Communication to the Editor
Both the Arabs and Jews will be disappointed by the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry if only because the “major policy” will not be considered by it, states the “Near East and India Magazine,” said to be closely connected with the British Colonial Office.
If it settles the Wailing Wall question alone, which will have to be one of its features if not the main one, it would do immense good, the paper declares.
No official confirmation of disloyalty on the part of the Palestine police has yet been produced and even the Jews have modified their statements, the paper continues. Since Arab policemen must inevitably sympathize with the Arabs against the Jews, there must be Jewish policemen armed with an anti-Arab complex. To allow such a preposterous argument to succeed would be incredible. Its realization alone would completely mar the prospects for a united nation in Palestine composed of a single Palestinian nationality, Arab and Jew. “But we are not so much concerned with that problem as with the grave charge of partiality made against the British trained police force. We remember the police force of Mesopotamia in the rebellion in 1920.
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which remained absolutely loyal to the cause of order and the Palestine police force will similarly, we fancy, emerge from the scrunity of the Commission with far more credit than is commonly given it. Individual incidents of conduct unworthy of policemen there may have been, but an impartial critic will wait for further evidence before committing himself to the generalization that the Palestine police has failed.
“Inevitably the Palestine disturbances have raised the question whether Great Britain ought to retain the Palestine mandate,” the paper continues. “Those who assert that we ought to drop the Mandate belong to two classes, firstly, those who constantly deprecated all the British commitments in the Middle East, and, secondly, those who wish to see the Palestine Mandate in other hands. Poland must now be added to Italy as an aspirant to the role of tutor in Palestine. This new Polish desire has not been officially expressed, but appears to be generally charged by Poles and Jews in Poland. That Great Britain will retain the Mandate has been stated unequivocally however, and those who counsel handing over the reins are doomed to disappointment. It may be admitted that Great Britain, though her knowledge of the Islamic world is unequalled, knows little enough of the mentality of the East European Jews who are the main immigrants to Palestine, but to suggest that any other nation is better equipped to administer the Holy Land with its conflicting aspirations, rights and claims is absurd. Under any other power than Great Britain, Palestine, with its neighboring countries, would probably be ablaze within a month,” writes the “Near East and India.”
DR. GOLDSTEIN EXPRESSES APPRECIATION FOR CHRISTIANS’ ATTITUDE IN PALESTINE EMERGENCY
Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin,
Sir:
The cordial relations between Jews and Christians in this country are so prevalent, that even outstanding demonstrations of goodwill often go by without receiving more than casual attention
I believe a word of public acknowledgment is due, for the fine demonstrations of goodwill toward Jews which have come from American Christians in connection with recent events in Palestine.
The expression of sympathy addressed by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, a body representing twenty-eight different Protestant denominations, was a message which must have had a heartening effect upon Jews all over the world.
Going beyond mere expressions of sympathy, the Federal Council has called upon Christians to contribute to the Palestine Emergency Fund, and addressed its appeal to Christian communities in all parts of the country.
American Jews who have been accustomed to contribute to Christian philanthropies, and to conduct many of their own Jewish institutions on a non-sectarian basis, have reason to feel moved by these expressions of Christian brotherliness, which are actuated by no motive except that of genuine sympathy.
The meeting at the Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church last Sunday evening, held under the auspices of America’s Goodwill Union, was a symposium of Christian sentiment, Catholic and Protestant, which will long be gratefully remembered.
Dr. Edward L. Hunt, the founder and director of America’s Goodwill Union, who was chiefly instrumental in arranging the meeting, deserves profound acknowledgement from all Jews.
God grant that the emergency which has arisen for the Jewish people in Palestine may soon be solved, and that the upbuilding of the Jewish homeland may proceed with renewed vigor Long after the emergency will have passed, however, it will still be recalled that at a critical time, American Christians spoke and acted as friends to the Jewish cause.
Dr. ISRAEL GOLDSTEIN, Rabbi.
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun.
New York, Sept. 16, 1929.
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