The Maccabaean

ZIONISM has for its object the creation, in Palestine, of a national home for the Jewish people; in plain language, this expression means that we want Palestine to become again the Jewish homeland. Palestine will be Jewish when the majority of its inhabitants are Jewish, and when the larger part of its soil is owned and worked by Jews. And such a Palestine will become again the homeland of the Jewish people when its moral and intellectual development has reached so high a standard that its power of attraction can bring once more the whole of scattered Jewry within the orbit of its spiritual influence. The reconstitution of Palestine as the national home of the Jewish people depends, therefore, on the successful solution of four fundamental problems:

1. To create in Palestine a Jewish majority, 2. To bring the larger part of the soil of Palestine under Jewish ownership, 3. To bring about the cultivation of Jewish land by Jewish labor, 4. To promote the cultural development of Palestinian Jewry.

How can we create in Palestine a Jewish majority? Obviously, only by the immigration, into the country of many hundreds of thousands of Jews. Hundreds of thousands of Jews in Eastern Europe are ready to start on their way to Palestine; some have already started. But if we wish to avoid perhaps the greatest calamity that has ever overtaken great masses of our people, we must keep these would-be emigrants back; cost what it may, we must prevent them from starting on their way, as long as Pälestine is not prepared for their reception. Because these people will require housing, food and work; and all these three requirements will have to be met from the very moment of arrival in the country. As far as housing is concerned, there is hardly sufhicient accommodation in Palestine for even the present Jewish population. To wait for the hypothetical action of the future Government of Palestine or of such future Jewish national authorities as will be established, would be folly; only private initiative has, at present, the necessary freedom of action and the necessary financial means for undertaking at once the gigantic task of preparing the tens of thousands of houses and the hundreds of barracks and of hostels that will be required in the immediate future. Some building companies have already been created by Russian and Palestinian Zionists and they have even started work. Left entirely to itself, private initiative would no doubt be able to find the building and other materials required for this work. But in view of the present

high cost of materials and of transport, the resulting high prices and rents of houses will considerably increase the cost of living in Palestine and thus hamper the economic progress of the population. It is the duty of the Zionist Organization to intervene in this matter. Shipping is still controlled by the Governments of the Allied countries; spe-

Allied countries; special international arrangements are being framed for enabling those countries which have suffered from the’war to obtain on reasonable conditions the essential materials required for their reconstruction. The Zionist Organization should at once approach the competent authorities with the object of securing similar facilities for the work of reconstruction of the Jewish National Home. So far, as regards the housing question. As to food; it is a fact that even before the war, the population of Palestine was largely dependent on imports from abroad. How much more will this be the case when the flow of immigration has started? Here again, the Zionist Organization should approach the Inter-Allied Economic Council and endeavor to obtain for Palestine similar treatment to that which will be meted out to other friendly countries. The same remark applies to the clothing problem. We do not ask for charity, and we are willing to pay for every single article we need. But we desire that our leaders should remind the Governments with whom they are in communication, that the great mass of our immigrants into Palestine— whether they come from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine or Roumania, are victims of the war in the truest and most tragic meaning of the term, and that as such they have the same right as the members of any other nation to some facilities in their endeavor to rebuild a home and an existence for their sorely tried families. .

The Powers, or the League of Nations, or the Mandatory Power of Palestine, should thus help us to obtain facilities for the purchase and transport of food and clothing, during a limited number of years. It will be our task,-and the task of the Government of Palestine, to use every endeavor to promote the economic development of the country so that, at the conclusion of the period during which facilities will be given, Palestine may be able, partly from its own produce and partly through its greatly increased purchasing power, to supply the needs of its population. The better utilization of the soil through the utmost intensification of agriculture, will lead to the production of greatly increased quantities of foodstuffs and of raw materials for agricultural industries; a systematic development of the various industries already existing in the country, and the introduction of new industries will go a long way