AFTER YEARS
OF ADDING FEATURES
TO OUR LUGGAGE,
WE'RE FINALLY TAKING
SOMETHING OFF.
Zionism
entity recognized by international
law.
But rumbles of dissatisfaction could
be heard. These came to a head at the
London Zionist Conference of July,
1920, the first international assembly
of the movement since 1913.
Although Chaim Weizmann was elect-
ed president unopposed, the London
Conference inaugurated a conflict
within the organization between forces
loyal to Weizmann and those who
looked for leadership to Justice Louis
D. Brandeis, the leading U.S. figure.
In Palestine itself,
the period between
1920 and 1929 was
one of slow and
uneven progress.
Severe shortage of
funds impaired the
organization of mass
Jewish immigration on
the scale envisaged in
the heady aftermath of
the Balfour Declara-
tion. Arab anti-Jewish
riots in April, 1920,
and May, 1921, led
the British to adopt a
cautious approach to
the Jewish national
home.
The outbreak of severe anti-Zionist
disturbances among Arabs in in
August, 1929, led to a prolonged crisis
in relations between Zionists and the
British. In 1930, Weizmann resigned
as President of the Zionist Organiza-
tion and the Jewish Agency in protest
against British policy.
The rise of Nazism in Germany and
the intensification of anti-Semitism in
eastern Europe produced a substantial
increase in Jewish immigration. Dur-
ing the fifth Aliya (1929-39) more
than one-quarter million Jews arrived.
By 1939 the Jewish population of the
country numbered 475,000.
The. large influx of some 53,000
German Jews, with their skills, know-
how, and capital, transformed the
Palestinian Jewish economy. But the
quickened pace of development
aroused Arab resentment, which cul-
minated in a full-scale Arab revolt in
1936.
In response, the British government
appointed a Royal Commission under
Lord Peel, which recommended in
1937 the partition of Palestine into
independent Jewish and Arab states.
The White Paper of 1939, severely
restricting Jewish immigration,
marked a decisive British shift away
from the Balfour Declaration and
aroused bitter Zionist opposition.
The 21st Zionist Congress at Gene-
va in August, 1939, was a sorrowful
event. During the proceedings news
arrived of the Nazi-Soviet pact; it
became apparent that war was immi-
nent. Weizmann closed with an emo-
tional statement: "I have no prayer but
this: that we will all
meet again alive."
During the war,
Zionist diplomatic
activity shifted from
Britain to the United
States, giving special
significance to Ameri-
cans such as Rabbis
Stephen Wise and
Abba Hillel Silver.
This found expression
in the Biltmore Pro-
gram adopted by a
conference of Ameri-
can Zionists in May,
1942 when all Ameri-
can Zionist organiza-
tions went on record
as demanding the establishment of a
Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine.
The failure of the British govern-
ment to devise a solution to the Arab-
Jewish conflict led it to turn the issue
over to the United Nations.
On November 29, 1947 the United
Nations General Assembly passed the
partition plan that called for the estab-
lishment of a Jewish state and an Arab
state from the British mandate territo-
ry. During the next six months war
erupted between the Jews and Arabs.
David Ben-Gurion became the prime
minister in waiting of the Jewish state
to be.
On May 14, 1948, the British man-
date authorities withdrew from Pales-
tine and at midnight the modern State
of Israel was declared. At 6:11 p.m.
that day President Harry Truman rec-*
ognized the new State of Israel, the
first nation to do so.
Zionism had achieved its aim — the
Jewish people, after nearly 2,000 years,
had a country to call their own.
Herzl's
movement
became the
most dynamic
force in
modern
Jewish history.
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