To overcome ANTISEMITISM by ZIONISM: that is the Vision of Theodor HERZL.
Zionism today has several competing faces
President James MADISON (1809–1817), one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. Constitution, said that “It is of great importance in republics, not only to defend society against the oppression of those who govern it, but also to secure one part of society against the injustice of the other.” (1)
This ancient quote underlines the attention that must be paid, also in today’s world, both to anti-Semitism and to certain aspects associated with the implementation of Zionism. For injustice can mean serious suffering for the people who suffer it.
The photo of Theodor Herzl on the balcony of the Hotel ‘’Les Trois Rois’’ in Basel (1897) was used to create the stamp of the Jewish National Fund in 1916. (Nothe that Theodor Herzl declared: ‘’At Basel I founnded the Jewish State’’ (13) > 314), a concept that is taken up again in the montage of the said stamp. (Public Domain)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
Zionism did not appear “ex nihilo”, at the end of the 19th century.
It has its roots in an ancient, endemic, virulent, endless anti-Semitism. This anti-Semitism was then manifested essentially in Russia and in Europe: various forms of discrimination, humiliation and violence going as far as pogroms.
In the West, the States showed their inability (or lack of will?) to deal seriously with the question of anti-Semitism. Already the concept of the “Jewish question” had appeared (= are the Jews fit to integrate in Europe?). The question suggested that the victim was in fact the problem… A question often asked by those whose ancestors had arrived in the country long after the first Jews, as Herzl pointed out (App. 3 (13)>20)
In 1896, Theodor Herzl, the theorist of Zionism, proposed “a rational and definitive solution to the uncertainty of an irrational persecutory phenomenon” (…) which “must enable the Jewish nation to regain its honor among the peoples.” (2)
This solution is Zionism. “The doctrinal basis of the project is that the Jews, who are a minority and victims of anti-Semitic persecution everywhere, form a people whose abnormal and unjust situation must be corrected by the creation, recognized in international law, of a state where they can gather.’’ (2)
There are two main currents in current Zionism. They see Israel as a refugee state. One sees it as a “State of all Citizens”. The other sees it as a “State of Jewish Citizens”.
Each current develops its own reasons. A short summary of each is provided in Appendix 1. See also the excellent article by Michel STASZEWSKI “Les Sionistes face à l’Antisionisme” of March 10, 2019, which the UJFP has taken up. Article which analyzes very well this problematic (16): http://www.ujfp.org/spip.php?article7023
>>> THEODOR HERZL: FROM RESIGNATION TO AWAKENING
Theodor Herzl is a Hungarian of German expression, assimilated, non-practicing Jew. He was trained as a lawyer and held an important journalistic position with a major daily newspaper in Vienna: Neue Freie Presse.
Anti-Semitism had a strong impact on Herzl. And he worried about his son Hans: “When I think of him, I find that the burden of Judaism will give him lessons in humanity. But I wonder if I have the right to make his life so unnecessarily difficult as it has been and will continue to be for me.” (…) “ That is why children should be baptized as long as they are incapable of calculation (…). Dissolve into the people.” (8) p. 54
However, Herzl is troubled by doubt: “(…) one does not have the right to abandon Judaism when it is threatened. It is a question of self-respect. (8) p. 54
The idea of a ‘return’ to Palestine was then beginning to circulate in Europe.
In 1873, the play La Femme de Claude by Alexandre Dumas Fils ‘announced’ the return of the Jews to Palestine… Herzl read the play around 1893 and immediately reacted by publishing a critical opinion: “The good Jew Daniel wants to find his lost homeland and to reunite his scattered brothers… But such a Jew must know that he would hardly be doing his own people a favor by giving them back their historical homeland… And if the Jews really did return, they would find out the very next day that they had little to share. They have been rooted for many centuries in new, denationalized, differentiated homelands, and the little resemblance that still distinguishes them is only due to the oppression they have to endure everywhere.” (9) (10)
In October 1894, Herzl wrote a play called “Das Ghetto” which expressed a kind of slogan: Out of the Ghetto! “We were liberated from the ghetto, but we remained and will continue to remain Jews of the ghetto.” (8) p.58
Theodor Herzl appeared to be resigned until then. “It is precisely this fate that he no longer accepts a year later. (…) The Dreyfus Affair shows him the impossibility of assimilation. (8) p. 58
Herzl was sent to Paris to follow the Dreyfus Affair and noted the extent of the anti-Jewish campaigns. They “made him realize that even in a country like France, which was the first to proclaim the equality of the Jews, assimilation seemed unattainable.” (11) This experience would certainly play a role in his commitment. Herzl would later exclaim, “It is in vain that we are loyal, sometimes super-loyal patriots…in the countries where we have lived for centuries we are declared foreigners.” (8) p. 60
Der Judenstaat was published in 1896. In it, Herzl advocated the establishment of a Jewish National Home in which the Jews of the world who wished to do so could settle: a Refuge State, therefore, it seems.
