ZIONISM

I

IN a former number of this Review (September 1896) the writer of the present article essayed to analyse, and appreciate at its historic purport, Antisemitism, or the vast movement directed against the Jews in modern times.

Since that time many leading minds among the Jews have, in their attempts at meeting the attacks of their aggressors, conceived of and fairly started a counter-movement under the name of Zionism. It is here proposed to give first a short sketch of the labours of the Zionists; and then to try to give a forecast of the results of that new movement on the basis of similar movements in the past and of the real character of Judaism in the present.

Zionism, it must be remarked, is a term admitting of more interpretations than one. There is, in the words of Jewish authorities, Zionism political, religious, and trading. The adherents of religiou Zionism are in many ways bitter enemies of the partisans of political Zionism, and both look down with contempt upon the votaries of trading Zionism. Yet, to the calm outsider, the political and the religious forms of Zionism have much in common; the difference being that the religious Zionist whispers pianissimo, where the political cries out fortissimo; and that the former does not mean to say what he is doing, whereas the latter says what he does not seriously mean to do. The religious Zionists, or the 'Lovers of Zion' as they style themselves, do not by any means intend to go back to the Holy Land in a body; they do not want to precipitate the work of Him whom in their prayers they fervently beseech to bring them back to Palestine. They only want to send there individual members of Jewry, not many, yet several; not shiploads of them, yet here and there a family or two; perhaps six or a hundred and six. By so colonising the Holy Land, they gratify their craving for the return to Palestine, which it is their religious duty to maintain in some corner of their hearts, without giving unnecessary offence in public. The political Zionists, on the other hand, come before Europe with a proposal of a much bolder nature. Since the present social condition

of Jews, they contend, is becoming more and more insufferable on account of the spread of Antisemitism, they call upon the Jews to leave Europe and to found a State of their own; preferably in Palestine, but, if necessary, in Argentina, or anywhere else. At the head of religious Zionism are the numerous 'Tents' of the 'Lovers of Zion;' their press-organ in England being Palestina, a quarterly. At the head of political Zionism is Dr. Theodor Herzl, journalist, of Vienna; and, it would appear, the famous Nordau, author of Paradoxes, Conventional Lies, Degeneration, &c.

The activity of religious Zionists has so far been crowned with much success. Without any disturbance of extant relations, and without creating any undue sensation, they have to some extent realised the pious wish of the Rev. John Lamond, as expressed in his recent work urging a new Crusade. They have colonised Palestine, or rather parts of the Holy Land, by settling Jewish colonists at Richon-le-Simon, Ekron, Petah-Tekwah, Zammarin (on the slopes of Carmel), Castinie, and other places indicated on a large wall-map drawn by Colonel Goldsmid, in which all the names of the Jewish colonies are indicated in red ink. Mr. Dickson, British Consul at Jerusalem, in his report of 1896, has described the condition of these agricultural and vinicultural colonies as more or less prosperous, at least relatively speaking; and he also makes mention of a school of agriculture established for the Jewish colonists at Jaffa. In the quarterly Palestina much valuable information is published about the progress of these colonies in Palestine; and their future, watched over with solicitude by the numerous 'Tents' of the 'Lovers of Zion,' seems to be fairly assured. So great and serious is the desire of that class of Zionists to repeople Palestine with Jews, and thus to prepare the ultimate 'reconquest' of the land of their fathers, that a special commission, if a self-elected one, has, under the guidance of Mr. H. Bentwich, been sent out to Palestine in April last, with a view of ascertaining the precise possibilities of colonisation in Palestine. Mr. Bentwich has come to very sanguine conclusions. He has little doubt as to the perfect feasibility of taking back Palestine by slow but continuous colonisation of the land at the hands of Jewish settlers. Mr. Zangwill, the well-known novelist, on the other hand, who has also formed part of that commission of pilgrims, has come to a conclusion quite different. He sees difficulties of an almost insurmountable character in any attempt at colonising Palestine on a larger scale. In this the great poet is not borne out by the opinions of Colonel Conder, Sir Charles Wilson, Professors Socin, Ridgeway, and Selah Merrill, who had been consulted by the religious Zionists before they started their undertaking some five years ago. Yet this much seems to be certain: the Jewish agricultural colonies in Palestine do not pay as yet, and personal safety is at a discount. One of the religious Zionists, while

