Albert Einstein in a letter to the editor of the English edition of the Arab newspaper, “Felestin,” dated February 25 and published March 15, is reported to have proposed the formation of a secret council of Jews and Arabs with four representatives of each independent and of any political body. Commenting on the proposal the “Felestin” says:
“It is the duty of Arabs and Jews in Palestine to give their opinion regarding the proposal. It may require some modification but it would be criminal not to explore all channels containing some chance of making the two communities cooperate.”
The paper then goes on to say that “in the present unfortunate state of tension it is a piece of good fortune to get Dr. Einstein’s name attached to a proposal which might otherwise be open to suspicion.”
The “Felestin” suggests that conditions in Palestine make it impossible to secure a person estranged from politics because “when nations in the making are both competing in a very small land nearly everyone is a potential politician.”
While thus accepting Dr. Einstein’s proposal the “Felestin” prints in the same issue an article signed with the initials of G. G. which says “ten years of bloodshed, lawlessness, continuous reign of hatred, terror and misery ought to prove sufficiently the impossibility of a political Jewish state or National Home in the Holy Land. There can be no parley between Arabs and Zionists for the true nature of Zionism and its political extremism has been revealed to the Arab. It would seem not only folly but suicidal for the Arabs to have confidence in Zionist promises and to give ear to their avowals of well-meaning and good faith.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