The publication of the Judenstaat immediately provoked a worldwide wave of criticism and mockery from most of the various Western Jewish streams. Many said that Herzl had gone mad. Moreover, “In the world of Hasidic Judaism…the Zionist idea would be incompatible with the very essence of Judaism.” (12)
After the first Zionist Congress, Dr. Samuel Cohen, Chief Rabbi of the liberal community of Pest declared, “Political Zionism, which claims to found a new Jewish state, is, in my opinion, a dangerous spiritual folly…we are opposed to this vicious movement.” (12) In the United States, Reform rabbis declared that “America is our Zion.”
Yet a year later Herzl would gather 200 representatives from 16 countries. So something very important happened in the interim!
In fact, I think Herzl’s books had the effect of an electroshock. This hypothesis of “return”, written in black and white, opens a big window in a blind wall, and pushes everyone to question their own identity. This is the path that Herzl was the first to take when he wrote The Judenstaat. In 1897, “in his inaugural address at the Zionist Congress in Basel, Herzl in effect acknowledges that he has come home and proclaims that Zionism is the return to Jewishness even before it is the return to the land of the Jews.” (12)
The feeling of injustice and the refusal of resignation, combined with the conviction that anti-Semitism is ineradicable, will have, in the presence of a proposed “ideal” solution, strongly reinforced the appetite for Zionism.
Signature of Theodor Herzl — ( Source : en.wikipedia.org ) (Credit Ladislav Faigl)
>>> THEODOR HERZL: ‘’BETWEEN THE LINES’’ and AMBIGUITIES
Herzl hesitated for a long time before deciding on the title of his book. Finally, in his diary, he notes “It will be ‘’Der Judenstaat” (The State of the Jews) A Refuge State then.
But why not Der Jüdische Staat (The Jewish State)? Because, in his private correspondence, he speaks of the Jewish State. The choice of the title was therefore well thought out.
Moreover, in the Judenstaat, Herzl does not really confront, either, certain aspects that are nevertheless essential, it seems to me:
> The natives of the ‘’host’’ country — What is to be done with them? What status?
> The variety of cultures and languages, as much for the Jewish diaspora as for the natives of Palestine. How to manage this enormous diversity?
> The risk of fragmentation of the declared unity of the “Jewish Nation” in this “State of the Jews”. (*)
(*) See in (15) the analysis of the President of Israel Reuven RIVLIN on the current problems of the State of Israel, on these themes.
I believe that these aspects are not dealt with in the Judenstaat for two main complementary reasons:
> Some aspects require prior negotiations, and therefore cannot be delivered ‘raw’ in a book.
> Some aspects are not part of the priorities of the Project that Herzl elaborated. The absolute priority is the Jewish People. All other aspects are in fact considered non-central, peripheral, minor or unimportant. It seems to me that Herzl had not forgotten these aspects in the Judenstaat: one remembers his training and his profession…
The official central objective is thus to obtain the creation of a state where the Jews could gather. The rest will have to be managed operationally in its own time. Although it must be dealt with from the beginning, separately, on certain points. This subject will be dealt with in another Article.
In fact, the state that Herzl had in mind from the beginning was a Jewish state. A state in which the Jews would be at home, with their own rules and traditions. A state for the Jews. The others would have to adjust to their rules, one way or another: a constraint of sorts, or something “unimportant”. It depends. The essential thing remains the implementation of the solution to anti-Semitism.
It seems to me that, in order to achieve the objective of the Project, it was appropriate to maintain, for as long as possible, an ambiguity about the precise nature of the projected State, in order to be able to gather a broad support for the “publicly recognized and legally guaranteed” project. (13)>337) This was done.
