Page Sixteen
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, May 10,
WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THE ZIONIST CRISIS?
WANTED
A NEW MILITANT LEADERSHIP
FACING AN IMPASSE
HERE IS THE RECORD
The 22nd World Zionist Congress—the supreme body of the World Zionist
Organization—will convene next August. It meets at a moment of unprecedented
crisis for Zionism and Jewry. It meets at a time when the fate of Palestine—and
with it the fate of the Jewish people throughout the world—hangs in the bal-
ance. The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry declared against the establish-
ment of a Jewish State. It proposed to offer access to the Jewish homeland for
only one out of every fifteen Jews of Europe, leaving the overwhelming majority
of Europe's Jews doomed to homelessness and total despair., The announcement
of British Prime Minister Attlee that unless the Jews of Palestine surrender their
arms, the gates of Palestine will remain shut, indicates that Britain has already
prepared a new alibi for blocking the implementation even of that proposal.
And while European Jewry remains caught in the throes of agony and despair,
Jewish Palestine is in a virtual state of war with Great Britain.
1. Transjordan
THE OUTCOME RESTS WITH THE CONGRESS
The Zionist Congress will have to adopt policies that shall adequately meet
this crisis. It will have to evolve feasible and effective plans for a positive out-
come of this decisive struggle. And it will have to elect a vigorous and dynamic
leadership, capable of implementing these plans.
Whether it will do it or not, depends on the character of the delegates to
the Congress, on the measure of their boldness, foresight and ability. And this,
in turn, depends on the Zionist and Jewish masses who will have to choose and
elect the people who will hold the destiny of Jewry in their hands.
The time has come therefore for all loyal Jews and Zionists to take
stock of the situation. They must properly evaluate the policies and
methods pursued thus far by the Zionist leadership, or, in other words,
to appraise correctly the two major factors involved in the struggle for
a Jewish Palestine—the imperialistic designs of Great Britain over the
Land of Israel and the position taken by Zionist leadership toward
Britain's intentions.
THE UNTOLD STORY
The story of the British betrayal of Zionism—a story of intrigue and provo-
cation, of bloodshed and oppression, of false pretexts and cunning propaganda
—is today pretty well known to the American people. What is comparatively
unknown, however, is the share of responsibility which the present Zionist
leadership must bear for the disaster that has overtaken the Jewiih people.
We have refrained from criticizing this leadership while we were con-
fronted with the primary and difficult task of exposing Britain's policies and
tactics. The time has come, however, to reveal to American Jewry, and espe-
cially to the Zionists of America, the remaining part of the sad truth relating
to the Jewish tragedy in the world.
ZIONIST APPEASEMENT
The truth is that just as Britain under Chamberlain and France under.
Daladier, so, too, Zionism under Weizmann has been the victim of a policy of
sterile appeasement. Dr. Chaim Weizmann and his Executive believed in a
good-fellow attitude toward Britain, even while British governments were busily
engaged in the systematic liquidation of Zionism. Since Britain was antagonistic
to the creation of a Jewish State, the official Zionist leadership obediently
shelved the Jewish State idea. As the report of the Palestine Inquiry Committee
states, "the demand for a Jewish State was expressly disowned by the Chairman
of the Jewish Agency as late as 1932."
For years Weizmann and his associates minimized Zionist aims, and played
around with defeatist political plans, like bi-nationalism, cantonization and
partition. They did not mobilize the Jewish world and the powers interested in
solving the Jewish question for a determined opposition to Britain's policy in
Palestine—to her arbitrary violation of every stipulation of the Mandate and
every rule of decency and justice. They constantly retreated without putting up
a fight, giving up one position after another. They preferred to collaborate with
Britain under all circumstances, and, like all collaborators, instead of fighting
the enemy, they fought the militant elements in Zionism which demanded vigor-
ous resistance to Britain's encroachment on Jewish rights and a radical change
in the Zionist stand.
THE RISE OF REVISIONISM
Early in the twenties, the greatest leaders of Zionism, Israel Zangwill,
Max Nordau and Justice Louis Brandeis, warned Jewry of the disastrous re-
sults implied in Weizmann's policy of submission. In 1925,Vladimir Jabotinsky,
the creator of the Jewish Legions in World War I, formed the Zionist-Revisionist
movement which demanded a complete revision of Zionist policy and methods,
raised again the banner of the Jewish State, and revived Zionism as a militant
and political-minded force.
A SIGNIFICANT CHOICE
When Zionists go to the elections for the next Zionist Congress, they will
have to make an all-important choice. They will have to vote either for the
Revisionists, or for the parties responsible for the present debacle. They must
make their choice on the basis of the political record of each side. And this
record speaks loudly and unmistakably against the continuation of the present
regime in Zionism.
