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252 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 18, 2025
Stephen Wise and Hadassah president Tamar de Sola Pool warned that the forcible transfer of the Arabs would have repercussions on Diaspora Jewry (it was "a menace to Jewish life in the Galuth ... a boomerang we are hurling into the heart of our people" because it would "lead to an ending of the safeguarding of minorities everywhere"[34], and U.S. Labor Zionist leader Hayim Greenberg asserted that there was "no moral and political possibility to force [the Arabs] to leave the Jewish territory." But their colleague, Reform rabbi Barnett Brickner, who served as spokesman for the majority of the ZOA delegation at the World Zionist Congress that August, contended that resettling "large portions of Arab fellaheen" would be "practical and humane." Others straddled the fence. Jews were historically "tender to safeguard the rights of minorities," yet "the first major step of the Jewish state is to oust a minority," Robert Szold complained to a Hadassah convention; yet in the same breath, Szold indicated that he would not object if the Arab transfer were carried out by the British.
[34] Ironically, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, with whom Wise was at odds, made the same point, declaring that he "never dreamed of asking the Arabs who live in a Jewish country to emigrate." It would be "a most dangerous precedent, extremely harmful to the Jewish interests in the Diaspora," he said, arguing that it might be used to justify the expulsion of Diaspora Jewish communities.
This new era of historical re-examination on the left has forced us Americans to grapple with uncomfortable truths in our own history, from the treatment of Native Americans to Japanese-American internment camps to the original sin of slavery and the long shadow of racial prejudice against our Black citizens. Very rightly so. But it also led to a few excesses. . . because some Jewish people have done exceedingly well in America, because Israel has grown only more powerful over the last several decades, it could appear that Jews . . . —to quote the language of some—are the "oppressors."
Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.
These days, when Americans sometimes talk about going back to the good old days or wanting to make America great again, many of them seem to be yearning for a time in America when there was less anomie; a time when we didn't feel like individual atoms bumping into one another but not connected to one another; a time when the old roots of society—family, religion, community—were much stronger.
There are 40% non-Jews in the areas allocated to the Jewish state. This composition is not a solid basis for a Jewish state. And we have to face this new reality with all its severity and distinctness. Such a demographic balance questions our ability to maintain Jewish sovereignty ... Only a state with at least 80% Jews is a viable and stable state.