Judging by the reports of Mr. Zangwill’s speech he discloses ambitions which render a compromise between political Zionists and Arabs impossible, cables the London correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor.
“Not Palestine alone is coveted but southern Syria and Transjordania also. Naturally to the Arabs who individually fear the future expropriation of their lands, political rights and nationality and who envisage the evolution of a great united Arab state. including Palestine, oppose this project tooth and nail.
“Such declarations made at this juncture cannot fail to increase the difficulties of the British administration and render Arab opposition to anything savoring of Zionism absolutely uncompromising.
“The conflict is essentially between Jew and Arab, and in attempting to hold the balance between these rival aspirants on the one hand, and the Balfour Declaration and the docrine of self-determination on the other the unfortunate mandatory power is having an uncomfortable time.
“Without entering into discussion of the merits of political Zionism it is permissible to say that its exponents are very largely responsible for the impasse which has arisen. They at least confronted the native Arabs with the prospect of complete subjection to Jewish authority. Their scarcely concealed object was the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state. They tried to drive an impossible bargain.
“One leading Zionist whom the writer asked to explain the position of Italian Jews in a hypothetical case of war between Italy and Zionist Palestine declined to state whether they would be expected to act traitorously toward their Italian nationality or fight their Palestinian brethren, but obviously the Jews cannot have it both ways.
“If the latest proposal for an Arab Agency is finally declined by a joint council of all Arab parties this week there will be no alternative but to go on administering the country by crown colony methods, holding the balance fairly between all sections of the community. Under the circumstances this perhaps would be the best thing that could happen for Palestine”, the Monitor contends.
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.
