AMERICA AND THE PALESTINE PROBLEM
By ERWIN D. CANHAM
Washington. DESPITE—and, one might truly add, because of— extreme pressure from many American Jews, the United States Government is most unlikely to intervene in any way in the Palestine situation. Jews here have, of course, been very active in protest. They have been joined by a few other interested persons and newspapers. But by and large American opinion is little interested in the issue, and unwilling to increase any of Great Britain's problems at this time. The most general non-Jewish view is simply that the British Government had a hard choice, and that there is little ground for condemnation in so thorny a dilemma.
There are numerous reasons why the Administration is unlikely to take any action. The first is that there is no in- clination to imply or accept any responsibility in Palestine by interposing official views or protests. On October i4th, 1938, Secretary Hull said—and reiterated on May i8th, 1939—that " it is expected that this Government will have an opportunity to submit its views to the British Government with respect to any changes affecting American rights which may be proposed in the Palestine Mandate." But this was simply a form of words, implying no action. The second reason for complete aloofness is the Administration's con- tinuing desire to place no obstacles in Britain's path in these difficult days. And a third and very strong inner-political reason is that the Administration does not wish to expose itself more than it can possibly help to the charge that it is dominated by Jewish influences. There is enough trouble on this score already, and the flames of fanatical racial feeling are already flickering in certain fetid corners of the American scene.
The problems of Jewish political and nationalistic feeling are seriously troubling thoughtful Jews here. The numerous lunatic-fringe Anti-Semitic organisations recently uncovered and investigated by the Dies Committee of the House of Representatives are in themselves not particularly serious. But under the stress of a new crisis, a new depression, a reaction from the Roosevelt Administration, this anti-Jewish feeling might be the cement to hold together what has just been called Star-Spangled Fascism. It is fantastic to assume—as a note by Janus recently observed in The Spectator—that American public opinion is turning from President Roosevelt because he appointed numerous Jews to high public office, and has been actively anti-Nazi. No such reaction is taking place. But every so often in Ameri- can history a wave of racial or religious fanaticism arises. In the post-War period anti-Semitism was sponsored and financed by Henry Ford in his Dearborn Independent of ill-fated memory. In 1924 the revived Ku Klux Klan, which was anti-Roman Catholic rather than anti-Jewish, was a real political factor in a score of States. But these moments of fanaticism did not also coincide with world crisis or severe depression. So it is not possible to dismiss the various lunatic-fringe movements today as of no significance.
Intelligent Jews, as well as their friends, are alert to the situation, and that is one reason why they deplored a passionate outcry over Palestine policy. The case was thoughtfully expressed by Rabbi Lazaron of Baltimore, one of the most distinguished of conservative Jews, when he wrote to the Baltimore Sun: "My association with Zionism meant much to me. . . . These latter years, however, I have watched with growing concern the emphasis upon political and Diaspora nationalism among Jews, with its dangerous repercussions here (italics mine, E. D. C.). I have seen the Palestine cause drawn into the game of international politics, and made the football of British-German-Italian imperialism. I have suffered with the tragic dilemma of our people in Palestine as increasingly they became victims of forces beyond their control. I have watched the dis- illusionment of those whose hopes had been raised too high.
" As an American Jew of many generations, I am par- ticularly concerned with the possible deleterious influences which the philosophy and programme of secular Jewish nationalism have set in motion here. Integration into American life has been inhibited and delayed. To the factors working from without to ghetto-ise us, and over which we have no control, unfortunately we have added and created our own. Emotional and intellectual reactions among Jews have been developed which have caused our fellow-citizens to misunderstand us. The universal ideas and ethical verities of Judaism which are the bases of all religion in our Western World have been swamped by the secular-nationalistic and the particularistic so that our very reason for being has become obscured in the minds of Jews and non-Jews alike."
Rabbi Lazaron counsels the Jewish Agency in Palestine to drop its political motivation, and be constituted an economic instrument for the development of the land. " Any Jewish polity in Palestine," he says, " whenever created, will always be at the mercy of contending international forces. But a cultural-religious homeland will not be thus con- stantly in danger. And a cultural homeland has already been created. No empire can destroy it. It exists in a settlement half a million strong. It exists in the hearts of Jews all over the world."
These views strike a more responsive chord in most American thinking than the militant and passionate claims of the political Zionists. They point to more complete " integration into American life," which is one of the answers to anti-Semitism here. The lunatic fringe in the United States doubtless depends on economic factors more than anything else, and as a recent writer said, " the country is due for some discomforting, and perhaps pro- longed, attacks of ideological indigestion."
The American (or star-spangled) Fascists whom I men- tioned are a fantastic lot. Chief among them is retired Major- General George Van Horn Moseley. His frankly confessed plan—one among many—is to elect a sympathetic Presi- dent, have the President summon the Governors of the 48 States to the White House on the day of his inauguration, detain them in the spacious East Room, and persuade them to sign proclamations of martial law in their various States. " With these requests in hand," the General told an inter- viewer from the Saturday Evening Post, " the President will call out the Army and the National Guard, and tell them that he wants the country thoroughly cleaned of Reds and Red sympathisers. (In Fascist terminology, ' Red ' is partly synonymous with ' Jew.') From that point, if he's a wise man, he'll let the boys go to it."
Happily, this sort of thinking is being let out into the air and light of day, where American common sense can laugh at it. But more than laughing is required. World issues are involved. As Gen. Moseley continued: " The German- American Bund will see to it that America is not taken over by the Reds." Well, Americans are forewarned and ready, and Republicans, Democrats, or New Dealers—on this issue at least—are prepared to do their own hard thinking.
Previous page
