Two Versions About Palestine, One Legally Correct, Other Really True, Ussishkin Says

Two versions concerning the situation in Palestine were presented to the Sixteenth Zionist Congress, one was a formal one, perhaps legally correct, but the other one was really true, declared M. M. Ussishkin, veteran Zionist leader and president of the Jewish National Fund, an opponent of long standing to the Weizmann policies.

“The first truth was presented by Dr. Weizmann; the other by Vladimir Jabotinsky,” he said. “Why does the Zionist Executive depict the situation in Palestine in a light different from reality?” he exclaimed. “We are no cowards. We have braved Kemal Pasha and we can also face the present situation. The task of a leader is to lead and not to pacify. If Jabotinsky confined himself to a political argument, the overwhelming majority of Jewish Palestinians would follow him. We do not desire to provoke the Arabs, but why this constant, useless declaration of love?”

Announcing his reluctant approval of the Jewish Agency extension plan Ussishkin said: “There are three roads open to me in regard to the Jewish Agency, first, to leave the Zionist Organization; second, to attempt a revolution; three, to submit to the majority Revolutions are justified only in cases when something sacred, for example, religion, land or language, is being violated. In this case a revolution would be unjustified because the form of the organization is being changed. I therefore decided to do everything to make the Agency the best possible success. Dr. Weizmann is incorrectly informed when he believes that I intend to play the Jewish National Fund against the Jewish Agency. I would like Dr. Weizmann to likewise declare that the Agency won’t be played against the Jewish National Fund.

“It is untrue that the Jewish youth is leaving the ranks of the Zionist movement. It is merely leaving the ranks of the General Zionists. Tens of thousands of the Jewish youth are joining the Zionist laborites, the Mizrachi and the Revisionists, because the General Zionists have nothing to offer them. This is why fifty-per cent of the delegates elected in the United States were lost to the General Zionists the first time when proper elections were held,” he declared.