In 1922, the Zionist Executive acquiesced in the severance of Eastern
Palestine —Transjordan —which constitutes three-fourths of the mandated area,
and silently witnessed the formation there of an Arab puppet government. It
was not until the recent British declaration of Transjordan's "independence"
that Zionist leadership even mentioned Transjordan as part of Zionist aspira-
tions. Only the Revisionists persistently declared Transjordan part and parcel of
the Jewish National territory—a Jewish irredenta that must be redeemed.
2. Partition
In 1937, when the British Royal Commission proposed a further partition
of Palestine, so that four-fifths of the Western part would go to the Arabs and
one-fifth to the Jews, the New Zionist Organization and the Jewish State Party
violently opposed this plan. But Weizman and his associates agreed even to this
proposal and fought for its acceptance in the twentieth Zionist Congress. Had
it depended on them, the Jewish State would be limited to a tiny corner of the
Jewish Homeland, or to approximately five per cent of the original mandated
area. The plan was dropped by the British. Emboldened by limitless Zionist sub-
mission, Britain substituted for the partition scheme the White Paper of 1939.
3. Evacuation
In 1938, in the face of the growing threat to Jewish communities in East-
Central Europe, Jabotinsky urged the speedy evacuation to Palestine of the
Jewish masses in that area. This demand was met by a hail of scorn and oppo-
sition from the official Zionist leadership. They neither foresaw the imminent
catastrophy, nor did they do anything to meet it.
4. Resistance
All freedom-loving and right-thinking men now realize the moral and
- political value of the Resistance Movement in Palestine. This movement origi-
nated in the Revisionist education and training of Jewish youth for national
service, so as to prepare them to give their lives for the defense of the Jewish
land, rights and honor. In contrast, the official Zionist leadership systematically
repudiated the Resistance movement. Only a few months ago this leadership
actively collaborated with the Palestine Government in suppressing Jewish
resistance and denounced Jewish patriots to the Palestine police.
A DOWNWARD PATH
This is but part of the shocking political record of the present Zionist
leadership. Illustrations of its policy can be multiplied endlessly, but we
believe the pattern is clear. This pattern was marked by lack of vision,
lack of courage and lack of faith in the Zionist ideal. It was characterized
by a fatally erroneous concept of the Jewish situation in the world and
of Britain's intentions in Palestine; by surrendering the territorial integ-
rity of the Jewish Homeland; by opposition to resistance; by compromise
and defeatism.
TIME FOR DECISION
Every honest and forthright Zionist must realize that—at this eleventh
hour in the struggle for Jewish statehood—the fate of Jewry can no longer be
entrusted to the palsied, failing hands of those who led Zionism to the verge of
disaster. It is our patriotic duty to help present to the world a strong and deter-
mined Zionist Organization, cleansed of the cowardly spirit of appeasement,
freed of the deadly influence of a long bankrupt leadership with an unbroken
record of pathetic political failures.
World Jewry is craving for a new, forthright, courageous, militant program
of action, conceived and implemented by men who believe in it, who know
what they want and know how to achieve it. The vital need of the hour is a new
start with new leaders, unfettered by a past full of errors and defeats. Zionism
must be rejuvenated and invigorated by new blood and by a spirit of resistance
worthy of the heroic struggle of the Jewish youth in Palestine and of the Jewish
partisans in Europe.
LET YOUR SHEKEL SPEAK FOR JEWISH FRIEDOM!
If you wish to save Zionism from threatening doom, support the
United Zionists-Revisionists in the elections to the next Zionist Congress.
Secure your right to participate in the elections! Acquire a Shekel—the
Zionist voting ticket. Your vote for the United Zionists-Revisionists is a
vote for the establishment of the Jewish State!
THE UNITED ZIONISTS-REVISIONISTS OF AMERICA
(New Zionists and Jewish State Party)
MEIR GROSSMAN COL. MORRIS J. MENDELSOHN MM. WILLIAM R. FRIEDMAN
President
Vice-President
Vice-President
DR. MORRIS ROSE
LEO WOLFSON
DR. RAPHAEL KURZROK
Vice-President
Chairman, National Council
Vice-Chairman, Nat'l. Council
❑
I am in sympathy with your views and wish to assist you in your campaign for the
formation of a Jewish State in -Palestine. I am pleased to enclose my check for
❑
I wish to participate in the elections to the forthcoming Zionist Congress. Please send
me your election platform and Shekalim.
NAMF
ADDRESS
Please make checks payable to the United Zionists-Revisionists, 55 West 42nd Street,
New York, N. Y. If you wish to receive information from time to time, regarding progress
made, check here
1946