Zionism

“ The true test of Zionism may seem a topsy-turvy test. It will not succeed by the number of successes, but rather by the number of failures, or what the world (and certainly not least the Jewish world) has generally called failures. It will be tested, not by whether Jews can climb to the top of the ladder, but by whether Jews can remain at the bottom; not by whether they have a hundred arts of becoming important, but by whether they have any skill in the art of remaining insignificant. ”

“ Zionism is, from one point of view, the effort of the Jewish spirit to establish a firm ground for its own continuance and development in a changed world, which threatens by degrees to overwhelm it. Such a movement was bound to come so soon as danger threatened a race-life so tough and enduring, and a spirit so distinctive and powerful, and it is, like other spiritual things, essentially independent of material means. ”

“ We must be Zionists in colonization, in the spirit, and in religion. In what each says, there is some truth. The error lies only in the fact that in each of these assertions, a partial truth claims to represent the whole truth. Zionism is not a part; it is the totality, the sum, the synthesis of these efforts. ”

“ So “Zionism” in the minds of the Prophets expanded, and produced that great vision of the end of days, when the wolf should lie down with the lamb, and nation should no longer lift up the sword against nation—and then Israel too should dwell securely in his land. And so this ideal for humanity has always been and will always be inevitably an essential part of the national ideal of the Jewish people; and a “Jewish State” will be able to give the people rest only when universal Righteousness is enthroned and holds sway over nations and States. ”

“ The Nation, in the course of a leading article, on June 2nd, 1917, on “What is a Jew?”, considered Zionism as the new force, and said:⁠—
“An assimilated Judaism has little to give to the world, save the individual talents of its adherents. Zionism, on the contrary, is a vivid, positive, picturesque element in the world, a distinctive tradition which adds something to the common stock. ”

“ Yet, after all, I confess that Western “Zionism” is very good and useful for those Western Jews who have long since almost forgotten Judaism, and have no link with their people except a vague sentiment which they themselves do not understand. The establishment of a Jewish State by their agency is at present but a distant vision; but the idea of a State induces them meanwhile to devote their energies to the service of their people, lifts them out of the mire of assimilation, and strengthens their Jewish national consciousness. ”

“ But I do not disguise the enormous difficulties of doing it in the particular conditions Of Palestine. In fact the greatest of the real difficulties of Zionism is that it has to take place in Zion. There are other difficulties, however, which when they are not specially the fault of Zionists are very much the fault of Jews. The worst is the general impression of a business pressure from the more brutal and businesslike type of Jew, which arouses very violent and very just indignation. ”

“ For men to "press into" Zionism when it is preached is for them to enter the society promoting the enterprise and become parts of the institution; but not till Zionism is established at Zion can they enter it in its established form and receive the real advantages, faith in which induced them to enter it in its preached form. So when men believed the gospel of the kingdom and were baptized they pressed into that institution as constituent parts in the hope that when it would become an established fact, fraught with the promised blessings, they may realize how "good it is to be there." ”

“ It is not strange, therefore, that Zionism, brief though its life has been, has already experienced many a sudden rise and many a sudden fall in the popular estimation, its fortune varying with circumstances. But is a people subject to such changes fitted to be the rank and file of a movement based on a long history, confronted by numerous obstacles, and demanding strenuous, wisely-directed, ordered effort, without sudden leaps backwards and forwards? ”

“ What has long been the dream of virtually the whole Jewish race—even of those whose inward despair expressed itself outwardly by a cynical dismissal of Zionism as the mirage of over-heated fancy—has now taken definite shape on the horizon of practical politics. ”

“ Zionism, although old, like the Jewish people, thinks freshly and independently on Jewish subjects. The roots of Zionism are in the past, but its blossom is in the present and its fruit in the future. The reason is simply that everything really Jewish must be bound up with history. Zionism is, first of all, undoubtedly a great historical idea. It is a simple matter of fact that Israel’s history begins with Zionism. Israel’s history in ancient times shows the path to the realization of Zionism. ”

“ It seems possible that by some such extension of the definition of Zionism we might ultimately overcome even the greatest difficulty of Zionism, the difficulty of resettling a sufficient number of so large a race on so small a land. For if the advantage of the ideal to the Jews is to gain the promised land, the advantage to the Gentiles is to get rid of the Jewish problem, and I do not see why we should obtain all their advantage and none of our own. ”

“ During the last century Jews the world over began to discuss practical means for making the age-long dream of their people come true. This discussion grew into an organized movement which has rolled up in size like a snowball. Zionism, as it is called, is giving the statesmen of Christendom, as well as the Jew and the Mohammedan, a mighty problem to wrestle with. It involves the biggest colonization scheme since the settlement of America, as well as religious and political controversies likely to keep the world stirred up for a good many years to come. ”

“ The innumerable sources from which Zionism draws its being, the geographical dispersion of the Jewish people, the many events and phenomena outside of the life of the Jewish people which have had and still have their bearing on the development of the Jewish National idea, give it inevitably the form that it has assumed. ”

“ Zionists, whose unfeeling hearts soar skywards while their brethren are afflicted and their blood is shed like water—and so forth, and so forth. But these same men, when they confront the opponents of Zionism, who ask to be told clearly how Zionism can end our exile if it cannot gather all our scattered hosts into Palestine—then they take refuge in the spiritual mission of Zionism, and instead of “blood shed like water,” they expatiate on our spiritual slavery and the impossibility of developing our spiritual powers in exile. ”

