The Dominion. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1917. THE PROPOSED JEWISH UTOPIA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 68, 13 December 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1917. THE PROPOSED JEWISH UTOPIA

Every age has its drcamors, and its reformers who think about, and toil for, a perfect society—a land where there is immaculate social relationship, a .life free from toil and worry, and an ideally good government. In the days of Henry VIII Sir Thomas More, in his "Utopia," described a land where there were no rich and no poor, no crime and no inducement to crime; where many hours of the day were devoted to culture, and a few to labour, and where everybody was contented and happy. Lord Bacon, in his "New Atlantis," dreamt about such a land, an outstanding featuro of which was its "Solomon's House," from which went forth teachers to guide the people in the way that leads to goodness, happiness, and material prosperity. Robert Owen was a worker as well as a dreamer. He dreamt about a Socialistic paradise, and in his "New Lanark-" in tho Old Land, and in his "New Harmony Community of. Equality" in America, ho sought to realise his dream; but, perverse human nature was too much for him, and his "paradise" ended in "pandemonium.' Our age has its dreamers, great and small, and some of these have como near' our shores. Twenty years ago _ Mr. Lane sailed from Australia with a band of dreamers, some of them from New Zealand, to found a perfect society in "New Paraguay," but again the perverse human nature of the dreamers made tho experiment end in disaster. The greatest dreamers in our day are to be found among the Jews, and the boldest, most picturesque, and most romantic dream of our time is that which proposes to re-settle the Jews in Palestine, and revive aseparate, independent, national Jewish State in Judea- and in the surrounding land. This is the famous Zionist scheme, which finds its opportunity in the British victories in Palestine and in the fall of Jerusalem, and which in some of its aspects has found favour in the eyes of the British Cabinet, and of many distinguished men. As this schcme is thus so very prominently before the world, it may bo well to glanco at

its history, its objccts, and also note the criticism of its Jewish critics. Our modern Zionists contend that their programme to-day is the same as was that of the Jewish patriots of Bible times, who, after the exile in Babylon, sought to reoccupy the land and rebuild the temple. They say they are in the same succession as were the Maccabees, who so heroically fought against Antiochus Ei'H'HANiis, the brutal, crazy, persecuting Scleucid King. This dream of a return to Palestine has never died out of the Jewish mind. History records many attempts to givo it concrete form, and Israel Zanoivm, in his Dreamers oj the Ghetto, tells the story of some of these. Thcso movements in the past have centred round a person who claimed to be the Messiah. Late in the seventeenth century, Sabbatai Tevi rosj up in Smyrna and proclaimed himself and called upon the Jews to return to Palestine. The | Jews then fell down and worshipped him, and in a few months the whole of the Jews throughout Europe were stirred, and hailed him as king. If he had led the way to Jerusalem he would have carried everything before him. But he lacked the power of action. He was arrested by the Turks, and tc save his life apostatized, and became a Mohammedan. The Jews were horrified, and sank into despair, but q, few believed that he was the victim of wrong. In our time there is no Messiah in the Zionist movement. The movement found its inspiration in the cruel, anti-Semite agitation that swept over the Continent of Europe twenty years ago, and which brought frightful loss to tens of thousands of Jews in Germany, France, Austria, Russia, and other places. An - Austrian Jew, Theodore Herzyl, a journalist and playwright, was cut to the soul by the sufferings of those of his own blood. He dreaded further and more terrible persecution, and he concluded that the Jew could not he assimilated in Europe, and that his environment would always be uncongenial. He called for a' : 'new exodus" of th'e Jews. "Let us go." he said, 'to some new land, and set up a self-governing community." Herzyl at first had no definite place in his mind, but as the movement spread Palestine was fixed upon. The movement extended rapidly throughout Europe, and in 1897 an international Jewish Conference was held at Basle, and the following programme adopted:— ' Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law. This end is to he attained by the following means:— 1. The promotion, on suitable lines, of the colonisation of Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers. 2. The organisation and binding together of the whole of Jewry by meanß of appropriate institutions, local and international, in accordance with the laws of each "oimtry. 8. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and consciousness. 4. Preparatory steps towards obtaining Government consont/ where necessary, to the attainment of Zionism.

This programme found speedy and widespread acceptance. A fund was started to buy land. Hbrzyl visited tho East, interviewed the Sultan, Abdul Hamid, with the view of securing land in Palestine. Ho was in Jerusalem in 1898, when the Gorman Kaiser was there, ancl in that monumental book, the Jewish Cyclopaedia, wo have a picturc of Herzyl stating the case of ism to the Kaiser, and the Kaiser promised, with the help of his friend the Sultan, to do what he could to settle the Jews on the land. In this way this pushful German Kaiser sought to exploit Zionism for his own ends. But no largo grant of land could bo got in Palestine in which Zionism could bo. set up on a largo scale, and Herzyl was inclined to look to outside lands. The British Government was asked to grant the Sinai Peninsula, and this would have been done, but tho land was found to be waterless, and thus useless. ' Mr. Chamberlain next offered 6000 acres in the highlands of East Africa, and this would have been agreed to, but the Zionist Congress of 1903, in an angry mood, turned down the proposal, as it looked like abandoning Palestine. Zangwill favoured East Africa, and started a rival organisation. The Zionist movement became hardened by i opposition in favour of Palestine, and it has secured small pieces of land there from Dan to Beersheba, and there are thero forty-five Jewish colonies and a population of 15,000 settled on 110,000 acres. These colonies have dovoloped the economic resources of the land, and are reported to be very successful, lor some time the promoters of this movement have been bursting with expectations that this war would bring about immense developments of their scheme. A Jewish brigade was formed in England to help to conquer Palestine. _ The late Lord Cromer, in reviewing, in tho Spectator of August 12 of last year, Zionism and the Jewish Future (a book that gives a clear statement of the present larger objective of Zionism), said: "It is rapidly becoming a practical issue, and before loi-g politicians will bo unable to brush it aside as a fantastic dream." Ho was a true prophet. Tho British Cabinet has not been too busy to listen to the call of the Zionists.

The Jewish world is by 110 means at one on this idea of having an independent Jewish Utopia in Palestine. The scheme .is very forcefully criticised in the article "Zionism" in that authoritative book The Jewish Cyclopaedia, The objective of the movement has been enlarged since the Basle Conference of 1897, and Zionists now dream of a separate Jewish nation in the East possessing the land promised to Abraham, not extending merely from Dan to Betrsheba, but from the Euphrates to the Nile. The Jewish anti-Zion-ists do not oppose Jewish colonies, for they further Jewish settlements, but they say the goal of the Jews is not separate national existence but assimilation with the Gentiles. The great leader Moses Mendelsohn taught that "a Jew should become as like as possible a Gentile." But such criticisms do not disturb Zionists like Mr. Bentwicic, who writes: "Palestine for nearly 2000 years has been' the object of undying aspirations. The dream of a return has illumined the obscurity of the exile and given a meaning to the sufferings of untold , generations. At "last the dream is to be a reality. The Jew will enter into a new brotherhood with the nations of .the Gentiles."