Most people have been trained to think of Zionism in positive terms. This is understandable. Decades of propaganda have misrepresented Zionism as a progressive, modern force bringing civilization to an arid, uninhabited wasteland. Such an image is an illusion. This essay will uncover the true history of Zionism. It will reveal the facts and make clear the real nature of the movement.
"The Jewish question exists. It would be foolish to deny it... The Jewish problem exists wherever Jews live in noticeable numbers. Where it does not exist, it is introduced by Jews who move in... I believe I can understand anti-semitism, which is in many ways a complicated movement. I look on this movement from the standpoint of a Jew - but without hatred or fear. I believe I recognize in anti-semitism what is crude humor, ordinary economic envy, inherited prejudice, religious intolerance - but also what is deemed to be self defense."
"Anti-semitism grows daily, hourly, among the peoples, and must continue to grow since its causes continue to exist, and cannot be alienated."
"The causa remota is the loss, in the Middle Ages, of the ability to assimilate; the cause proxima is our overproduction of middling intelligences, that can neither be drained off, nor rise higher-hence, no healthy draining off, and no healthy rising to a higher level. Downward, we are being proletarianized into revolutionaries; we are the subalterns of every revolutionary party, while at the same time our terrible financial might grows upward."
"Will it not be said that I am putting weapons into the hands of the anti-semites? Why? Because I acknowledge the truth? Because I do not assert that there are none but excellent people among us?"
"It is a national question; to resolve it we must, above all, first make it into a world political question... We are a people, a people..."
"The Jewish State is a world necessity, hence, it will arise..."
"We be given sovereignty over a part of the earth's surface sufficient for the rightful requirements of our people; we shall take care of everything else ourselves."
"No one is strong enough, or rich enough, to move a people from one dwelling place to another. Only an idea can do that. The idea of a state may well have such force."
"No economic disruptions, no crises, nor persecutions will follow after the departing Jews, but rather a period of prosperity will begin for the lands left behind. An internal migration of Christian citizens into the positions surrendered by the Jews takes place. The outlook is gradual, without any jolt, and its very beginning is the end of anti-semitism."
"The Jews leave as respected friends. If individual Jews then return, civilized countries will receive and treat them just as they would treat the citizens of any other foreign country."
"This emigration is no flight, but an orderly withdrawal, under the observation of public opinion. The movement is not only to be organized by completely legal means, it can, in any case, be accomplished only with the friendly collaboration of the participating government, which derives substantial benefit therefrom."
As these paragraphs make clear, to be a Zionist one must believe there is a Jewish problem. No Zionist since Herzl has ever repudiated this basic philosophical premise:
"If we do not admit the rightfulness of anti-semitism, we deny the rightfulness of our own nationalism. If our people is deserving and willing to live its own national life, then it is an alien body that insists on its own distinctive identity, reducing the domain of their life. It is right, therefore, that they should fight against us for their national integrity.... Instead of establishing societies for defense against the anti-semites who want to reduce our rights, we should establish societies for defense against our friends who desire to defend our rights." (Jacob Klatzkin, co-editor of the Encylopaedia Judaica)
"Now what is the capacity as regards population of Palestine within any reasonable period of time?...What is to become of the people of this country, assuming the Turk to be expelled, and the inhabitants not to have been exterminated by the war? There are over a half a million of these, Syrian Arabs- a mixed community with Arab, Hebrew, Canaaite, Greek, Egyptian, and possibly Crusaders' blood. They own the soil, which belongs either to individual landowners or to village communities. They profess the Mohammedan faith. They will not be content either to be expropriated for Jewish immigrants, or to act merely as hewers of wood and drawers of water to the latter."
"'When Herzl had spoken of a Charter (from the Sultan) he had not, needless to say, contemplated any eviction of the Arabs of Palestine in favor of the Jews. He was, to judge from his Congress addresses, hardly aware that Palestine had settled inhabitants, and he had, in perfect good faith, omitted the Arabs from his calculations.'"( Zionism, Leonard Stein.)
"Was there ever anything more extraordinary than this? Vast plans are made engaging the destinies of a multitude of people, yet the man who engenders these plans never takes the essential first step of surveying the land where he purposes to carry them out. Nor apparently do any of his associates suggest it to him. There might be no Arabs in the world for all the difference it makes to him or to his associates."
