Magnes, Answering Critics, Willing to Give Up Jewish State and Majority for Guarantee of Jewish Cult

That there cannot be a Jewish majority in Palestine for at least several generations, even if all the three factors in the situation—the attitude of the Arabs and of the British mandatory power, and Jewish monetary contributions—were most favorable, is the contention made by Dr. Judah L. Magnes, chancellor of the Hebrew University, in a booklet which is appearing this week both in English and in Hebrew. The booklet is a reply to Dr. Magnes’s many critics of his suggestions for a peaceful solution of the controversies with the Arabs. Ahad Ahaam’s latest preface to his own writings is used as the introduction to Dr. Magnes’s work.

In the first article of his booklet, Dr. Magnes says that if immigration and settlement on the land, and Hebrew culture, can be guaranteed to Jews in Palestine, he is willing to yield on the question of a Jewish State and a Jewish majority, and also to agree to a legislative assembly so planned that his three fundamentals could not be infringed upon. His three fundamentals, he says, are not contestable if Jews are to be in Palestine of right and not on sufferance.

Dr. Magnes says he would be content if the Jewish community here constituted a third of the entire population. The question of how immigration is to be regulated, he says, cannot be left to a legislative body with an Arab majority. He believes, therefore, that constitutional reservations with regard to immigration are necessary, so that no legislative body will be able to interfere, and that international machinery must be chosen to determine the economic capacity of the country. Dr. Magnes also believes that the question of land settlement and of the official status of Hebrew in a bi-national state must also be embodied in constitutional reservations.

Since his address at the opening of the present semester, and an interview on the subject on November 23, the Palestine Hebrew press has printed columns of editorials, criticisms and discussions, and critical cables have been received from all parts of the world in which Zionists expressed the greatest indignation at his attitude which favors an immediate understanding between Arabs and Jews. Until the present, Dr. Magnes has not replied, but in his present booklet, which is entitled “Like All the Nations?”, he clarifies his position.

In the preface, Dr. Magnes declares that he has been an observer of Zionist politics for the past seven years, ever since he became a resident of Palestine. Though he had decided not to mix in politics, but to devote himself entirely to building up the Hebrew University, he has found it necessary in these critical times to contribute