Declaring that Palestine was in a position to enact the same strategic role in the defense of democracy as Greece, Six Norman Angell, British author and Nobel Peace Prize winner, told a regional conference of the United Palestine Appeal at Palmer House here last night that the effort of American Jews to rebuild the Jewish National Home in Palestine must be maintained and augmented in the coming year to demons trate that the Jews “can stand up to Hitler just as effectively as the British in Britain and the Greeks in Greece are standing up.”
Sir Norman said “the amazing accomplishment of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who, in this last twenty years have found a refuge and sanctuary in the home of their forefathers’ has made Palestine a vital point in the protection of the British lifeline. Palestine not only provides foodstuffs for its own garrison in the present war, but by the development of the Dea Sea is providing vital raw materials for munitions, he said.
“Palestine’s industries, virtually all Jewish, can make a real contribution to the output of the materials of war,” Sir Norman said. Asserting that in little more than a decade the Jewish settlers had transformed Palestine from an arid waste into a progressive, productive community, he stressed the fact that “this achievement destroys once and for all the myth that the Jew cannot be productive on the soil as an agriculturist and that his nature is to be ‘parasitic.’ The story of Palestine shows that if the Jew is given a fair chance, he can become the most efficient and productive farmer in the world, the most efficient and productive artisan and industrialist.”
Dr. Solomon Goldman, co-chairman of the U.P.A., predicted that the “civilization built in ancient Palestine will survive the Nazi State.” He pointed out that in the past decade while many states ceased to exist and the Jews of Europe were almost annihilated Palestine continued its progress. Asserting that Palestine would have a great future following the present war, Dr. Goldman said many thousands of Jews would want to make their home there when peace came.
“We may build with the full assurance that the Fascist powers are doomed to destruction,” Dr. Goldman declared. “Italy’s defeats in Albania and Africa are not accidental. The Fascist machine is beginning to crack. It is older than the Nazi machine. Mussolini is an older man than Hitler. The Nazi machine may last a year or two longer and Hitler may shriek for another year or two. But he, too, and his handiwork will soon go to pieces.
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.
