ZIONISM AND TIIE ARABS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Your leading article on Lord Balfour's visit to Palestine is written in the traditional style of the Spectator of fair play to everybody. There are only one or two passages to which any exception can be taken at all. You say that the one object of statesmanship should be to discourage the Jews
from following up the successes they have had so far in Palestine with anything like arrogance or want of sympathy towards the Arabs. In all fairness to our people, may I ask you what arrogance have we shown towards the Arabs up till now ? • If you call it arrogance that Zionists have openly proclaimed to the world that they intend to make Palestine their Homeland, then we are certainly guilty of the charge ;
but when have our people, since they were driven out of Palestine, said otherwise ? By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept. How can we sing Zion's songs in a strange land 7 May our right hand be withered if we forget thee, 0 Jerusalem ! Years ago, when that great Jew, Dr. Herz4 came on the scene, we translated our desire to return to
Palestine in a political way from Congress to Congress, without'
the slightest protest from the Arabs. And even when Lord. Balfour made his declaration there was not the slightest protest from the Arabs. There would have been none to-day.
if the agitators would have left the Arabs alone.But if Englishmen think that the agitation is mainly against the" Jews, they are making a great mistake. We could make
an entente to-morrow with the Arabs if we should only say, the word that we do not want England to be the mandatory
Power ! 1 Twice during the last seven or eight years we have placed our everything, for a fact our whole future, in the hands of
England. Once in 1917-18, that vital year of the War when. the fortunes of the Allies hung on a thread. We then had a more firm offer with regard to Palestine from Germany.! Still we chose England. Again at Versailles, when France, was most anxious to get the Mandate for Palestine, we begged the Powers to give it to England—and I do not think France' has forgiven us since. Who knows what all this may mean to the British Empire ? Perhaps the same as fifty years, ago, when a great Jew and a great Conservative leader, Lord Beaconsfield, saved India for the Empire by securing the Suez Canal for England. Another great Conservative leader, Lord Balfour, has again made India secure by his. Declaration. The majority of Englishmen did not realize then the greatness of Lord Beaconsfield's stroke, and I am afraid they do not realize now the greatness of Lord Balfour's stroke..
Either Lord Balfour's Declaration means that ultimately Palestine will become a Jewish State, just as Canada is a Canadian State, or it means nothing at all. If the first, then. every encouragement should be given to us by England., During the last two or three years we have been hindered by an Alien Emigration Bill for Palestine, and by being made to pay through the nose for every acre of Crown land, even marsh land, while thousands of acres of Crown land have been given free to the Arabs 1 If, on the other hand, Lord Balfour's declaration simply means nothing—or only a pious wish that our people should go to Palestine and have a spiritual home—we should be told. Myself and a good many more Zionists would then still stick to the late lamented Dr. Herzl's policy—not a penny for Palestine till our ancient rights are recognized.—I am, Sir, &c., SOL. GOLDBERG. ' 19 Cowper Street, Leeds.
[We fear that Mr. Goldberg's aspirations arc precisely what Englishmen will never approve. The Balfour Declaration expressly provided for the preservation of the rights of the Arabs.—En. Spectator.]
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