"Year by year Zionist congresses are summoned... Was a single day's session of a single Congress devoted to the discussion of the understanding which must be reached with the people of Palestine? Not one."
"There were nineteen Jewish colonies established in Palestine before the year 1900... All these trusts and colonies and the people who inhabited them were in regular continuous communication with Jewish bodies and persons throughout Europe and America..."
"In a hundred ways the conditions prevailing in Palestine and the existence of the Arabs and the varying ways in which the Arabs reacted to existing colonies and to the promise of more colonies must have been known to all active Zionists."
"The only conclusion then, and it is a conclusion forced upon the observer, is that if Zionism was unaware of the Arabs it was because most Zionists perceived an obstacle in the Arabs and did not want to be aware to them. (Palestine: The Reality, J.M.N. Jeffries, pp. 40-42.)
"The districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, hama, homs, and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from the proposed limits and boundaries. With the above modification, and without prejudice to our existing treaties with Arab chiefs, we accept these limits and boundaries..."
"Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognize and support the independence of the Arabs within the territories included in the limits and boundaries proposed by the Shereef of Mecca." (Palestine: The Reality, op. cited,p.76.)
British politicians later pretended that the pledge given by Sir Henry McMahon did not include Palestine. They are impeached by a secret Political Intelligence Department Memorandum on British Commitments to King Hussein. On page 9 the Memorandum states:
"With regard to Palestine, His Majesty's Government are committed by Sir H. McMahon's letter to the Sherif on the 24th October, 1915 to its inclusion in the boundaries of Arab independence."
Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothchild
"I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the cabinet.
"His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a National home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
"There is no better proof of the value of the Balfour Declaration as a military more than the fact that Germany entered into negotiations with Turkey in an endeavor to provide an alternative scheme which would appeal to Zionists. A German-Jewish Society, the V.J.O.D. was formed, and in January 1918, Talaat, the Turkish Grand Vizier, at the instigation of the Germans, gave vague promises of legislation by means of which "all justifiable wishes of the Jews in Palestine would be able to meet their fulfillment".
"Another most cogent reason for the adoption by the Allies of the policy of the Declaration lay in the state of Russia herself. Russian Jews had been secretly active on behalf of the Central Powers from the first; they had become the chief agents of German pacifist propaganda in Russia; by 1917 they had done much in preparing for that general disintegration of Russian society, later recognized as the Revolution. It was believed that if Great Britain declared for the fulfillment of Zionist aspirations in Palestine under her own pledge, one effect would be to bring Russian Jewry to the cause of the entente."
"It was believed, also, that such a declaration would have a potent influence open world Jewry outside Russia, and secure for the entente the aid of Jewish financial interests. In America, their aid in this respect would have a special value when the Allies had almost exhausted the gold and marketable securities available for American purchase. Such were the chief considerations which, in 1917, impelled the British Government towards making a contract with Jewry." (Memoirs of the Peace Conference, David Lloyd George, p. 726.)
"Mr. James A. Malcolm... spontaneously took the initiative, to convince first of all Sir Mark Sykes, Under-Secretary to the War Cabinet, and afterwards M. Georges-Picot, of the French Embassy in London, and M. Gout of the Quai d'Orsay (Eastern Section), that the best and perhaps the only way (which proved so to be) to induce the American President to come into the War was to secure the co-operation of Zionist Jews by promising them Palestine, and thus enlist and mobilize the hitherto unsuspectedly powerful forces of Zionist Jews in America and elsewhere in favor of the Allies on a quid pro quo contract basis..."
"The Balfour Declaration, in the words of Prof. H.M.V. Temperley, was a 'definite contract between the British Government and Jewry' (History of the Peace Conference in Paris, vol 6, p.173). The main consideration given by the Jewish people (represented at the time by the leaders of the Zionist Organization) was their help in bringing President Wilson to the aid of the Allies." (Great Britain, The Jews and Palestine, pp.3-6.)