“ But those who are in doubt overlook the fact that in all representative bodies nothing is done except to make speeches. And who
at every gathering, our first business is to clear away, with a few sharp axe-strokes, the fungus that has attached itself to the tree of Zionism. Notwithstanding all, we are happy to note that our tree is sound, is healthy, and is flourishing. Zionism seeks to find for the Jewish people a public, legally secured home in Palestine. This programme we established three years ago for ever. ”

“ He brought freedom to the Jewish soul and kindled Jewish enthusiasm to a flame. He reminded the Jews that they were still unalterably attached to the old centre of Jewish national life, that Zionism remained the ultimate aim of their aspirations, and that the old prophecies were still a living force. He devoted all his determination and skill to his people, and his endurance and ability to the work of organizing the masses. It was the influence of his personality over men that made him a great leader. ”

“ A Jew might be treated as respectfully as a foreign ambassador, but a foreign ambassador is a foreigner. Finally, I would give the same privileged position to all Jews everywhere, as an alternative policy to Zionism, if Zionism failed by the test I have named; the only true and the only tolerable test; if the Jews had not so much failed as peasants as succeeded as capitalists. ”

“ For the present, Zionism, like all Israel, is religiously a heterogeneous mass, embracing in its following all shades of belief and unbelief, held together only by the " National Idea." One can understand, therefore, the anxiety of the responsible leaders to keep questions of cult out of its programme. ”

“ Its target has never been the Jew, as a person, but racist zionism and undisguised aggression. In this sense, ours is also a revolution for the Jew, as a human being, as well. We are struggling so that Jews, Christians and Muslims may live in equality, enjoying the same rights and assuming the same duties, free from racial or religious discrimination.
44. We do distinguish between Judaism and zionism. While we maintain our opposition to the colonialist Zionist movement, we respect the Jewish faith. ”

“ Zionism is of particular interest, not merely because of the quarrels which have arisen among the leaders over money—it is the war of “interest” against “capital”—but also because of the light it throws on the two great armies of Jews in the world, the way in which they use their power where they can, and the trouble that always embroils the nations which become Jewish tools. ”

“ For nearly three centuries Zionism was a religious as well as a political idea which great Christians and Jews, chiefly in England but to some extent also in France, handed down to posterity. And moreover, all the available evidence points to the fact that whenever the attention of the world has been invited to the question of Palestine and to measures for improving the development of the Near East, English opinion has given the most careful and sympathetic consideration to the Zionist idea. ”

“ Though it is less than twenty-five years since Theodor Herzl in his Jewish State suggested Zionism as a solution of the Jewish question, it is also the oldest nationalist movement in history. The earliest books of the Bible make Palestine the rallying-point of Israel and the Nations. Moses, Isaiah, Malachi, all preached the love of the Holy Land. The Zionism of the Bible is far anterior to the exile of Israel even the first exile. ”

“ It is needless to say that such a statement is as unfounded as the one ascribing to Zionism the pursuance of any other political interest. Zionism is a cause of humanity and justice, altogether remote from any political speculation: it can help the Jews, it can be useful to any country interested in the development of the East, it can be beneficial to all the neighbouring nations. ”

“ Zionism is the best advertised of all present Jewish activities and has exerted a greater influence upon world events than the average man realizes. In its more romantic aspects it makes an appeal to Christian as well as to Jew, because there are certain prophecies which are held to concern the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. ”

“ For a number of decades there has been a movement, partly idealistic, partly practical, for restoring the Jewish race to their ancient territorial home. That movement is known as Zionism, and is strongly supported in the Jewish communities both in Europe and in America. ”

“ The British Government proclaimed its policy of Zionism because it believed that Zionism was identified with the policy and aims for which good men and women are struggling everywhere. That policy is the policy of the Allies in this war. It is the policy to which we are pledged; it is the policy which we believe accords with the wishes of vast numbers of the Jewish people, many of whom have cast wistful eyes to Palestine as again destined to be their national home. ”

“ Zionist theology was utilized against our Palestinian people: the purpose was not only the establishment of Western-style settler colonialism but also the severing of Jews from their various homelands and subsequently their estrangement from their nations. Zionism is an ideology that is imperialist, colonialist, racist ”

“ It is quite useful when there is a revolution in Paris to have the 600 houses which you may own spared by the incendiary mobs—as were Rothschild’s houses. Zionism has been one of the subjects upon which Western and Eastern Jew can unite. ”

“ The directly opposite theory to assimilation is Zionism, the attempt to revive Jewish group life in the ancient homeland of the Jew, to restore the Hebrew tongue, erect a Jewish educational system, Jewish culture, and Jewish agriculture and industry as well. ”

“ Only an imaginative nervousness suggests that the realization of territorial Zionism, in some form, would cause Christendom to round on the Jews and say, ‘Now you have a land of your own, go to it!’ The Jews who feel themselves to be British, French, or American would, doubtless, tend to identify themselves more than ever with the lands of their political allegiance and to become more and more a solely religious community. The rapid changes of nationality that have been so noticeable among Jews in the past would become increasingly discredited. ”

“ MODERN ZIONISM Theodor Herzl—The first conception and the acceptance of Palestine—Max Nordau—The ideas of Modern Zionism.
Zionism, an idea as old as the Jewish nation, preached by the representatives of Jewish thought, accepted and supported by prominent Christians in England and France and elsewhere, expressed and carried into effect in the colonization work in Palestine, was still in need of a great leader. There had been many eminent champions, thinkers and enthusiasts, but no great leader. ”