recognising the danger threatening colonists from the vagrant Bedouins, yet hopes that 'Jewish colonists galloping over the hills on wild chargers, or patrolling their fields with guns slung across their backs and cartridges round their waists,' might strike a wholesome terror into the savage sons of the Palestinian mountains. However that may be, the quiet and well-organised work of the Zionists of the religious description all over the world is-aided by some of the millionaire Jews, especially the Rothschilds-proceeding steadily and regularly. In course of time they may succeed in covering a large area of the Holy Land by that process of infiltration, and thus steal a march on the Messiah whom they expect.

The work of the political Zionists has been up to this writing one of open propaganda for the establishment of a new Jewish State proper. Dr. Herzl, in a pamphlet published last year in several languages, boldly advances the idea that whereas the condition of the Jews in Christian countries is at present one of unbearable humiliation; and whereas Antisemitism, or the engine of that general hatred and persecution of the modern Jews, is triumphant to a degree, so that no plausible means of stemming its tide can be, nor has been, suggested: be it resolved, that the Jews of all countries, who after all are nothing but Jews, and have never, nor will they ever, really assimilate with the nations among whom they livethat the Jews, the doctor says, shall abandon the inhospitable fields of Europe, and, repairing to Palestine, there re-establish their ancient State. Nor is the great journalist at a loss as to the precise institutions, laws, constitution, &c. to be adopted by that new State. In chapters so admirably short as to shame the prolixity of Solon and the verbosity of Lycurgus, Dr. Herzl sketches the constitution and laws of the new State in details clear and pregnant. Everything has been provided for. The Jews of Europe have neither a common language nor common usages; neither many common religious ideas nor common social standards. They differ from one another in every possible respect. The Russian Jew and the French Jew, the Austrian Jew and the Spanish or Dutch Jew are opposed to one another in some of the most vital elements of life, social or political. Yet the doctor knows how to unite them; he knows how to weld them into one homogeneous community of citizens enthusiastic for one and the same grand ideal. He has no doubt about his scheme; it is realisable; it must, it will be realised. Or shall the Jews continue to listen patiently to the calumniations of the Antisemites? The Antisemites are bad folk; they invent lies; they go about preaching, lecturing, haranguing in all countries and at all times. The worst is, they make headway. Or has not the first gentleman of Europe, the present Emperor-King of Austria-Hungary, finally confirmed the mayoralty of that Ahasverus, Dr. Lueger of Vienna ? Is not Antisemitism almost officially recognised in Germany, Russia,

and France? All the liberal laws of Europe passed from 1820 to .870 in favour of the emancipation of the Jews, have they not been practically repealed? And Jews shall continue to live in Europe? Are they entirely oblivious of their great principle of Do ut des? As long as Jews were left in peace and in good offices and posts-why, as long as that was the case, they might very well sing patriotic songs in finely polished German, or French. They got their money's worth for their patriotism. Heine might sing of his German doublet' underneath which throbbed his German' heart; Lassalle might address in words burning with German patriotism the German workmen. At present, matters are quite changed. Instead of being left in peace, Jews are actually attacked. People, bad people presume to do by them what the Roman patricians did by the plebeians; the Bianchi of Florence by the Neri; the Tories by the Whigs; the Montagne by the Girondists; or the Catholics by the Protestants. It is an outrage. It is a sin. Has history ever recorded outrages and sins as dire and ghoulish as are the misdeeds of the modern Antisemites? What are the Gracchian or Marian squabbles beside the speeches full of Antisemitic poison delivered by the Dantons and Marats of the Austrian journal Vaterland or the French journal La Libre Parole? What is the Terreur noire or the Terreur blanche in the times of the French Revolution, beside the libels levelled at the modern Jews? Or do not Turkish atrocities of misrule appear tame and childish beside the hideous wrongs perpetrated on the Jews of Austria or Germany? No; it is evident Jews can no longer endure the shame of Antisemitism. They are a nation by themselves; one of the oldest nations; one of the most astounding nations. Why then stand what no nation that respects itself has ever stood? Why not be a nation? And why not coalesce, conglomerate, or coagulate, if you please, into a State of their own?