The Project had to be carried out with “diplomatic negotiations and propaganda actions on a large scale” (13)>341) (note JPC = for this last essential point, I did not find details on the types of projected actions)
:: :: :: :: :
There is a great coherence in the texts written by Theodor Herzl, over a long period. And his personal and professional background inspires confidence. His remark about politicians (which he had to practice assiduously to advance his Project) undoubtedly forged his vision of politics in the future Altneuland: “Here, politics is neither a business nor a profession… the term ‘professional politician’ is an insult.” (13)>403)
Didn’t Georges Clémenceau, our french “Tiger” in the war, say, speaking of Theodor Herzl: “He was a man of genius (…). Men of genius are recognizable by their gigantic scope (…). Their way of acting, of understanding, of discovering the real essence of things and beings, is expressed in a completely personal and original way. They are beyond ordinary logic and that is why they are often misunderstood (…).Thus was Herzl.” (12)
“At Basel I founded the Jewish State” (13)>314) — Theodor Herzl on the balcony of the Hotel Les Trois Rois in Basel — 1897 (Source: eng.wikipedia.org) (Credit E. M. Lilien )
>>> THEODOR HERZL: HIS VISION OF ZIONISM
Let’s look at this with Herzl’s own texts (13). A documented description of Herzl’s Vision is offered in Appendix 2 — with related Quotes in Appendix 3.
In an extremely concentrated summary, here is what Herzl states in his writings:
Zionism is a moral, legal and humanitarian movement, directed towards the realization of the old dream of the Jewish people (13)>330)
Zionism demands a territory in Palestine, a homeland for the Jews, which is publicly recognized and legally guaranteed. (13)>337) See also note (14).
Herzl explains: We announce our intentions in broad daylight… and we wish to receive authorization before undertaking a mission which would otherwise be the most unjustifiable of experiments. (13)>322)
The first objective being to obtain the sovereignty, guaranteed by the international law, on a portion of the globe big enough to satisfy our needs. (13)>319) The rest we will take care of. (13)>364)
How will Zionism be implemented?
First of all by reaching a satisfactory political agreement with the powers involved. Then the migration of the Jews can begin, with the agreement of the countries concerned. The flow will stop with the end of anti-Semitism in each country. (13)>36)
Herzl added: Once the Jews have been given their rightful position as a people, I am convinced that they will develop their own characteristics and national aspirations which will contribute to the progress of humanity. (13)>344)
Appendix 2 offers several insights into Herzl’s vision regarding
The particular nature of the Jewish community.
The political nature of Zionism.
The interest of the Project in “civilized nations” and “civilization”.
The definition of the Jewish nation.
Exclusive patriotism.
The abandonment of the Jewish infiltration strategy in favor of Zionism.
The choice of the path of colonization.
The preference for an Aristocratic Republic, rather than a Democratic one.
Let us remember that the perimeter of the territory of the Jewish State, as defined by Theodor Herzl in his Diary, goes from the Nile to the Euphrates (14). It is the “Greater Israel”. Palestine would therefore be a first step. We note, moreover, that Israel has, since 1948, avoided defining its borders. And it has not defined them since. The current ultra-nationalist Israeli parties also mention the “Greater Israel”. As well as a part of the American supporters.
:: :: :: :: :: :: ::
Herzl’s Zionism is therefore an answer to the “Jewish question” of the civilized nations, which they did not know/wanted to deal with. The Zionist solution allowed European Jews to be removed from the unbearable anti-Semitism that persisted. The Zionist solution was a colonial approach, the result of diplomatic negotiations with the major civilized powers, which had to be publicly validated and guaranteed in international law beforehand.
And this has been achieved. “Pas mal”, I would say, to use Herzl’s expression (in French) (13)>276).
However, Zionism does not address the causes of anti-Semitism either: it aims first of all at sheltering the ‘patient’. Moreover, the methods employed in accordance with civilized nations were no doubt in part common practice at the time. But the world has changed, and even the tacit or secret agreements of that time deserve reconsideration. Especially when issues once considered unimportant are no longer so. This will be the subject of another article.
