OF PALESTINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20656, 30 August 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

OF PALESTINE.

BY KATANGA.

TALE OF EXILE AND HOMING.

Once mere, this time by reason of a report, of the Mandates Commission and an answering memorandum of the British Government, the great little land of Palestine lies in the spot-light of universal thought, and in the hearts of many rapt observers i;j a sense of pain. It is in part the pain of disappointment. Ten years ago there seemed to be a brighter era dawning iri that land, but to-day there is much to suggest that its troubles, enduring for poignant centuries, are by no moans over. Still rages on the ancient battle-ground tho vexing fight between hopes and despairs. When this decade opened, all tho world was sharing a gladness singing in Jewish hearts at the prospect of a restoration to visible nationhood. Tho great war that swept all civilisation into its eddies had brought a wave of fresh hope to Palestine. The stranglehold of the perfidious, cruel Turk had boen broken. The Allied hosts, most fitly represented by Britain, ever the best friend of the Jow, had carried the last crusade through the gates of tho Holy City. A British declaration, assuring a foothold for homing Hebrews, had been ratified by international approval, and under that endorsement a mandate had been accepted by Britain to administer the rescued territory with equitable regard for their hopes. All looked well. There came a confidence that in this land of lands, so long distraught, would bo incarnate a sweeter, saner spirit, destined again to bless mankind. Armageddon, at last, was to feel the gracious sway of the City of Peace. Alas, it was not to bo. Many days must pass before the conflict between the darkness. and the light can there be over. But tho hope of its end, a hope shadowed anew in these days, springs eternal. A Land of Lands. The wonderful endurance of that hope is itself a fact of promise. How tenaciously it has been held! The land itself, judged by common standards, is so little worth possessing that not in it can explanation be found of tliia • tenacity. A mere strip of jagged heights and valleys, terraced here and there with garclen pleasances that human toil has made at the cost of superhuman effort; a sinuous gulch down which ail impetuous stream rushes to an inglorious end in a land-locked sea where life is swallowed by waiting death; a country of tragic tramplings by adjacent tyrannies, its bread won by continuous battle with the desert and the sun, and its existence little more than a series of fitful resurrections: that is Palestine as secular history takes account of it. But there is another Palestine, persisting though often strangely forgotten. From this tiny land, so torn and vexed, has come an unmatched inspiration for the world. Its blood-drenched soil has held secure the seed of mighty growths, trees whose leaves are " for the healing of the nations." By its arid, rugged pathway the powerful peoples of three continents have interchanged their various wares, and to them all" it has given the stimulus of its divine and practical evangel. There is no land its fellow in human interest and influence. A visit to it is the great sacramental experience of every true traveller, and to its holy places there is an unbroken pilgrimage of reverent thought from every nation under heaven. What its influence has been, and still is, was well described by Newman: If Greece was born to teach art and philosophy, and Rome to diffuse the processes of law and government, eurely Judea has been the well-spring of religious wisdom to a world besotted by frivolous or impure fancies. To these three nations it has been given to cultivate and develop principles characteristic of themselves: to the Greeks, beauty and science; to the Romans, jurisprudence and municipal rule; but to the Jews, the holiness of God and His sympathy with His chosen servants. That this was tho true calling of the nation tho prophets were invariably conscious at an early period. They discerned that Jerusalem was as a centre of bright light to a dark world; nnd, while groaning over the monstrous fictions which imposed _on the nations under the name of religion, they announced that out of Z'on should go forth the Law and the word of Jehovah. Tarnished Visions. Their lustrous dream, told again and again, met sadly often a cold and meagro welcome. It was interpreted in terms of earthlv dominance, military, commercial—scep'tred, not serving. _ There echo on the ancient prophetic voices that denounced every throne unwilling to accept a trust. They have not lost their power. The cup of wrath has not yet been drained. The years of agony are not yet over. Is it because Israel has missed the lesson of " the suffering servant ? Serve Israel must, or be untrue to the divinest vocation ever given to a people. Suffer, too—not necessarily in the serving, but until the serving be selflessly done. Not for its own sake must Jewry to hold a sure place in Eretz Israel. Ai) Jewry cannot be gathered there, nor can Jewish rule be established there for many a day. But, restored to visible nationhood about a central eminence in the world it will then be recommissioned to the task of old, not given merely opportunity " to sit at ease in Zion. The dreams of this restored nationhood have splendidly refused to die. Although, from the day of the seizure of the city of the Great King" by the Turk in the eleventh century until its rescue bv General Allcnby and his brave crusaders in 1917, the land has been defiled unspeakably, Jewish hope has never lost the vision of its re-occupation in a plenteous peace. Brave Enterprises. The hope promised to come true in the colonies of the sixteenth century under the I)uke of Naxos. _ Disappointment doL'ged those efforts, as it did every successive enterprise up to and including the settlements founded by Sir Moses fiore in the middle of last century. Then, in 1878, a less precarious footing was cot bv a band of enthusiasts seven miles in from Jaffa. Obstructed and oppressed by tho Turkish Government, exposed to the ignorant, hostility of uncouth tribes fighting a hand-to-hand battle with malaria, they nevertheless maintained that foothold, till sickness cut many of them down. Did the rest up . ey retired —to Jerusalem. Another effort established a little villn«Te, Petach Tikvah (Door of Hope). Yet another colony was later founded south of Jaffa, Rishon le Zion (the Inst in Zion). Then Baron Rothschild took the struggling enterprise under his generous care. Changes of detail came in policy, but from that point progress has been steadily maintained. Under the new order of recent days tho homing has acquired an orderliness and security before unknown. But, as tho troubles of the Wailing Wall, and tho disputes about immigration certificates and land purchase, and now the controversy between tho Mandates Commission and tho British Government all show, peaceful settlement comes not yet.

The world has seen many a brave adventure in search of wealth, like tho expedition of Cortes and the voyagings of early settlers in India. There have been noble migrations for 'reedom's sake, ,-is of the Mayflower pilgrims seeking a spacious place for conscience. These adventures have a fadeless glamour. But in the homing instinct of Israel is something deeper, more wonderful, more significant; and, if it bo obeyed in ways as noble as so often was the case with the earlier venturesome colonists, it will prove more blessed and salutary.