The Maccabaean

IN the preface to the "Jewish State," Dr. Herzl wrote: "I ask the cultivated men whom I am addressing to set many preconceived ideas entirely aside." This warning can be applied not only to those who are outside of the Zionist movement, but with equal justice to a considerable number of those within the Movement, when they are inclined to discuss the political side of our work. Only a small minority of Jews have had political experience, for even in the western lands, where we have been emancipated for a century, but a very small number have actually engaged in public affairs. The Jewish voter may be independent, but he is normally not keenly interested in affairs, being in this no better than the average citizen. It is to this lack of public experience that one could safely attribute the raising of all the arguments against such an effort as the organization of an American Jewish Congress. Those who knew how, were unafraid of the minority who take an interest in public affairs, not more than a vanishing decimal of a percent have had first-hand experience in international politics. And because of this vast ignorance, the problem of obtaining Palestine for the Jews has always appeared to be cloaked in mystery. The accepted theory was that it was impossible to realize the Jewish dream. This theory was based upon ignorance, and upon the tradition of the Crusaders. Mr. Sokolow has just completed two large volumes describing the relations of the English people to Zion during several centuries. I am certain that less than a dozen Jews knew that so large a literature was extant. The stock knowledge of the English Jew of what one might call pro-Zionistic literature was a slight knowledge of Byron's Hebrew Melodies. The English Jews did not attempt to gauge British sentiment, and having no knowledge of British sentiment, believed Zionism was a dream. This vicious circle has repeated itself everywhere, and has constituted the case against political practicability.

The truth is that (as the Manchester Hebrew poet, Jacob Massel, put it) if we could get the people for the land, we could get the land for the people. The Crusading spirit has been dead for several centuries. Palestine, as a Jewish Homeland, has been a political possibility since 1843, that is, since England and France landed on the Syrian Coast, and not a hair stirred throughout the world suggesting a revival of the old dogmatic religious spirit. Interested though it be in the holy places, Christianity showed by its indifference that it did not wish to make Palestine its own. It limited its interest to the Holy Places, and while the Christian powers organized their Capitulations in order to protect citizens in the Orient, it left the protection of these holy places to the same Turks to whom it would not trust the lives of its subjects. The diplomatic problem is, therefore, not that of facing the antagonism of creeds, but of discovering

the interests of all the governments concerned.

These interests have varied not only as between the governments, but, from time to time, the policies of governments have changed. If there had been Zionists before 1856, they would have had to deal with only three Powers —France, England and Turkey. If negotiations had been undertaken in 1880, there would have been a fourth Power —Russia—whose interest, however, grew in proportion to the persecution, which created a Russian-Jewish settlement in Palestine. After 1895, Germany had to be added to the list, and from about the same date America developed an interest in the Orient, and Italy began to assert itself in the policies of the Near-East. Because of this diversity of interests, Col. Condor, who knew Palestine thoroughly, thought the whole question could be settled by negotiating with the Turkish Government on such

friend of Turkey, to influence the Turkish Government, and through the same channel to obtain standing with the Russian Czar. Through other forces, he set to work to obtain an adequate hearing with England, France and Italy. Between those audiences and those granted him at the Yildiz Kiosk, he accomplished his preliminary work. Chancellories were immediately opened to him, partly on account of his remarkable personality, partly because he brought to the Powers an idea to which they were not unfriendly. The two offers of England, of Al-Arisch and East Africa, should have been an electric sign for all men to read as to the attitude of the British Government. The Sultan sent three times for Herzl. The object of these interviews was not anti-Zionism. Herzl's error, due to the rapidity of his operation, was that he wanted to impose the Jewish will upon the world through his own personality. He could not afford the time needed to enable that will to grow in strength and discover its own momentum.

Herzl died. Courage oozed out of the politically- minded Zionists (and they were few in number), be- (Continued on page 295)

(Continued on page 295)