JPCqd
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….. (1) — Quoted in ‘’On Democracy in America’’ — Alexis de TOCQUEVILLE — 1848
….. (2) — “From idea to organization” — Yvon PESQUEUX & Lévi-Avishaï LEGER-TANGER — Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers — 2010
…. (3) — Article “ ‘’What is a nation?’’ by Ernest Renan (1882) “ — by JPCiron — ( https://www.agoravox.fr/actualites/citoyennete/article/qu-est-ce-qu-une-nation-par-ernest-209190 )
….. (4) — “ President Rivlin speaks of the four tribes of Israel “ — Jewish Tribune — June 9, 2015 — ( http://www.tribunejuive.info/israel/le-president-rivlin-parle-des-quatre-tribus-disrael ) — ( following the Hertzliya Convention )
….. (5) — NGO ADALAH — Discriminatory Laws Database — “Adalah’s Discriminatory Laws Database (DLD) is an online resource comprising a list of over 65 Israeli laws that discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens in Israel and/or Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on the basis of their national belonging. The discrimination in these laws is either explicit — “discrimination on its face” — or, more often, the laws are worded in a seemingly neutral manner, but have or will likely have a disparate impact on Palestinians in their implementation.” ( https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index ) ( https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7771 )
….. (6) — NGO Adalah — Israel’s Jewish Nation-State Law — “Israeli parliament approves by a vote of 62–55 the Jewish Nation-State Basic Law that enshrines Jewish supremacy over Palestinian citizens. The law has distinct apartheid characteristics and requires racist acts as a constitutional value. (https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9569 )
….. (7) — Article “Zionism: the progressive declassification of archives changes the way historians look at the processes associated with its implementation” — by JPCiron — ( https://www.agoravox.fr/actualites/international/article/le-sionisme-la-declassification-209989 )
….. (8) — Theodore Herzl — Alain BOYER — Albin Michel — 1991
….. (9) — Political Zionism and its founder, Theodore Herzl — Baruch HAGANI — 1917
….. (10) — Analysis “ From the idea to the organization “ — Yvon PESQUEUX and Lévi-Avishaï LEGER-TANGER — Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers — 2010
….. (11) — Article Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism — Les Clés du Moyen Orient — Lisa ROMEO — 08 oct 2010 ( https://www.lesclesdumoyenorient.com/Theodor-Herzl-pere-du-sionisme.html )
….. (12) — Theodor Herzl, A new reading — Georges WEISZ — 2006
….. (13) — World Zionist Organization ( Connecting Israel and the Jewish People // Herzl Speaks His Mind on Issues, Events and Men. ) -
See documented comments in Appendix 2
See Excerpts and Quotes in Appendix 3
….. (14) — Herzl Complete Diaries Vol. II p. 711 — On the subject of the demand to be made in the perspective of the future Jewish State — “Area: from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates
> Rabbi Fischmann (Jewish Agency for Palestine), on the other hand, stated (July 1947) to the UN Commission of Inquiry that “The Promised Land extends from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, and includes parts of Syria and Lebanon.”
> The subject was again raised in 1972 by a letter to the UN:
“Herzl himself specified what the geographical configuration of the future state should be. “We must have access to the sea because of the future of our foreign trade. We must also possess a large area of land in order to introduce our modern crops on a large scale … The slogan that we must launch must be: the Palestine of David and Solomon … The area: from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates” “ From the “Complete Memoirs of Theodor Herzl”, by Raphael Pathey (Cf. Colloquium of Arab Jurists on Palestine. “La question palestinienne”, Algiers, 1968, p. UT).
Document:- A/CN.4/255 Letter, dated February 18, 1972, addressed by Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algerian jurist and politician) to the Chairman of the International Law Commission — United Nations — General Assembly. — (p. 10)
( http://legal.un.org/ilc/documentation/french/a_cn4_255.pdf )
> This perimeter therefore corresponds to the Bible Genesis 15:18 “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, and said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.
On the other hand, the text of Genesis 17:18 says “I will give you and your descendants after you the land that you inhabit as a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual possession, and I will be their God.” The Land of Canaan is Palestine + Lebanon + part of Syria and Jordan.
> The map can be consulted here: ( https://theisraelbible.com/biblical-boundaries-land-israel/ ) ( Source : Theisraelbible.com )
….. (15) — Today, these issues are still not addressed.
We have discussed many of the issues associated with Zionism at length in another article. (7) Some of these issues were mentioned by the President of Israel Mr. Reuven RIVLIN:
“President Rivlin speaks about the four tribes of Israel” — Jewish Tribune — June 9, 2015 — ( http://www.tribunejuive.info/israel/le-president-rivlin-parle-des-quatre-tribus-disrael ) ( following the Hertzliya Convention )
Excerpts:
“Our society will soon be made up of four tribes, who do not know each other, do not socialize, do not have the same educational system. These children from orthodox settlements or towns, from Tel Aviv or Rahat, will not only not meet, but will also have their own vision of society, culture, religion.”
(…)
“We cannot live in denial: it is not the radicals who create the tensions between these tribes. There is a huge gap between the central currents of these four tribes and these differences have an impact on our future.”
(…)
“At the political level: the Arab tribe does not participate in the political game while the other three work for their own interests. If this situation continues, it will be a disaster.”
(…)
“Yet, we are here to stay: secular, religious Zionists, Orthodox and Arab.”
(…)
“We must face this reality in order to find answers and create, together, a common vision.
