The Maccabaean

dwell in security as long as they nourished no higher designs of a Zionist state, etc., this new chief official on the other hand, urges the contention that the Jews are pro-French—French mercenaries—and should therefore be wiped out; their strongholds Metullah, Tel Chai and Cfar Gileadi must be completely destroyed. That Metulah was overrun and plundered wholesale immediately after this decision became known, may be purely accidental, but be that as it may, there is much to fear if the Syrians determine on the threatened open warfare against the Jewish settlements. Syrians in this instance refers to those opposing the French, not the Feisal government. Still the Feisal government connives at, or, at least, fails to put down the armed resistance against the French now raging in three sections of the country, and it may likewise fail to intercede on behalf of the Jewish centers in the new No Man's Land. In that event, the present gallant demonstration of Jewish valor notwithstanding, Jews will be forced temporarily to quit Upper Galilee.

Things may never come to such a pass. If they do, the result will necessarily be as temporary as the Clemenceau-George agreement concerning military occupation in Syria. It is almost inconceivable that a section of Palestine, geographically, historically, and by economic necessity, an inseparable part of the country, should be lopped off so arbitrarily, leaving as a boundary nothing—even less than a

point on the map, for Avizeeyah, the point of today moves beyond the mountains in summer time. Should such a thing occur it would be disastrous to a Jewish Palestine as well as to a British Palestine, while it would be equally disastrous to the French, for they thus arouse the enmity of the Jewish people the world over, and what may be more important to them, the enmity of the British authorities in the country proper. Of this latter there are already clear signs. An unnatural boundary has no advantages for either neighbor; has immense disadvantages if, in some wise, the weaker party gains the initial success.

If conditions in Syria in general during the last few months, and especially in the disputed zone, carry any lesson to the French, they would prefer to concentrate forces, cease to expose their flanks and to rouse the ire and antagonism of her powerful ally.

The Arabs may be governed by no such considerations. They have announced themselves for an undivided Syria to border not only at Avizeeyah but much further south at Egyptian El Arish. Their wishes will not be satisfied. What will be their attitude and mode of action is problematical, but one may expect that, for the time being, British colonial experience will know how to manage grumbling native elements.

Look forth, my soul, upon the further yearsGod gives His chosen people: though now they rise,Making their land a garden of sweet songs,I know a danger and a fate lies thereBeyond this nourished valley, and the hills'Increasing slope to Heaven.—The fruit trees spring,The cities grow like flowers in the fields,And soon like flowers they are smitten down.The mourning voices of a thousand yearsBlowing like winds about the ruined landsI hear; the Jordan weepeth as it flows,Knowing its banks are tilled by alien hands.

How hast thou fallen, oh Judah! they are dead,Thy princes of the battle and the book,Save in the kingdoms of your memory.

A red flood riseth from beyond the hillsOf Zion: is it your redeeming blood,Oh men of Israel? Come you once again?

Have all your wanton and dividing paths Led to one joining road, from which you come As one, to welcome back your sovereignty?

Bless'd be the ploughshares, beaten out of swords:Bless'd be the councils, and the flag of God:Bless'd above all, ye comers-back from landsWhose gold is not so dear as Zion's flowers!

Oh that my feet were free to touch the landWhich my eyes cherish from these mountains cold,That I might claim my footsteps made the wayBy which old Zion's wanderers return!Yet since this cannot be, be you aloneYour Moses, leading back the seed of GodTo fruit and flower in its native places!And doubt you not your rising centuriesWhich uncertainly must contemplateTheir fate, shall take a molding from hands;Shape you the cast in which their form shall lie!A center and a beacon in the East,Lighting all nations to the feet of God.