ARAB AND JEW
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sm,—Although the suggested solution of the Palestine difficulties put forward by Prebendary Wilson Cash in your last issue is not likely to secure sufficient acceptance to make it practicable, no one who has given thought to the problems of Palestine will disagree with his conclusion that " The present situation is impossible " and the more the sug- gested solution by Partition is considered the more widespread is the opinion that it " offers no permanent solution." It is very doubtful whether it offers even a temporary one. Partition can succeed only if Jew and Arab agree in all sincerity to make it work, and if such an agreement were obtained it could equally well be applied to an alternative in which the very strong objections, independent altogether of Arab-Jewish relations, do not arise. You yourself say that " the possibility of a voluntary agreement between the two parties cannot be completely excluded," but then continue with undue pessimism that such an agreement is " wholly improbable." But is this so ? The Report of the Royal Commission opened a new era in Palestinian affairs, and since the issue of that report the possibility of Arab-Jewish agreement has not been explored. After all, Palestine means a great deal to many Jews and many Arabs and there is an apparently growing number of both that are prepared to sacrifice some at least of their supposed sectional interests to the welfare of their country as a whole. During the past six months a number of tentative schemes have been put forward which, not satisfying the extremists on either side, promise all Palestirlians a greater part if not the whole of the conditions that the,slain man wants—complete liberty and as full an opportunity for happiness and prosperity as the country can afford, without the risk of domination by one race or the other. It has even been suggested that the " Jewish National Home," in the sense of the Churchill White Paper of 1922, of Ahad Ha'Am, the Philosopher of Zionism, and even of Dr. Weizmann himself certainly not many years ago, is compatible with a Palestine, neither Jewish nor Arab but Palestinian, in which the Arab citizens also would be free, without risk of domination by- Jews.—Yours obediently, ALBERT M. HYAMSON. Teignmouth Road, N.W.2.
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