Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Few Survived the War

 There are times in life when one is so emotionally sobered by the introduction of an extemporaneous thought that he, or she, immediately stops whatever pursuit of knowledge being engaged at the time and is compelled to allow serious reflection to dominate the moment. Such was the case with me while reading a book describing the modern history of Jewish Zionism (Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time).

The year is 1939.  For 1800 years the Jewish People have been without a national home. Rome has crushed the second Jewish revolt (135 AD), expelled all Jews from Jerusalem and placed a death sentence upon any Jew who would dare reenter the City. The Jewish people have been without their national home for those 1800 years. Now, Diaspora Jews are slowly returning from nearly two millennia of gentile domicile to the land of Palestine with the hope of the eventual obtaining of statehood under their own authority. The process has been described as the Zionist Movement (ca. 1850 to the present). The process has been brutally slow and tedious. World War One has caused the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and their hold on the land of Palestine has been severed. The League of Nations has turned over (mandated) the land of Palestine (and surrounding territories) to the victorious British government. When the war ended in 1918, the British were in sympathy with the return of exiled Jews to their original, and Biblical, home land.  Now, however, it is 1939 and that sympathy is far more inclined toward the Arabs, than to the Jews.  World War Two is about to explode upon the global community. One can only imagine the mental/emotional state of the Zionist community at that time.

Under the British mandate, the land is to be distributed between the Jews and the Arabs with the thought of giving statehood to each. What territory should be given to the Jews and how much should be given to the Arabs is the question. Much has changed in the subsequent twenty one years since the war's end. Hitler is the guerilla in the Western world's living room now.  He is expansionist in intent, has raised the most advanced military in the World, hates the Jews and has demonstrated that hostility for more than a decade. Mein Kampf has been published and there is no hiding from the content. The immediacy of World War Two is upon the minds of all.  So, what does a mandated British authority due in those circumstances, and at that time? It appears that one does the logical thing, of course, one favors the holder of the oil deposits of the Middle East, i.e., the Arabs.  Unfortunately, that decision mandated against facilitating the Jews at the same time.  The Arabs in the Palestinian area hate the Jews and are convinced that they will eventually exceed the Arabs in population and exercise hegemony over them. Arab subversion of the process will continue even unto this day.

The British publish the White Paper of 1939 with the authority that goes with it - and it is not kind towards the Jews.  Immigration is severely cut and is ordered to cease completely in five years.  If it ever resumes in the future it must be at the approval of the Arabs. Further, it is now illegal for anyone to sell any Palestinian land to the Jews. A "death warrant" has just been issued for the Jews of Europe. This the response of the leaders of the Zionist cause upon the receipt of the document.

The author (Sachar) describes the moment this way:

The Jews were not in a position to draw emotional solace from what they regarded as the justice of their cause.  They viewed the White Paper as a likely death warrant for their people in Europe and conceivably for their hopes in Palestine.  Late in the evening of August 24, 1939, Weizmann bade farewell to the delegates of the Zionist Congress at Geneva.  As a new European conflict threatened, the atmosphere of the final session  was charged with an acute awareness of impending tragedy.  The departures were painful.  Weizmann said, in part: "it is with a heavy heart that I take my leave....If, as I hope, we are spared in life and our work continues, who knows-perhaps a new light will shine upon us from the thick, black gloom....There are some things which cannot fail to come to pass, things without which the world cannot be imagined."  Deep emotion gripped the Congress.  Weizmann embraced his colleagues on the platform.  There were tears in many eyes.  Few of the European delegates survived the war.
 
Obviously, the bold has been added, and yes, this is the sentence that caused me to pause and reflect (weep?). Many knew that the subsequent years would be ominous. Perhaps none would anticipate sixty million dead, and six million of them would be Jews.
 
Perhaps it would be wise for those of us who sympathize with the Zionist movement to pay more attention to the world-events that seem to be current among us.  The Arab mentality that seems to dominate the godless community of the World today is gravitating at no small pace to that prevalent  in 1939. 
 
1939 may be closer than we know.
 
Watch Israel - it's important.