(…)
“None of the four tribes should feel that they have to give up their identity to be part of the common society.
(…)
….. (16) — Article “Les sionistes face à l’antisionisme” by Michel STASZEWSKI, published in the magazine Points Critiques N° 380 March-April 2019, pp. 8–10.
Article reproduced on the site of the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP) on March 10, 2019:
http://www.ujfp.org/spip.php?article7023
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° APPENDIX 1 °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
THE TWO MAIN CURRENTS OF ZIONISM TODAY
> Zionism, a movement with a rather humanistic orientation. This movement aims of course to continue to allow Jews of the world who wish to do so to be able to emigrate to Israel. It is about a state of all citizens (Arabs and Jews: Orthodox, Secular and Zionists), in which none will have to renounce his or her identity, and where each will be “an equal” among the others, working together to build and consolidate the common homeland, and to “create a common “Israelism” together”, to use the formula of the President of Israel Reuven RIVLIN. (4)
This cohesion, this cement, is the best guarantee for the maintenance of the Refuge State over time. It is a nation-state as Ernest Renan conceived it (3). I believe that the closest living example of this Zionism could be the speech of the current President RIVLIN. Read the article in the Tribune Juive in (4)
The President is openly worried about the evolution of the demography inside Israel, because a part of the population (among the Jews, secular and Orthodox, and among the Arabs) is not in favor of an unequal state (each for their own reasons) and they could become the majority in the future. (4) Hence the importance of creating this ‘Israelism’ of President Rivlin.
The opposition in Israel and the opposition press often refer to this type of Zionism. The Jewish youth in the USA also.
> Zionism, an Ultra-Nationalist, rather Integrist Movement. It is a Zionism that is in the spirit of the law of the nation-state of Israel (6) The state is Jewish, and non-Jewish citizens have lesser, differentiated rights. Civil rights are identical, but Arabs are deprived of national rights (= Rights of Self-Determination).
This law also opens the way for the consolidation of existing discriminations (5), and for the legalization of the establishment of localities which would not be allowed to be entered by certain categories of citizens. Moreover, it describes colonization as a fundamental national value. (6)
The emblematic living example of this approach seems to me to be Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, as well as his allies in government. It seems to me that the Western Zionist lobbies, both American and European, are also rather of this sensitivity.
The logic of this approach is that the Jewish ethno-cultural category must absolutely remain dominant in Israel. This is seen as the only way to maintain the Refuge State of Theodor Herzl. To disagree with this belief is often considered ‘anti-Semitic’ as it would imply the eventual replacement of the Jewish state by an egalitarian state, which would, they believe, put an end to the Refugee State, which is the foundation of Zionism. Hence, I suppose, the justification of the expression “Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism”, which would therefore only be understood within its own logic.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° APPENDIX 2 °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
HERZL’S VISION FOR HIS ZIONIST PROJECT
(Commentary documented in this Appendix 2)
(+ Quotes used in Appendix 3 — in English)
First of all, Herzl considers that his community is special, and even unique, since its members consider themselves associated only by the faith of their ancestors.(13)>247) He considers that God would not have kept this community alive if He had not kept a role for it in the history of humanity. (13)>258)
Herzl recalls that the ‘Jewish Question’ began to preoccupy him in the early 1880’s. (13)>382) This Jewish question is neither social nor religious in nature, although it can also take these forms. It is a national question, which can only be dealt with on a political level by a Council of the civilized nations of the world. (13)>45) The Jewish question can only be solved by the Jews themselves, without revolutionizing anything, through the existing state of law. (13)>38) One of the first results expected from the Zionist movement will be to transform the ‘Jewish question’ into a ‘Zion question’. (13)>329)
If the Middle East problem can be partially solved via the ‘Jewish question’, then this will benefit all civilized peoples. (13)>35) Herzl believes that it is increasingly in the interest of civilized nations and of civilization in general that a Jewish cultural pole be established in Palestine, on the road to Asia. (13>350) In the future world, the Arabs would have lost nothing, and could therefore only gain. (13)>413)
Herzl asserts that the nations in which the Jews live among the others are openly or secretly anti-Semitic. (13)>65) Herzl’s generic definition of Nation also applies to the Jewish Nation: a historical group with a particular form of cohesion held together by a common enemy and, for the Jewish Nation, the common enemy is the anti-Semite. (13)>13)
(note JPC: Thus, would the presence of anti-Semitism be necessary for this Nation to endure?)
