The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1923. ZIONISM HAS FAILED.

Southland Times, Issue 19122, 14 December 1923, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1923. ZIONISM HAS FAILED.

When the war closed the Zionist policy, in which Lord Balfour enthusiastically con-, curred, was one of the picturesque possibilities of the post-treaty days, but stodgy materialists and observant economists looked with doubt on a movement which aimed at transplanting Jews from all parts of the world to Palestine, where the Arab and the Turk were already in possession. Britain accepted the mandate for Palestine and into the Zionist movement was poured energy and money, but to-day we have Mr Israel Zangwill declaring to the American Jewish Congress that political Zionism is dead, because Jews themselves will not return in numbers large enough to outnumber the Arabs. The British installed Mr Herbert Samuel as the Administrator in Palestine, but in that post he has had to surmount great difficulties because the Arab population insists that by right of residence its title is as good as that enjoyed by the Jews. Mr Zangwill protests that Britain has not used coercion in Palestine to find space for the Jews, and has not compulsorily acquired lands for them. As Britain has not used force the returning Jews have had to buy land in the face of mounting prices, and Mr Zangwill blames the British Government and its representative in Mr Samuel for being too soft-handed in dealing with the Arab. He sees that Britain to-day is more concerned with preserving Palestine as a protective zone in front of the Suez Canal than with settling the Jews in their national home, and therefore she fears to incite a revolt among the Arabs, particularly as the threat of a Pan-Arabic movement is still apparent. With this view most of the other leaders in the Zionist movement do not agree, but of their disappointment there is no doubt. The most they can say is that it is too soon to write the epitaph of the Back-to-Palestine enterprise. If failure has to be admitted

—and it is difficult to see how this can be avoided—the fault lies with the Jews themselves. Mr Zangwill sees this, but he exculpates his co-religionists by putting the blame for this on the British policy. It seems, however, that the British Jew and the American Jew have become attached to “place” and consider themselves British and American citizens. They have become attached to the countries in which they live and they decline to leave these places, where life is more enjoyable, where conditions are more settled, fo’i’ the task of winning their way in Palestine where the difficulties are great and where there is a solid body of fierce antagonism to be subdued. Rich Jews have put money in the coffers of the movement, but they themselves have not “gone back,” and this is the explanation of Mr Zangwill’s wail that, instead of getting a national home, the Jews have ,merely added another to the fields of their great dispersion. While there persists a determination to plod on, it might be premature to set about chipping the epitaph of the project, but for all practical purposes it looks as if political Zionism is dead because the Jews of the world prefer the theory of it to the practice.