Still, questions were naturally asked as to the condition of the soil of Palestine and the possibilities of expansion. It was also repeatedly asked, whether the Jews would be capable of hard pioneer work in the sphere of agriculture. These questions have been answered in a series of [♦]pamphlets and articles by such authorities as Colonel Claude Reignier Conder, General Sir Charles Warren, and others. They have shown that Palestine is capable of supporting a nation such as the Jews. Men who for many years had made the scientific exploration of Palestine their sole aim, whose judgment in the matter must be universally admitted to be decisive, have given testimony to the fact that the land “may be made one vast garden, not merely by rebuilding the great aqueducts, remains of which still exist, and by means of which the great cities were watered, but by means of the Jordan river itself.” They also affirmed that “the time has at last arrived to restore the desolations of Zion, and to rebuild the wasted places of the land of Israel.” Some of them referred to the Scriptures, but others dealt with the matter from a purely scientific point of view. They suggested the formation of a company similar to the old East India Company to administer Palestine (Appendix lxxiii).
[♦] “pamphets” replaced with “pamphlets”
In brief, all these English Christian authorities put forward in the most definite and clearest terms what we know as political Zionism.
These testimonies of English authorities concerning Palestine encouraged the “Lovers of Zion” in England to carry on their philanthropic work, and also to take certain political steps. A great and far-reaching step was taken by them in 1893, when a petition to Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey (1876–1909), was presented by Mr. Samuel Montagu, M.P. (afterwards Lord Swaythling) (1832–1911), to the Earl of Rosebery, with a request to transmit it to Constantinople (Appendix lxxiv). The petition was signed by the officers of the Executive Committee and the secretaries of each Tent of the “Lovers of Zion.” It had no effect, because negotiations with the Turkish Government are generally very tardy, and the circumstances of the time were not favourable. There were obstacles, difficulties, uncertain political influences, currents and counter-currents which could not be got rid of immediately. But at any rate the English “Lovers of Zion” endeavoured to do precisely what the Zionists did at a later period.
CHAPTER XLI.
THE “LOVERS OF ZION” IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND
The work in France—Baron Edmond de Rothschild and his activity in the colonization of Palestine—The effects in England—Colonel A. E. W. Goldsmid—Elim d’Avigdor.
To come back to France, it is significant that whilst England took the first place in the propaganda of the idea, its practical progress was due to French Jewry, or, to be more precise, to an individual French Jew. The work of the “Lovers of Zion” entered upon a new period when Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris started his great activity in the colonization of Palestine in 1895–1896.
Baron Edmond de Rothschild is one of the most honoured figures of Jewish contemporary history. Born to an exalted station in life and to a large fortune, he has devoted the best of his life and of his thought neither to pleasure nor to personal advancement, but to the furtherance of the material and moral well-being of the oppressed Jewish people. It is not too much to say that he has acquired a world-wide fame as a philanthropist, and that his name is indissolubly connected with all the greatest achievements of the Jews in Palestine. He is pre-eminently the friend of the persecuted and the outcast, without distinction of nationality or creed, and his generous sympathies and ceaseless efforts on behalf of his brethren entitle him to the foremost rank in the illustrious roll of Jewish leaders. His philanthropic enthusiasm can be traced to his profound Jewish national feeling.
Recent improvement in the condition of Jewish life in Palestine is due to many causes and to the efforts of many men, but to none more than to the noble work of Baron Edmond. He was not the originator of the idea of colonizing Palestine, but he carried it further than any of his predecessors or contemporaries, and he is responsible for developments beyond any that they conceived. His activity should serve as the grandest example of what can be accomplished when work is undertaken for the sake of a great ideal and carried out with staunch conviction. The creation of a sound Jewish settlement in Palestine is his vocation and his life-work. Nor is it the least interesting feature in his character, or the least honourable incident of his career, that the idea took hold of him at a time when there was every reason for even a generous man to dissociate himself from such thankless work.