Jewry Needs Hard Statesmen to Match British Politicians

tion of its population and have the rest escape the consequences. Does any sound man believe that the powers have learned no lesson by the situation they have forced on Germany?

EXPLOSION BREWING

Does the world want these harassed Jews of eastern Europe to turn radical?

Why should we soft-pedal this inescapable situation with excuses, denials and apologies, in a questionable attempt to save ourselves from some kind of stigma! These people are not pictures in a book. They are living, desperate human beings. If there is a dime’s worth of intelligence in the chancellories of Europe, they cannot afford to ignore the deadly explosion which is brewing in these pest holes of East Europe.

The governing agencies of the world should know that if these unfortunates are put at bay, ruined and tortured, the whole fabric of civilization will shake in the agony of their maddened death throes.

If the Soviets advance on one front, they will advance on all fronts, and India, too, will be lost to England.

NATURAL ANTI-COMMUNIST

I pointed out in an earlier article that the Jew with his attitude of personal independence is the most natural anti-Communist of them all. It is only when he is broken and in despair that he will turn to anything which promises to rescue him from the hell he finds himself in. In Palestine these Jews will be a sober and industrious people, a peaceable bulwark against world disorder.

After all, the rest of the world exists and is party to the Mandate. The various chancellories will listen to this as an argument, where a futile plea for justice will prove politely ineffective, and put pressure on England to yield in its senseless course.

What will happen if we do not at once revise our own attitude in the direction of strength, stiffness and vigor?

There is already a good deal of talk of war in Europe, and no man can venture to predict that it will not come.

In this war the Jews of East Europe will be decimated, if not completely slaughtered.

CAN THEY HOLD OUT?

Even in a condition of peace it is extremely doubtful whether they can hold out much longer in the face of their extreme distress. Qualified observers have recited the most appalling stories of unbelievable privation and suffering which these poor people are undergoing.

There is danger that any western state can give up liberalism and become totalitarian, in which case it is likely that still other groups of Jews will suddenly find themselves facing the situation of those in Germany and Poland.

In case of war, let us survey the possibilities as they would affect Palestine.

All of her recent actions have stamped England’s statecraft as being strictly opportunist. She has not hesitated to give the Arabs every conceivable advantage, even if they only earned it by defying her and slaying defenseless people.

TERMS WITH ARABS

A strong movement exists for a united Arab nation from the Euphrates River to the point of Aden. If a war occurred at the present time, England would have to come to direct terms with these Arabs, and if they demanded the entire peninsula as a price for their adherence, England would not allow such a small thing as her pledged word to the Jews to interfere, since she must have the Arabs to protect the Suez Canal and the route to India.

We had a very plain lesson in futures a few years ago when she did not hesitate to tear off Transjordan for much the same self-protective reasons.

Let us say that they even stipulated that the little Jewish colony in Palestine was to have absolute protection under the merger. Jewish Palestine is weak and small, but it is a rich plum which fierce Arab tribesmen even now eye with lustful gaze. It would be a splendid place to plunder.

COULD DESTROY PALESTINE

These Bedouins have never been known to operate under restraint, and 100,000 of Ibn Saud’s wild desert horsemen, armed to the teeth, could sweep down on Palestine within a few hours and, before evening set, everything that was Zion would be only a memory.

The Moslem king could then send in his regrets and state his intentions to severely punish the culprits, which he would only do in words since these tribesmen are not controllable by him or anyone else.

The whole soul of Jewry would be ravished. Its heart would be broken. Jewry could not stand this last assault upon its hopes, and would become shatttered and weary beyond redemption.

In the distance lies Soviet Russia in the hands of sharp, astute men. They have offered the Jews Biro-Bidjan, a wild, open territory just north of Manchuria. It is true that they are actuated by no mere humanitarian motives. Their first is to build a strong solid community in the path of Japanese expansion. Their second is to remove the cause of future anti-Semitism inevitably coming in Russia by removing the Jews, a far-sighted policy from their viewpoint. Their third is a subtle bidding for the friendship of the Jews in a world where all hands seem turned against them. Even now this has not been without its effect.

The vast bulk of the Jews are appreciative of this gesture, but they neither want Communism nor Biro-Bidjan, unless an unreasoning world crams it down their throats.

We Jews today stand at the very cross-roads of time. We either go up to life or down to death. There is no middle ground.

The End