At this point, what happens to patriotism? A discussion with the Chief Rabbi of France allows Herzl to clarify this point: One must choose between Zion and France. (13)>220) Rothschild considers that this dangerous approach makes Jewish patriotism suspect (13)>236) Moreover, one understands Herzl’s irritation with the French at the time, when he states that “the French Israelites -if they exist- (he says) are not Jews at all, and our cause is not their business.” (13)>32) And he adds: we no longer want to wear the mask of any other nationality. (13)>38)
Herzl makes a critical analysis of the principle of gradual infiltration of Jews both in Palestine and in Argentina. He considers that any infiltration will end badly. (13)>366) Herzl’s project is to stop the infiltration and to concentrate on obtaining an internationally recognized Palestine. This requires diplomatic negotiations and large-scale propaganda actions. (13)>341) (note JPC = for this last essential point, I have not found any details)
His program is clear: The Society of Jews aspires to obtain, under international law, a territory for those Jews who are unable to assimilate. (13)>283) He explains that he only wants a settlement which can be protected by his own Jewish army. (13)>288) Herzl describes the concept of colonization for his Project: A ‘colony’ is a small state; a state is a large ‘colony’. (13)>237) Philanthropic colonization is a failure. National colonization will be a success. (13)>353)
The form of the new state carried by the Herzl Project would rather be the most modern aristocratic republic in the world. (13)>375) Indeed, Herzl asserts that it is impossible to conduct internal or international affairs through the people’s assembly. The policy must take shape in the upper layers and proceed downward. (13)>109)
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° APPENDIX 3 °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
World Zionist Organization ( Connecting Israel and the Jewish People // Herzl Speaks His Mind on Issues, Events and Men. ) — Excerpts and Quotes
13. I will give you my definition of a nation, and you can add the adjective “Jewish.” A nation is …a historical group of men of a recognizable cohesion held together by a common enemy. That is in my view a nation. Then if you add to that the word “Jewish” you have what I understand to be the Jewish nation. ..And the common enemy is the anti-Semite.
>19. We are a people — one people.
20. We have honestly tried to submerge ourselves everywhere in the surrounding communities and to preserve only the faith of our fathers. We are not permitted to do so …In countries where we have already lived for centuries, we are still proclaimed strangers : often by those whose ancestors were not yet in the land when our forefathers were already sighing there.
32. Secondly, lest they become much too brilliant Frenchmen, mount too rapidly in the social scale -in short, let them take care not to rise in the world. And thirdly, let them cease troubling themselves about the Jews in other lands… whoever does not declare himself ready to cast his lot with the migrants has no right to tell them where to go or stay. Israelite Frenchmen -if such exist -are therefore in our view not Jews at all, and our cause is none of their business.
>33. In the evening I heard “all the snide gossip current among the Jews” who cannot understand why I have undertaken such a thing, in view of my position and without needing to. I answered with a word Professor Kellner said to me the other day : “There are Jews who live on Judaism and those who live for it.”
35. If the Near East question is partially solved together with the Jewish Question it will surely be of advantage to all civilized peoples.
36. Once a satisfactory agreement is concluded with the various political powers involved and a systematic Jewish migration begins, it will last in each country as long as it desires to be rid of its Jews. How will the current be stopped ? Simply by the gradual decrease and the final cessation of anti-Semitism. In this way we understand and anticipate the solution of the Problem.
>37. Nowhere can there be a question of an exodus of all the Jews. Those who are able or wish to be assimilated will remain behind and be absorbed.
38. It is our opinion that the Jewish question can only be solved by the Jews themselves. …That is why we have abandoned previous methods. ..We no longer want to wear the mask of any other nationality. …We are not working for the overthrow of all things…We believe that the means of solving the Jewish question are to be found in the existing order of law and society.
45. I think the Jewish Question is neither a social nor a religious one, although it may likewise take these and other forms. It is a national question, which can be solved only by making it a political world-question to be dealt with by the civilized nations of the world in council.
65. The nations in whose midst Jews live are either overt or covert anti-Semites.
>48. I myself was an assimilated Jew, and I speak from experience. I think the Jews have rather a natural tendency to assimilate. There arrives a moment when they are well on the way. And then just at that moment comes anti-Semitism…
>53. Even though our times are clouded by anti-Semitism we must not forget that they were preceded by more magnanimous days where all civilized nations granted us equal rights. Their intentions were good, but the results were inadequate. Who is to blame — we or others ? Perhaps both, or rather conditions of long standing, which were not to be eradicated by laws and ordinances.
>58. We are what we were made in the Ghetto.
>64. We are probably as much hated for our gifts as for our faults.
