Israel Zangwill, in a statement today to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, replies to two articles appearing in the Christian Science Monitor of October 20 and 22, respectively, one a dispatch from the Monitor’s London correspondent warning against the maximum Zionist demands, put forward by the English Jewish author, the other, an editorial interpreting Mr. Zangwill’s views as to the advisability of a “Jewish vote” in America as a demand for special privileges for Jews.
Mr. Zangwill dismisses the Monitor editorial by declaring that “the article discloses ignorance of my views and the whole situation.” Similarly, he attributes the interpretation placed on his intimation of a Jewish vote to confusion between the words “Jewish” and “Hebrew.”
Mr. Zangwill’s statement in full follows:
“In reply to the statements in the Christian Science Monitor of October 20th and 22nd, I have to say that the first articles discloses ignorance of my views and the whole situation. When the writer says: Not Palestine alone is coveted but southern Syria, he does not seem to know that Palestine had no political existence under the Turkish rule, but was merely southern Syria, and one of the great questions has been whether France should obtain the whole of Syria, or whether England should become the mandatory of southern Syria, i.e. Palestine.
“I will deal with the rest of this article at another time and place, but I will only point out that if the mandatory of Palestine is in a fix, she has only herself to blame for not having studied the question better before issuing the Balfour Declaration.
“The Monitor has also failed to note that I joined with the Arabs in qa request for constitutional government in Palestine (subject only to the veto of the British Governor.
“As for the article of October 22, the Editorial is entirely confused between the words Jewish and Hebrew. A Jewish vote is not a Hebrew vote. I specifically stated it might mean voting against a Jewish candidate. It means a religious or ethical vote, like the Nonconformist Vote in England.”
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.
