As an addendum to my previous post, I will note the following.
There are individuals alive today who lived in Eretz Yisroel before the establishment of the Zionist State who distinctly recall having no need to fear their Arab neighbors, whom they lived together with peaceably. The late principal of Beis Yaakov of Borough Park, Rabbi Boruch Kaplan, ZT”L, lived through the infamous Chevron massacre of 1929. In a recorded public speech that he delivered, Rabbi Kaplan testified that the Arabs, far from being originally inclined toward hostility to the Jews of Chevron, had been good and peaceful neighbors. Rav Kaplan emphatically stated that he wished to set the record straight concerning the truth of the tragic events of that time and place. Specifically, Rav Kaplan stated explicitly and unequivocally that the violent actions on the part of the Arabs of Chevron at that time were a direct /response/ to what had been the utterly gratuitous and chauvinistic /provocations/ of the Zionists. [1]
The argument that has been articulated by the Zionists in this thread, concerning an asserted need for Jews in the Holy Land to take-up arms in self-defense, sounds essentially the same as the one that the Zioist leader Ben-Gurion is said to have challenged the Hazon Ish (l’havdil; z’khuso yagein aleinu) with. As the redoubtable Hazon Ish is reported to have responded, to the extent there truly is such a need now, it would only be as /a direct result of the reckless behavior and deeds of the Zionists/.
[1] According to Rav Kaplan’s recounting, the Zionists had put-on a spectacle in which they declared, “Shema Yisroel, HaKosel Kosleinu [sic], HaKosel [sic] Echad”. In the /shumess/, Rav Kaplan goes considerably farther in his denounciations of the Zionists, including the late Menachem Begin. Rav Kaplan emphatically chastised those Orthodox Jews who embraced and praised Begin, an individual whom Rav Kaplan minced no words in condemning.
Unfortunately, I am unable at this point to provide more specific info concerning where the recording of this speech of the late Rabbi Kaplan’s can be found. I believe, however, that I have provided sufficient information in order to enable those who are determined to find the recording to do so. I can add, though, that a friend of mine who knows two of Rav Kaplan’s sons, told me that at least one of them confirmed that the sentiments attributed to their father that I have articulated above are consistent with said son’s knowledge and familiarity with his father.