar. On this date, 106 years ago, the national hero Joseph Trumpeldor fell in the Battle of Tel Hai. His legacy and his heroism pulse within us. At the monument to his memory, at the peak of the Galilee Panhandle where he fell with his seven comrades, the statue of the Roaring Lion was erected. Many times throughout my life, I have visited there. When I looked at the statue, I always saw you, I always saw us, the People of Israel.”
Ze’ev Jabotinsky emerged as the leading figure of the Zionist in the years between the two World Wars. His influence extended well beyond his lifetime. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s father, Benzion Netanyahu, served as a personal aide to Jabotinsky on the eve of World War II.
Jabotinsky died in the United States in 1940 while attempting to rally American support for the creation of a new Jewish fighting force to join the war against Nazi Germany. Patterson joined Jabotinsky and Benzion Netanyahu in these efforts in the United States.
The connection between these men and the Netanyahu family would continue after the war. Benzion Netanyahu named his eldest son, Yonatan (known as “Yoni”) after Patterson. At Yoni’s brit milah—the traditional Jewish circumcision ceremony—held in New York in 1946, Patterson presented the family with an engraved silver cup inscribed: “To my beloved godson Yonatan from Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson.”
Jabotinsky chronicled the experience of the Jewish soldiers in his book The Story of the Jewish Legion. Later, he wrote The Jewish War Front, in which he argued that the Jewish people needed to form a Jewish army and actively participate in the fight against Nazi Germany.
Inspired by these ideas, Jabotinsky, the elder Netanyahu and other Zionist activists traveled across the United States advocating for Jewish military participation in the Allied war effort. Their campaign effectively became one of the first organized Zionist lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. The movement called for stateless Jews to be allowed to fight as a distinct force against the Nazis and included full-page newspaper advertisements written by legendary Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht that appeared in The New York Times and elsewhere.
Stateless peoples are not always powerless in times of global conflict. The experience of Zionist Jews in the first half of the 20th century demonstrates that even without a sovereign state, determined leaders and organized communities can mobilize men, resources and political support to fight alongside great powers. It is a truth that many Israelis see and that explains their support for the Kurds.
Without this Zionist partnership with the Allies, Jewish history after World War II might well have taken a very different course.