65. The nations in whose midst Jews live are either overt or covert anti-Semites.
>80. Jews who wished to assimilate with other people now felt free to do so … There were also some who wished to adopt the majority religion, and these could now do so without being suspected of snobbery or careerism … Toleration can and must always rest on reciprocity. Only when the Jews, forming the majority in Palestine, showed themselves tolerant, were they shown more tolerance in other countries.
>100. The pressure exerted on us does not make us better. We are in no way different from other people. It is true that we do not love our enemies. Yet only he who has conquered himself is entitled to reproach us for that. Pressure naturally creates hostility against our oppressors, and our hostility aggravates the pressure. It is impossible to escape from this vicious circle.
>108. I think a democratic monarchy and an aristocratic republic are the finest forms for the State…The form of State and the principle of government must involve a balancing of opposites.
109. The masses too are even more prone than Parliaments to submit to every heterodoxy of opinion, and to be attracted to every vigorous ranter. It is simply impossible to conduct internal or foreign affairs in the presence of the assembled people. Politics must take shape in the upper strata and work downwards…
> 185. The prosperous Jews are all against me. So I am beginning to have the right to become the world’s worst anti-Semite. I often think of Levysohn’s prediction : “Those whom you want to help will start by nailing you rather painfully to the cross.”
220. Zadoc Kahn professed himself to be a Zionist. But French “patriotism” also has its claims. A man has to choose between Zion and France. Zadoc Kahn belongs to the breed of little Jews. Yes, I shall be surprised if I get any serious help from him.
>226. Our conversation [with Zangwill] is laborious. We speak in French over which his command is weak… Still, we agree on some main points. He too favors our territorial independence. He maintains, however, the racial point of view — something I can’t accept, for I merely have to look at him and at myself. All I say is : we are an historical unit, one nation with anthropological diversities. This also suffices for the Jewish state. No nation has uniformity of race.
236. Rothschild will hear nothing of the matter. ..What I am doing he considers dangerous because I render the patriotism of the Jews suspect ; and, in addition, injurious — namely, to his own Palestinian colonies… By way of contrast there is something humorous in today’s Paris dispatches which report street demonstrations against the Jews and notably the Rothschilds. In front of the same building… where on Friday E. de R. snubbed my friend Nordau, the Sunday mob was howling : “Down with the Jews !”
237. I asked him [Edmond de Rothschild] how far he was acquainted with my project. Whereat he began to spout : he had heard about me …and lost himself up hill and down dale in a refutation of my program, of which he had no exact knowledge. After five minutes I interrupted him and said : “You do not know what it is about. Let me explain it to you first. I began : A “colony” is a little state ; a state is a big “colony”. And I unfolded the plan.
>239. General impression : Edmond [de Rothschild] is a decent, good-natured, faint-hearted man who utterly fail to understand the matter and who would like to call it off as a coward tries to call off an imperative surgical operation. I believe he is now disgusted that he ever began with Palestine.
And the fate of millions of persons hangs on such men !
>240. Twice Edmond de Rothschild said : “One mustn’t have eyes bigger than one’s stomach.” This was, I believe, the high point of his philosophizing.
>246. Faith unites us, knowledge gives us freedom. We shall, therefore, not permit any theocratic tendencies to emerge among our spiritual authorities. We shall keep them to their synagogues… Army and Rabbinate will be honored as highly as their valuable functions require and deserve. But they must not interfere in the administration of the State.
247. Our community of race is indeed peculiar, unique for we actually regard ourselves as still associated only by the faith of our fathers.
258. God would not have kept us alive so long if there were not left us a role to play in the history of mankind.
>261. For [God] Evil too is but a means. How and why for instance, does the Will to Good permit the existence of epidemics ? Because as a consequence, filthy old warrens are torn down and, in their stead, rise new, sunlit healthy cities with inhabitants who draw a fuller, freer breath. So, too, anti-Semitism no doubt has within it some thing of the divine Will-to Good, for it forces us to close ranks, unites us under pressure, and through our unity will bring us freedom.
>275. Yesterday a social feast at the Kadimah. The students gave me a great ovation …I spoke of moderation and moderately. I didn’t want to arouse any beer-inspired enthusiasm. I urged them to stick to their studies and warned them against unhealthy elation. Perhaps we shall never get to the physical Zion, and so we must strive in any case toward an inner Zion.
>276. Chatted with a number of journalists. My pamphlet is the talk of the town. Some people smile and even laugh at me, but in general the earnest thought of conviction apparent in the writing seems to have made an impression. Herman Bahr [an Austrian literary figure] told me he was going to write against me, because people can’t do without the Jews. Pas mal !
