Egyptian Reaction
The problem of the refugees is one example of how, in our efforts to fulfil the first part of the Balfour Declaration, which advocated the creation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, we have violated the second half, which added " it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." The appearance of the Jewish State has also made nonsense of the final clause of the Declaration, which added, " or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." In all the Arab coun- tries of the Middle East, the indigenous Jewish populations are now subject to varying forms of pressure, which range from forced loans to murder. Egypt is the worst offender, Iraq and the Lebanon so fag the most tolerant. The Egyptian papers contain daily lists of people who have been taken into custody " for security reasons." Many of these are Jews, but not all of them. The war is being made the excuse for arbitrary measures against members of all the minority communities—Greeks, Copts, Armenians and other Christians. Foreign nationals have been attacked and killed. In Iraq, although enthusiasm for the war is at a higher pitch than in the other partici- pating countries, there has been no attack on the Jewish community as a whole. Jewish deputies still sit in Parliament, although Jewish civil servants have in many cases been dismissed. The main manner in which the largely non-Zionist Jewish community is being made to pay for the misdeeds of its Zionist cousins is by way of suspiciously large contributions to the Iraq Army Comforts Fund and so forth. On the whole, though, the situation for the Jewish communities throughout the Arab world might have been much worse than it is. The Arab record towards their minorities is far from perfect, though it is better than the Turks' and better than most Europeans', but the present war is straining tolerance to breaking point and breeding a general xenophobia which makes little distinction between Zionists and non-Zionists, Jews and Gentiles.