The doctor has removed even that formidable difficulty which to previous founders of States has always given the greatest trouble. Mahomet and his first successors waged immense wars in quest of land to be settled by Mussulmans. So did the Normans, the Teutonic knights, the Conquistadores, the English. Not so Dr. Herzl. In our civilised times the din of arms is too harsh and obsolete a means. Turkey, he alleges, will gladly part with Palestine for a substantial consideration. The finances of Turkey are in a shattered condition. If, now, the Jews offered to the Sultan an annual tribute, to start at 100,000l., and guarantee a loan of 2,000,000l., the tribute and further loans to increase in accordance with the increase of the population: the Sultan would, Dr. Herzl thinks, grant the Jews in return the right of settlement and the autonomous government of Palestine. Nor is that idea of a Jewish State in Palestine of merely local interest. For, says the doctor,

The greatest political movement of our times is the construction of a northern railroad to Asia. Asia at the present day is further from Europe than America. The Russian railway connection with Northern Asia is a somewhat stupendous undertaking. . . . Only the people of the coming century will be able to estimate the national migratory movements which will result from the formation of these means of communication, movements that will react in a thousand ways for good and evil upon the normal conditions of life in Europe. We are, indeed, face to face with a problem of unknown dimensions. But our simple understanding tells us this northern connection with Asia will necessitate the opening up of a southern line, and that the hitherto shortest routes of communication cannot suffice. A glance at the new map informs us that the new road will and must lead through Palestine. .. A syndicate intends to apply for a concession to construct a railway from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.

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Dr. Herzl continues to say that Jews should apply for that concession, and thereby immeasurably extend the mercantile openings of the new Jewish State.

In the course of the present year Dr. Herzl and Dr. Nordau have laboured to bring that great question of the Jewish State to some practical head. The most effective means of doing so was adopted a Congress was convened, the members to meet at Munich. For reasons that have not been made known, Munich as a trysting place for Zionists was found to be inopportune; and the Congress is now convened to meet at Bâle in this month of August 1897. Six great issues form the 'platform' of that Congress. First, the condition of the Jews in the several countries; referee, Dr. Max Nordau, Paris. Secondly, colonisation in Palestine and its results; referee, Mr. Willy Bambus, Berlin. Thirdly, objects of Jewish charity in Palestine; referee, Dr. Hirsch Hildesheimer, Berlin. Fourthly, questions of finance; referee, Dr. Max Bodenheimer, Cologne. Fifthly, the Jewish question and the proximate diplomatic Congress of the Powers; referee, Dr. Theodor Herzl, Vienna. Sixthly, exhibition of Jewish colonial products at the Paris exhibition of 1900. One of the foremost questions suggesting itself is, in whose name, on behalf of whom, and who does convene the Congress? According to the latest news (14th of July), two of the above referees, Dr. Hirsch Hildesheimer and Mr. Willy Bambus, have withdrawn from the Congress; so that practically Dr. Herzl and Dr. Nordau are the only prominent Zionists calling upon their fellow-Jews to come to Bâle. Yet there can be no doubt that Dr. Herzl's proposal has met with great sympathy in nearly all large centres of Judaism; and the discussions and correspondence in reference to the new Jewish State have waxed to a prodigious mass. The Congress will be held; and for the first time since the sixties of the seventeenth century the question of a wholesale return of Jews to Palestine will be seriously discussed before Christian Europe. That question interests not only Jews and Antisemites, but also the rest of Europe. An exodus of some five million people, who for good or evil have grown to be no inconsiderable factor in the material and intellectual, if not