But the essential problem of modern political evolution lies deeper than this: it is the problem of the peoples that have been robbed of their lands. No matter how the position of the Jews may be ameliorated, and although many Jews may find a home here and there, nevertheless the genius of the Jewish people, the energy of its constructive power, its creative force will have no adequate means of expression. To have a strong impulse to live their own full life and not to be able to do so—that is the heart-breaking tragedy of this people. This essential dilemma is left untouched by the vague formula of Emancipation. Zionism is the only remedy for the deeper Jewish problem, because Zionism alone goes to the real root of the trouble. There can be no Emancipation worthy of the name without a homeland. The greatest danger to Zionism as well as to anti-Zionism is that the ideal of Zionism on the one hand and that of Emancipation on the other should be separated, and that people should come to regard as antagonistic objects which are essentially related and complementary to one another. Not all Jews will return to Palestine, but large numbers will. Zionism represents one of the highest manifestations of that aspiration to free national existence which is the basis of the reconstruction of the world. When a people, uprooted for centuries from its soil, scattered like dust over the whole world, wants to restore its homeland to-day, to have a land where it can be reunited, then we have before us a proof of the new power that lies in the national idea. Millions of Jews are attached to Palestine with all their soul and strength, just as on the first day of the forced expulsion of their ancestors from their old home: their prayers, their lamentations, their dreams have centred for generations upon this magnetic pole of their love and reverence. Hundreds of times they made desperate efforts to return, but were prevented by powerful circumstances from doing so, and as soon as they had the opportunity of beginning again the re-settlement of Palestine, notwithstanding unspeakable sufferings and the greatest sacrifices, they instantly and energetically availed themselves of it. If the millions of Jewish emigrants who formed the new ghettoes of Europe and America from about 1880 to now had had the possibility of going to Palestine, they would have gladly seized it, because they wished to live as a nation, but that was not possible at that time. Israel must have its own home. Palestine must become the spiritual and cultural centre of the Jews. Properly developed, it can hold millions of homeless Jews who will at last have their own homeland and their own full nationality. If it is a misfortune for a people to be robbed of its country, where it could live in peace and prosperity as a nation and enjoy in common with the rest of the family of nations the fruits of its labour, then this misfortune is not smaller but rather has become greater for having existed two thousand years. If it is an injustice to withhold from a people a land to which they have a right, then this injustice is not the smaller, but rather the greater, when a people has suffered it for two thousand years. Never has a nation governed its own home for a longer period; no nation’s history, religion, literature, and traditions are more closely bound up with its land; and no nation has ever suffered a more terrible martyrdom after having been disinherited. Can anyone doubt the right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel? The validity of the Jewish title to Palestine rests on the same basis as the title of any nation to any particular area of the world where it has ruled and existed for centuries. The Jews’ historical right on the Land of Israel, with due consideration for the rights and interests of the non-Jewish population which will be safe-guarded and respected, must become the decisive factor in the question of Palestine.
At last the time has come. The spirit of freedom is on the wing, the Great Creative Spirit is once more moving among the nations. The new territorial settlement is going to lay the foundations of the world’s peace on a basis of justice and national union. The liberation of oppressed nationalities, the restoration of territories violently annexed in the past, the recognition of the desire of racial units and groups for autonomy are the great objects in view. The wrongs of the centuries are going to be righted, and the Jewish race to be placed on an equal footing with other races. The Jewish people is standing at a momentous turning point in its history of four thousand years, to which the determined labour of Zionism has paved the way. The very roots of Jewish nationality are set in that soil which after being for ages in shadow is again turning to light. With the victory of the national idea Zionism also has won a victory. Now that Palestine is freed, much is possible which formerly was only an aspiration. The field is immense and ready. The evil demon of the Pharaohs and of Antiochus Epiphanes has been cast out; the glorious genius of Cyrus the Great hovers with wings of love over the wonderful destiny of the Jewish people. Powerful nations and governments—the guardians of freedom and the champions of justice—have solemnly pledged themselves to further with all the forces at their disposal the revival of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel. Under this guiding symbol the problem of Palestine will be discussed and settled by the Peace Conference among all the important questions before it. The work is stupendous in its implications and its responsibilities. No one imagines that this result can be speedily attained. Its accomplishment will take time, and quite possibly a long time. To restore a scattered people to a land long neglected is not an easy task. The Jewish colonization of Palestine must be carefully built, stone upon stone, by the steady hands of Zionists with that spirit of self-sacrificing endurance which saved our nationality, with wisdom and self-restraint. Zionists are aware of what the Holy Places of Palestine, places of traditional associations and religious faith, consecrated by a thousand cherished memories, are to the great religions. These places will receive equal respect; they will be, not less, but more than hitherto reverently exalted as places of the rarest and sweetest memories in the world. Zionists have the most scrupulous regard for all spiritual things and needs of all religions, and are confident that all Holy Places will be safeguarded by arrangements to be introduced. Zionists are also alive to the legitimate interests and needs of the non-Jewish population, whose liberty and welfare, in peace and harmony and mutual respect, are most essential for the success of the Jewish national rebirth. The new Jewish centre must be made worthy of its glorious past. The noblest ambitions of Jews all over the world are concentrated on this point.
Zionists have now an opportunity never dreamt of—an opportunity that may never return. The Jewish masses, all those who want to live their own life, the clean, free life of farmers and settlers, will be enabled to cultivate all the possibilities of their nature. Industry, art, and science are to join hands in this great work. The long-desired goal of the Jewish people, the rehabilitation of the old national home in the land of their fathers, is nearing realization. This is a great historical event which must touch and stimulate the imagination of all for whom history, right of nations, and justice for small nationalities have any meaning or any message. Ancient Israel, reawakened to new life, is preparing itself to enter the family of nations as a small but free nation in its old home.
Zionism is not a mere abstract idea. It is connected by every bond with modern democracy and aspirations for liberty. All peoples for whom democracy is not a vain word owe it moral and material support. The Peace Conference must permit it to attain its ends. The League of Nations will not be complete if the oldest and most oppressed Jewish nationality will not have its place there. Of all the consequences of the Great War and the still greater Victory, none could be invested with so splendid a degree of romance as the re-establishment of Israel. Of all the small nations which shall spring full fledged from this world crisis, none will have so ancient a claim, so fascinating a history as the Hebrew people reinstalled among the consecrated hills of Judah and by the sacred waters of Galilee. This will be an everlasting memorial to the principle for which the free peoples of the earth have made the greatest sacrifice in the history of the human race. And the names of all those who have given their support and help towards this work of Peace, Justice, and Liberty will live for ever in the annals of the world and of Israel.
APPENDICES
B. M.: British Museum Library.
I. S.: Israel Solomons’ Collection.
I.
The Prophets and the Idea of a National Restoration