Louis Lipsky on the Congress Problem: What Will Happen if Congress Concludes Mandatory Government Ha

If Congress concludes that it sees in the actual policy of the Mandatory Government no evidence of a genuine intention to facilitate the establishment of the National Home, but, on the contrary, a very clear manifestation of an interest to strengthen the Arab position regardless of its effect upon the Jewish position, it will have to accommodate itself to the situation, Mr. Louis Lipsky says in an article in the forthcoming issue of the “New Judea”. We have been engaged in the past two years in an interesting, but a fruitless litigation, which had to do largely with words uttered, texts examined, documents analysed, he continues.

Should the Congress come to the conclusion that the litigation has been decided against us, or that it is fruitless to continue the matter; should Congress refuse to fritter away principles and positions for the sake of fractional advantages, then its course of action becomes clear and strengthening. It is unworthy of the ideals represented by the Zionist movement to continue the trying of an issue in which the judge of the action is himself the attorney for the defence. It is demoralising to stake the destiny of a national movement upon acquiring or maintaining a friendship which involves a constant quarrel with regard to intentions, which raises suspicion at every turn regarding the motives of the friend, and which in every test proves to be not that advantage which it was expected to be, but actually creates added antagonism to our fundamental ideals.

Once Congress makes this decision, the political negotiations and all that is involved in them will take their proper place on the Agenda. They will not sprawl all over the Zionist scene, arresting all attention, producing endless recrimination, introducing irrepressible personal animosities, creating disunion and discord at every turn. The political circumstances surrounding the development of Palestine will be regarded as incidents of the work of building, but not of the essence of the national action. Emphasis will be placed upon how to obtain the national resources, how to do the building, how to organise the dispersed nationality. We shall proceed to deal with those forces that belong to use whom we may eventually hope to organise and control. About the programme of work there will be no serious partisan struggles. The displacement of the political moment will also clarify the question of leadership. Out of such a shifting of issues will be created a unifying influence that will bring revival within Zionist ranks and develop a new sense of dedication which will go a long way to repair the breaches that have been made in our national defences.

Despite the usual pre-Congress agitations, the heat of discussion, the sensational prophecies of impending disruption, the Congress at Basle, I venture to say, MR. Lipsky declares, will result in strengthening the Zionist Organisation, and bringing about a rededication of all Zionist forces to the practical task of establishing the Jewish National Home in Palestine. A genuinely serious trouble reaching its climax usually tends to draw together, rather than to divide. The strife of parties and the confusing issues will, therefore, cease, and national discipline will be recovered once it is realised that Palestine and all that Zionism implies are threatened, representing as they do, an imperative, pressing need of the Jewish people in their hard struggle for national survival – a struggle which has become almost intolerable as a result of the severe economic depression which now paralyses the entire civilised world.

The Basle Congress will, I have no doubt at all, he asserts, elect a leadership which, even if Dr. Weizmann should not choose to remain as its directing head, will be animated fundamentally by the same objectives which he pursued during the past thirteen years, and will be controlled by the same methods of caution and moderation which have been characteristic of his administration of Zionist affairs. Tactics and methods may have to change, but if the forces of national redemption are to be kept intact, the work in Palestine, whatever the difficulties may be (political or physical), must be regarded as the primary and predominant task. it is the only source of national equilibrium, and detours into the field of political adventure must be avoided as national poison.