283. …”The Society of Jews aims to acquire, under international law, a territory for those Jews who are unable to assimilate themselves”
288. I wanted only a colonization [I said] which we could protect with our own Jewish army. I must oppose a policy of infiltration…
>314.
If I were to sum up the Congress in a word -which I shall take care not to publish — it would be this : At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it. The essence of a State lies in the will of the people for a State, yes, even in the will of one powerful enough individual — L’Etat, c’est moi : Louis XIV
>315. At Basel, accordingly, I have created the abstraction which, as such, is imperceptible to the great majority. I gradually worked the people up into the atmosphere of a State and made them feel that they were its National Assembly.
319. Our first object is …the obtaining of sovereignty, assured by international law, over a portion of the globe sufficiently large to satisfy our just requirements.
322. We announce our intentions in the light of day …and we want permission before undertaking a task which would otherwise be the most unjustifiable of all experiments. For the problem is not only to get the people there, but also to keep them there, and that in complete security.
329. One of the first results of our movement …will be the transformation of the Jewish Question into a question of Zion.
330. Zionism…is a moral, lawful, humanitarian movement, directed towards the long yearned-for goal of our people.
337. Zionism demands a publicly recognized and legally secured homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people. This platform is unchangeable.
>340. Nothing prevents us from being and remaining the exponents of a united humanity, when we have a country of our own. To fulfill this mission we do not have to remain literally planted among the nations who hate and despise us.
341. What the Zionist have hitherto achieved evokes my grateful admiration, but I am a confirmed opponent of infiltration …My program, far more preferable, is to stop infiltration and concentrate all our strength upon an internationally-sanctioned acquisition of Palestine, To achieve this, we require diplomatic negotiations, which I have already begun, and propaganda on the largest scale.
>343. The resolution of the Jewish difficulty is the recognition of Jews as a people and the finding by them of a legally recognized home to which Jews in those parts of the world in which they are oppressed would naturally migrate, for they would arrive there as citizens just because they were Jews.
344. Given to Jews their rightful position as a people, I am convinced they would develop a distinct Jewish cult national characteristics and national aspirations — which would make for the progress of mankind.
350. It is more and more to the interest of the civilized nations and of civilization in general that a cultural station be established on the shortest road to Asia. Palestine is this station, and we Jews are the bearers of culture who are ready to give our property and our lives to bring about its creation.
353. Philanthropic colonization is a failure. National colonization will succeed.
364. Let sovereignty be granted us over a portion of the earth’s surface large enough to satisfy our rightful requirements as a nation. The rest we shall manage for ourselves.
366. Here two countries come under consideration. Palestine and Argentina. In both countries noteworthy experiments in colonization have been made, though on the mistaken principle of a gradual infiltration of Jews. Any infiltration is bound to end badly. Immigration is consequently futile unless we have the sovereign right to continue such immigration.
>370. The land which the Society of Jews will have secured by international law must naturally be privately owned.
375. I incline to an aristocratic republic. This would satisfy the ambitious spirit among our people. We shall learn from the historic mistakes of others in the same way as we learn from our own ; for we are a modern nation and wish to be the most modern in the world.
>376. Every man will be as free and undisturbed in his belief or his disbelief as he is in his nationality. And if it should come to pass that men of other creeds and nationalities live among use, we shall accord them honorable protection and equality before the law.
382. When actually did I begin to concern myself with the Jewish question ? Probably when it first crossed my path …It was, I believe, in 1881, or 1882. ..In the course of the succeeding years the question gnawed and tugged at me, it tormented me and rendered me profoundly unhappy. Naturally each passing year wrought a change in my ideas…
>386. Above all I recognized the emptiness and futility to “combat” anti-Semitism. Nothing whatever is gained by declamations consigned to paper or confided in closed circles. The effect, in fact, leans towards the ridiculous.
>394. How then does a plan differ from a Utopia ? I shall tell you in precise language : by the vital force which is inherent in the one and not in the other — a vitality not necessarily perceptible to everyone, but present nevertheless : Utopias entertain but they have no grip…
403. …Politics here is neither a business nor a profession. We have kept ourselves unsullied by that plague. People who try to live by spouting their opinions instead of by work are soon recognized for what they are. They are despised, and get no chance to do mischief. Our courts have repeatedly ruled in slander suits that the term “professional politician” is an insult…
413. Those [Arabs] who had nothing stood to lose nothing and could only gain.
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