I am neither a Zionist nor an Itoist, though I am in accord with the ideals of both organizations. It is disagreeable to be a Mr. Facing-Both-Ways of any description. The only classic representation of such a personage was Janus and he was the God of War. But war is in the air and so even that may not be out of place to-day.
Is has been the fashion at recent meetings of the Jewish Territorial Organization to hold speeches, delightful as specimens of literature and pleasing as exhibitions of humanity, but it does seem to me that there has been a little too much of the theoretical at such meetings. After all, it is a question of practical politics which Jewry has to face to-day and though I admit that both sides claim to be practical it does seem to me somewhat unjust and incorrect on the part of speakers for the I. T. O. to assume as an axiom, as they have done repeatedly ad nauseam, that Palestine as a solution of the Jewish question was quite out of the question. This I have never admitted and indeed my travels in Turkey, in Russia and in Palestine itself have convinced me to the contrary. And the only reason why I am not a Zionist is because the fruit has been ripening so visibly, so wonderously, that I fear to snatch too soon, and then the difficulty will be, not in the eating, but in the digestion.
If the truth were known the world would
*Fourth in a series of lectures delivered this season before the London Zionist League.
probably be astonished at the numbers of those who are not Zionists and have yet been paving the way for the true Zionism during the last generation. Of such are the Chovevi Zion, of such is the arch-colonist of Zion, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, of such is the Jewish Colonization Association, which to-day administers so much of the fertile land and fruitful gardens and rich vineyards in Palestine.
When Dr. Herzl first came to London he was an Itoist. His scheme of a Jewish State was intended for any territory except Palestine. The very first meeting-a private meeting held in London, at which he expounded his views, was held in the house of my brother, the Chief Rabbi, at which perhaps half a dozen persons were present. I there ventured to submit to Dr. Herzl that Palestine itself seemed to me the one place in the world that would fit such an ideal Jewish State as he projected. It would appeal to sentiment, it would appeal to religion, it would appeal to justice. Europe was no longer dominated by bigotry, and the conscience of its more enlightened rulers could not but feel that the chief characteristic of the nineteenth century had been the restoration of nationalities to Greece, to Italy, to Germany, to Hungary, to Roumania, to Bulgaria, to Servia, and Norway; I include Norway although the independence of Norway has only just culminated. The movement was there and as the rulers of these States alone wore a majority of the Crowns