Louis Lipsky Charges British Colonial Office Not Giving Effective Cooperation in Settling Palestine

Political conditions in Palestine remain undetermined, said Louis Lipsky, president of the Zionist Organization of America, in a speech at the first open forum of the West Side Zionist District held at B’nai Jeshurun Community Center, Thursday night, and made public by Zionist headquarters.

Saying that the “British Colonial Office is not giving effective cooperation in the settlement of the Jewish problem in Palestine,” Mr. Lipsky pointed out that “the Jewish world still awaits effective action on the part of the British Government. The report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, which was to be submitted to the House of Commons in January is now said to be ready for the middle of March. The British Government professes—and we believe in its professions—the greatest interest in doing justice to Jewish claims in Palestine, but all reforms seem to be awaiting a study of the report of the Parliamentary Commission. Nothing seriously has been done in Palestine to improve Jewish conditions. Only order has been created and maintained. But no permanent solution of any outstanding question has been attempted.

“The Palestine Executive of the Jewish Agency is not being accorded any better treatment now than what it received before the outbreaks in August. The same indifferent and perverse attitude prevails. The Colonial Office is said to be considering proposals submitted in the name of the Jewish Agency. But from what we hear of the conversations, there is no clear-cut expression of an improvement of policy. It seems as if the Zionist cause is made subordinate by our friends in the Labor Government to all other British problems. This delay in effective cooperation on the part of the Mandatory Government, makes the task of the Zionist Organization extremely difficult. It is hard to carry on an active propaganda of creative significance when the propaganda must constantly turn back to respond to the heckling of actual conditions.

“While Dr. Magnes is carrying on propaganda in favor of his policy of assurances for the Arabs, and concessions by Jews, the relation of Arabs to Jews in Palestine has not improved at all. There is no evidence of any pacifist spirit among Palestinian Arabs. On the contrary, the animosity has increased. There is the economic boycott. Stabbings in the dark still go on. Even Dr. Magnes’s wholesale surrender of Jewish political rights has made no impression upon them. Under such circumstances, it is quite apparent that the duty of Jews is to devote themselves to the strengthening of their own positions, and that they should not waste their time any longer in discussing the kind of peace that Arab leaders might accept. This one-sided talk of peace leads to the enervation of the spirit, undermines enthusiasm, and makes a plan of action utterly impossible. Not until Arabs begin to speak of peace will there be any value in Jewish reiteration of the Sermon on the Mount.

“In spite of all suggestions made in the press, both by members of the Zionist administration, writers for the press, and individual Zionists, that a united front is most desirable in Zionist affairs in America, thus far there has been no response from any other group, whose non-cooperation makes the front a broken one. Zionist Administration, believing that the emergency of the moment requires subordination of partisanship and personalities, has gone out of its way to extend invitations to members and leaders of other groups to form a coalition of strength. While in other countries such coalitions have been formed with a very good effect upon Zionist action, only in America do men who call themselves Americans and democrats refuse to act in a spirit of patriotism and subordination to the interests of a great cause.”