The creation of a sound, strong Jewish agricultural class.
In this way Zionism will establish a Jewish society, bound together by similarity of feeling and unity of common ideas, working out its destiny in its own way. Zionists want a commonwealth of Jewish colonization and labour, a settlement of Jewish pioneers and workers who will be able to create and to develop a civilization of their own, undisturbed by any restrictions. This is possible only in Palestine, and is the paramount necessity of the whole Jewish people all over the world.
The creation of a settlement of this kind will help the Jews economically, but how much and how quickly it will help depends on the intensity of the work. It may be slow work, but it will be fundamental work. It is the foundation-stone for a great structure. Palestine may even become the home of considerable masses of Jews. But in any case the creation of a national home for the Jews will raise their prestige among the nations. It will never be an obstacle in the way of rights; on the contrary, it will help in this direction also.
On the spiritual and intellectual side this work will undoubtedly bring about a great revival of Judaism. Judaism will be no mere abstraction, but something real and living. “Jewish science” or Hebrew studies will not be merely a careful post-mortem analysis, to be undertaken exclusively by scholars and specialists. These studies will appear as the unbroken chain of the common cultural heritage of a living nation.
Zionists are under no misapprehension as to the gravity of the difficulties which may confront them. But they will meet these difficulties as serious men inspired by a great ideal and with a just cause. With a clear and distinct purpose in view, Zionists desire to work in full harmony with all the friends of Justice and Liberty and Truth, and while striving for the rescue of their own people they would not only not interfere with any just principle or cause injury to any patriotic aspiration of any other nation; they would accommodate and co-ordinate their cause with others. It is in this sense that we speak of “political Zionism.”
History shows that the Zionist idea and the continual renewal of efforts in this direction have been a tradition with the English people for centuries. English Christians taught the undying principles of Jewish nationality. Zionism was thus permanently connected with England. The Jewish national idea has always particularly appealed to English feeling, has touched the heart of the English nation. The facts and records disprove the absurd yet deeply rooted idea that Zionism is only a vision of sectarians or a hallucination of dreamers. The documents cited in this volume give ample and convincing proof of the high moral dignity and political value of the Zionist cause as championed by prominent English thinkers, men of letters and poets throughout many generations. 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. Thus the present Zionist movement is essentially a logical conclusion of all the premises which have been accepted from different points of view, not only by a considerable number of Jewish authorities, but also by public opinion in great civilized countries of Western Europe. Zionists, therefore, hope that English Christians will be worthy heirs and successors to the Earl of Shaftesbury, George Eliot, and many others; English Jews to Sir Moses Montefiore, French Christians to Henri Dunant, and French Jews to Joseph Salvador, Bernard Lazare, and others. One may also hope that as Zionism is not a source of conflicting element but a source of peace and unity, all the nations of the world will be open to conviction and will give strong support to its aims.
Zionism has started its work in Palestine, and will pursue it. Recognising the aspirations of the Jewish people with regard to Palestine and their historic rights, the British Government on November 2nd, 1917, made the well-known Declaration. This Declaration had been anticipated by the letter from the French Government of 4th June, 1917, and was fully endorsed in the letter from M. Stephen Pichon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to myself, dated 14th February, 1918, and the letter to me communicating the concurrence of the Italian Government with these declarations, dated 9th May, 1918. (See Volume II., pp. 1 ff.) It will be the task of Zionism to accumulate by every effort the resources, material and moral, required for this purpose. Those Jews who are not yet in the movement will be brought into it by time and experience, because there is indeed no argument against this peaceful idea of national justice, except pure and unscrupulous prejudice, which must disappear. But Zionism is anxious to have also the moral support of the nations, and particularly in this country it is impossible for any Jew with a historic consciousness to forget the noble Zionist tradition of England during many centuries. Some of the most glorious pages in British history have been those in which she took a part, and an honourable and leading part, in the revival of ancient nations. The friends of Greece, of Italy, cannot forget this record.
Zionists can define only what they need. They need not only to continue their work, but to develop it on the largest possible scale. They want to do the peaceful work of agriculturists, craftsmen and intellectuals. They are ready to invest capital, energy and intelligence in order to establish a home for the Jews. Palestine is to be re-made. To this end national autonomy safeguarding the welfare of a Jewish Palestine is needed.
Let humanity do for Palestine only a small part of what has been done so liberally for the most exotic colony—nay, less than that, because Zionists ask for no material support, and for no embarrassing responsibility. They ask only for sympathetic consideration and help, for recognition and protection. And let humanity be sure of the loyalty of a people which, although sorely tried, has never grown cold in its affections, a people which by its resurrection will become again what it was in very ancient times, not a military power but a spiritual and peaceful power. Then the time will come when this people’s gratitude will recognize its indebtedness to the world for the co-operation which will assist its great and just cause.