Says Arabs Need Leader to Speak to Them As Dr. Magnes Spoke to Jews

Praising Dr. Magnes for his recent pronouncement on the subject of peace in Palestine, which it calls “one of the most Christian-minded which have yet appeared,” “Lines of Communication,” a journal published by St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem, declares in a recent article that if an Arab leader were to arise in Palestine who would speak to the Arabs in the same moderate tone that Dr. Magnes has spoken to the Jews, there would be more hope for peace in Palestine.

“Dr. Magnes has suffered before, and is clearly prepared to suffer again, for his opinions and his courageous expression of them,” says the editorial. “But it is men with such courage as his who become in the end, even if they do not themselves see that end, the true leaders of their peoples. If among the Arab writers who have applauded him we could see a leader arising who would speak in the same tone, and with the same transparent sincerity, we should have real hopes of a great and rapid improvement in the situation.

“We are not unfamiliar, even in British politics, with the phenomenon of moderate and statesmanlike leaders being run off their balance by their own rank and file. That, in our view, is the greatest danger on both sides in Palestine today. Noise attracts attention, and a violent leader can always get a following for a time—till he tries to draw rein. The man who has control from the start goes further—and straighter. We cannot believe that he is to be found only on one side.”