Jerusalem.
The negotiations initiated by the World Zionist Executive with the Revisionists last September have led to three sectional agreements, the text of which were made known to the public at that time.
These agreements will now be widely discussed here in Palestine, at the sessions of the Actions Committee which will open in Jerusalem at the end of March, especially since it can be definitely predicted that they will not be ratified by the Histadruth, despite the fact that Ben-Gurion, leader of the Histadruth, signed them. (The results of Sunday’s plebiscite, bear out this prediction, made some time before it took place.—Editor)
It will, therefore, be interesting to know exactly what the World Zionist Executive expected when it signed the agreement with Jabotinsky. The Executive from the very beginning left no doubt that it regarded these agreements from a twofold point of view. First, from the point of view of the intrinsic value of the agreements, which they possess—independently if further consequences. Secondly, as a possible prelude to a more comprehensive understanding regarding the relations of the Revisionists with the Zionist Organization through which the first partial agreement would receive fuller importance and certainty.
What the Executive understood by “Zionist peace” was very clearly stated to the Revisionists from the first moment: incorporation of the Revisionists in the World Zionist Organization, with the exercise of the same rights and the discharge of the same duties as pertain to all other existing groups in the Zionist Organisation.
Zionist peace would by no means amount to the cessation of the ideological struggle and the political and tactical differences of opinion within the Zionist movement. The freedom of propaganda of ideas, of criticism of the political course of the Zionist Organization determined by the majority spheres of Zionist life and Zionist work, so far as it is not in conflict with the unity of the Organization and its ability to act, would be assured to the Revisionists in the same degree as it has now been assured to other tendencies in the movement and been utilised by them. Nobody demanded from the Revisionists any sort of ideological sacrifices, just as the other parties were not prepared for any sacrifices.
It is true, the Revisionists would finally have to surrender all other special rights hitherto claimed by them, subordinate themselves to the discipline of the Zionist Organization, and especially abandon any separatist activity in the field of external politics.
This further object of the negotiations begun in September now seems unattainable, or at least to have receded into the remote distance. The resolutions of the World Conference of the Revisionists at Kracof and the later statements of Jabotinsky and his lieutenants have made it clear that the Revisionists will not under any circumstances accept the discipline of the Zionist Organization and give up separatist political actions.
The result is that any further negotiation about “Zionist peace” between the Zionist Organization and the Revisionists is devoid of any real foundation.
It should be made absolutely clear: the Executive first invited the individual Parties to negotiations, and the first was the Revisionist Party. The intention of this procedure was in the first place to determine whether there could be found the minimum of concurrence which could provide the ground for further negotiations.
But this minimum means a uniform Zionist Organization, discipline and preservation of the unity of our external politics. As long as the Revisionists insist on the refusal of this minimum then a round-table conference would only lead to the opportunity being afforded them of proclaiming this negative statement once again. It would surely be a pity to squander any time and energy upon this, the Zionist Executive holds.
We are now on the eve of a meeting of the Zionist General Council, which will certainly occupy itself primarily also with the question of the relations within the Zionist Organization. The Revisionist members of the General Council will also come to this meeting, for so far they still stand with one leg in the Zionist organization. They will have the opportunity there of stating with the utmost clarity whether they are remaining in the Zionist Organization or prefer to leave it. They are thus given the opportunity of repentance and of revising their destructive policy. A round-table conference cannot offer them anything more, is the official opinion of the present Zionist Executive.
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.
