96 The International Jew
America, this occurs;
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What are the commercial possibilities of Palestine? The location
of Palestine between three continents favors foreign trade.
All this lends itself to dreams of future glory as to the unlimited
mineral and oil resources of Palestine estimated by scientists in
astronomical figures.
Many Christian friends of the Jew have pleased themselves by
conceiving a universal Hague at Jerusalem and a new social order going
out to bless the nations from Zion. It is the idea conveyed by men like
A.A. Berle in books like "The World Significance of a Jewish State."
Americans do not understand the delicate racial situation in
Palestine. Zionist propaganda has always been accepted on the
assumption that Palestine is the Jews' land and that they only need help
to go back. It is an historical and political fact that Palestine has not been
the Jews' land for more than 2,000 years-and then for only a brief
while. At the close of the 1914-1918 war there were in Palestine over
600,000 Arabs and only 50,000 Jews. Neither numerically nor
industrially have the Jews held the land. Yet as the result of a "war
bargain" it is handed over to them as regardless of the native inhabitants
as if Belgium had been handed over to Mexico. Many of the natives are
Semites, like the Jews, but they do not want the Jews among them. The
Balfour Declaration, as well as the terms of the Mandate recognized the
rights of the native races. Everyone who knows about the people who
have been native to Palestine for thousands of years recognizes their
right; everybody except the Jews.
It is now that the last clauses, added as the Zionist historian
declares, "in order to appease a certain section of timid anti-Zionist
opinion" begin to get a meaning for the reader.
Was the purpose .only to quiet disturbing questions until all the
arrangements were made? Evidently. It was then a dishonest
appeasement! Such may have been the Zionists' intention, but no one
expects perjury on the part of the responsible nations .
General Allenby promised the native Arabs of Palestine that their
rights would be respected. So did the Balfour Declaration. So did the
San Remo Conference. So also did President Wilson in the twelfth of his