Zionism and the Ottoman Empire
Mr. Israel Cohen is at the present time English secretary of the Smaller Actions Comite of the Zionist organization. He has written a large number of stories dealing with Jewish life, and is well-known in England as a publicist of large experience.
THE ideals and aims of Zionism have been explained so often and so clearly during the last thirteen years that it should hardly be necessary now to publish a further exposition. They have been described in books and pamphlets innumerable, and they are discussed week after week in special newspapers in a host of languages throughout the world. There is scarce any theoretical aspect of the movement that has not long ago been thoroughly threshed out; there is scarce any new practical development that is not immediately announced in the official press. Publicity has been the guiding principle of the leaders of the movement from its very birth, since the measure of its success largely depends upon the extent and intensity of its propaganda. The result is that there is now such a voluminous Zionist literature that a diligent student desirous of mastering it all would have to devote many months to the task. But despite the publicity and the lucidity with which the aims of Zionism have been repeatedly expounded, despite the ease with which anybody in search of information can gratify his curiosity, there are still strange and damaging misrepresentations abroad in regard to the principles of the movement and the efforts to realize them. The Zionists are accused of harboring separatist tendencies and of breeding disloyalty in the Ottoman Empire, and they are attacked with a venom and violence that could hardly be equalled if they actually had a fleet and an army in readiness to capture Palestine by storm. Their opponents know full well that the endeavors of Zionism are peaceful and that its activity is beneficial, but it suits their
purpose to continue their campaign of malignant misrepresentation. We are not now concerned with their morality but with the mischief they may do if their sinister propaganda is allowed to go on unchecked and uncorrected. We, therefore, propose to examine the charge that Zionist activity in the Ottoman Empire is dangerous to the interests of the State. We shall pass under review the work already accomplished by the movement in Palestine and the practical measures which it has in contemplation for the near future, and we shall see whether they are calculated to further or to injure the welfare of New Turkey.
The aim of Zionism is to perpetuate the Jewish nationality by establishing a home for the Jewish people in Palestine —the land in which its national life first received shape and direction. To realize this aim two processes are necessary: first, the Jewish people must be prepared by education in national culture for a renewal of its collective life in Palestine; secondly, Palestine must be prepared by practical methods of modern colonization for the reception of the Jewish people. The first process can certainly not be regarded as having any immediate bearing upon the welfare of the Ottoman Empire. It is the second process alone which comes into intimate contact with Ottoman interests. Is the result of this intimate contact for the general good—or the reverse?
When the Zionists first began to undertake practical work in Palestine they were confronted by a serious and stupendous task. It consisted of nothing less than the adaptation of an Eastern land that had been neglected for centuries as the home