It’s strange that a man who needs no introduction should need an introduction. But such has been the fear and loathing for Ze’ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky by the Jewish socialists who founded Israel — and ruled unopposed for decades — that they have almost succeeded in obscuring his name.

Born at Odessa in 1880, Jabotinsky witnessed the Kishinev pogroms of 1903. From that point on he devoted his time and prodigious talents to Zionism and protecting Jews. At great personal risk, he spent the late 1930s traveling across Eastern Europe and warning the seminal Jewish communities there of the “all-consuming lava” that would soon destroy them. Pleading for them to get out and seek refuge in their homeland in  Zion. “Eliminate the diaspora or the diaspora will surely eliminate you.”

For the most part, he was ignored — until it was too late, and the British closed the door.

Jabotinsky is the archetype of a great Jewish patriot. His was the greatest political mind the Jews have produced since the biblical era. Greater even than Herzl because only Jabotinky’s ideology came to terms with the Arabs as a proud people, and warned of the stubborn intransigence and resistance that would be met upon our arrival, and that we still see today.

Jabotinsky died of a heart attack in 1940 at the age of 60. By comparison, his bitter opponent, Labor-Zionist Ben Gurion, lived from 1886 to 1973. We can only imagine how Jabotinsky’s brilliant thinking, and his deep devotion to the Jews, would have evolved if he lived to see the true extent of the Holocaust and taken his rightful place among the Zionist leaders who founded his beloved Jewish state. Israel, along with the world she inhabits, would be a very different place.

Let’s channel Jabotinsky and see what we find.

In the beginning, in 1949, calls for an “armistice” by the “international community” in the War of Independence Israel fought against an Arab onslaught — a stay of Israel’s hand — would have been ignored. The infant state would have allowed itself to follow-thru on its miraculous victory, which at the time meant a public Arab surrender and recognized borders that would have included much of the territory the Arabs used to launch their aggression: Sinai, all of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, and Judea and Samaria, at the very least.

From that day forward, a precedent would have been established. The Arabs, knowing what losing to Israel meant, would never have risked launching another war. And the rest of the world, knowing what a victory by Israel meant, would maintain a polite respect and keep their anti-Semitism, always bubbling beneath the surface, right there where it belongs. Hmm, beginning to sound like “peace,” doesn’t it?

Having that relative quiet, Israel would have developed more rapidly and reached the forefront of science, medicine, agriculture, and defense technology much sooner than they have already. Hmm, beginning to sound like “going from strength to strength,” doesn’t it?

Fast forward to 2011. Time to end conjecture and speak of the known facts.

Inexplicably, the people of the United States have elevated to the presidency a man who, in Barrack Obama, who seems uncomfortable with Zionism and who allies himself with the Arabs’ ersatz grievances concerning a state and a nation that never existed — “Palestine and Palestinians.” A worried Israel sends its prime minister on a mission to talk to their president, “friends of Israel,” and directly to the American people via their Congress.

Nominally, Benjamin Netanyahu is a Likudnik and would be expected to fly Jabotinsky’s flag. But we’re not in Jabotinsky’s Israel anymore. Mr. Netanyahu is in his second non-consecutive term and has a clear track of folding under American pressure and agreeing to “painful compromises” that are followed by tragedy – and further compromises.

As a sop to the American president, Mr. Netanyahu has already accepted a key idea the living Jabotinsky outright rejected. Jabotinsky knew the “two-state solution” would mean the end of Israel, and believed an agreement with Arabs was impossible as long as the Arabs still “had the least hope of getting rid of us.”

Miraculously, early indications are that Mr. Netanyahu is finally in touch with his inner Jabotinsky, having delivered a stinging public rebuke upon meeting the president on Friday. It was less a responsa than a lesson in Jewish history and Jewish pride. About the President’s plans for the Jewish state, Netanyahu said flatly, “it ain’t gonna happen.” That  left Mr. Obama back on his heels and struggling to regain his balance. 

But Mr. Netanyahu’s immediate test is far from over. He speaks to two friendly audiences, AIPAC tonight and Congress tomorrow. Mark his words carefully. They will tell if it’s Jabotinsky or the compliant old Netanyahu who eventually shows up.

Mr. Friedman is a New York-based writer who frequently comments on politics and the Middle East.