Asserting that future plans for Palestine must be “geared to a total solution of the Jewish problem,” Dr. Chaim Weizmann predicted tonight that the end of the war would find the world’s statesmen far readier to take up the Jewish problem radically, with “every possibility of an advance over our present position comparable to the one which was achieved at the end of the first World War.”
The world Zionist leader’s optimistic prophecy, his first public statement since his arrival last Saturday from London, where he had been engaged in intensive negotiations with the British authorities regarding Palestine, was addressed to a crowd of 2,500 assembled at the Hotel Astor in a reception for Dr. Weizmann arranged by the United Palestine Appeal Dr. Stephen S. Wise presided.
Dr. Weizmann’s speech constituted a message of encouragement to American Zionists who had been disturbed by moving of the war theater towards the Near East. He said that Arab-Jewish cooperation had become an accomplished fact, that opportunities for expansion existed even now and that the war had not abated the energies of the Jews.
Touching on the question of formation of a Jewish army, which he had indicated in an interview earlier was still under negotiation in London, Dr. Weizmann said: “Over and above the forces which we Jews supply as citizens of our respective countries, we want to constitute a volunteer, recognized force–the Jewish military force–for service against the common enemy of mankind. It was our bitter privilege to be singled out by him (Hitler) for the first and the most unrelenting of his hatreds. It should be our privilege to give our answer in the fullest measure wherever he is to be encountered in the field of battle.”
“We were the first to suffer the onslaught of the Nazi hordes,” he asserted, “and honor demands that as a people, as a race, we take up the challenge side by side with the other threatened peoples. Free French, Free Poles, Free Norwegians have constituted their recognized armies.”
With reluctance he spoke of the “obstructive elements” in the Palestine administration, “the restrictions on land sales, the grudging attitude toward Jewish immigration,” which, he said, “are not in keeping with the spirit of the time.” “It is for England’s sake, as much as our own, that we shall continue to press for a fundamental modification of such a situation,” he declared. “These restrictions have no place in the present set up; they have still less place in the plans for the future, which must be geared to a total solution of the Jewish problem.”
It was to these plans for the future that Dr. Weizmann devoted his greatest emphasis.
“I believe it is not too much to say that the end of this war–and for me the end of this war is synonymous with the crushing of Nazism and Fascism–will find the world’s statesmen far readier to take up the Jewish problem radically than they ever were before. It is not too much to say that there is every possibility of an advance over our present position comparable to the one which was achieved at the end of the first World War.”
He also had words of encouragement on the problem of Arab-Jewish relations. Recalling that King Feisal of Iraq had welcomed a Jewish homeland, Dr. Weizmann said:
“What was true in those days is even truer today. The prospects which the Arab people may envisage are brighter them ever before. And these prospects are bound up, inextricably, with the victory of the democracies…
“The just aspirations of the Arab people will find their fulfillment at the close of this war–to some extent, at least, as the result of the efforts of the Jewish people. If anyone asks whether cooperation between Jews and Arabs is possible, the answer is that this cooperation is already a fact. The question of its extension into the future is a matter of practical statesmanship. The larger view does not merely permit the building of a Jewish homeland in Palestine; it actually calls for it as part of the revival and stabilization of the Near East.”
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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.