"This too, memorable document is not so much a sentence of English as a verbal mosaic. Drafts for it traveled back and forth, within England or over the Ocean, to be scrutinized by some two score draftsmen half co-operating, half competing with one another, who erased this phrase or adopted that after much thought. At long last, out of the store of their rejections and of their acceptances the final miscellany was chosen, ratified and fixed. There never has been a proclamation longer prepared, more carefully produced, more consciously worded."
Whatever is to be found in the Balfour Declaration was put into it deliberately. There are no accidents in that text. If there is any vagueness in it this is an intentional vagueness.
"....this nationally issued and nationally endorsed document was nothing but a calmly planned piece of deception." (Palestine: The Reality, J.M.N. Jeffries, pp.)
"...it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious nights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."
"At the time of the Balfour Declaration the population of Palestine was 90% Arab and 10% Jew.
"Before this unpalatable reality, what did the framers of the Balfour Declaration do? By an altogether abject subterfuge, under colour of protecting Arab interests, they set out to conceal the fact that the Arabs to all intents constituted the population of the country. It called them the 'non-Jewish communities in Palestine'! It called the multitude the non-few; it called the 670,000 the non-60,000; out of a hundred it called the 91 the non-9. You might just as well call the British people 'the non-Continental communities in Great Britain'. It would be as suitable to define the mass of working men as 'the non-idling communities in the world,' or the healthy as the "non-bedridden elements amongst sleepers,' or the sane as 'the non-lunatic section of thinkers' - or the grass of the countryside as 'the non-dandelion portion of the pastures'." (ibid, pp. 177-178.)
"The crux arrives with 'civil rights'. What are 'civil rights'? All turns on this point. If civil rights remain undefined it is only a mockery to guarantee them. To guarantee anything, and at the same time not to let anyone know what it is, that is Alice in Wonderland legislation. 'I guarantee your civil rights', said the White Queen to Alice in Palestineland. 'Oh, thank you!' said Alice, 'what are they, please?' 'I'm sure I can't tell you, my dear,' said the White Queen, 'but I'll guarantee very hard.'" (ibid, p.179)
"It will be recognized from the foregoing that my own authority and that of every department of my Administration is claimed or impinged upon by the Zionist Commission, and I am definitely of opinion that this state of affairs cannot continue without grave danger to the public peace and to the prejudice of my Administration."
"It is no use saying to the Moslem and Christian elements of the population that our declaration as to the maintenance of the status quo on our entry into Jerusalem has been deserved. Facts witness otherwise: the introduction of the Hebrew tongue as an official language; the setting up of a Jewish judicature the whole fabric of Government of the Zionist Commission, of which they are well aware; the special traveling privileges to members of the Zionist Commission; these have firmly and absolutely convinced the non-Jewish elements of our partiality. On the other hand, the Zionist Commission accuses me and my officers of anti-Zionism. The situation is intolerable, and in justice to my officers and myself must be fairly faced."
"This Administration has loyally earned out the wishes of His Majesty's Government, and has succeeded in so doing by strict adherence to the laws governing the conduct of the Military Occupant of Enemy Territory, but this has not satisfied the Zionists, who appear bent on committing the temporary Military Administration to a partialist policy before the issue of the Mandate. It is manifestly impossible to please partisans who politically claim nothing more than a "National Home", but in reality will be satisfied with nothing less than a Jewish State and all that it politically implies."
"I recommend therefore, in the interests of peace, of development, of the Zionists themselves, that the Zionist Commission in Palestine be abolished." (ibid,p.359)
"Zionist colonization must either be terminated or carried out against the wishes of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power independent of the native population - an iron wall, which will be in a position to resist the pressure to the native population. This is, in toto, our policy towards the Arabs... A voluntary reconciliation with the Arabs is out of the question either now or in the future."
"If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison for the land, or find some 'rich man' or benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else-or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempt to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not "difficult', not 'dangerous', but IMPOSSIBLE!...Zionism is a colonization adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important.... to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot - or else I am through with playing at colonizing."
"If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second alternative. For we must weigh not only the life of these children, but also the history of the People of Israel." (Yoar-Gelber, Zionist Policy and the Fate of European Jewry (1939-42), Yad Vashem Studies, vol. XII,p.199.)