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of these nations who interfere in a
quarrel not their own?
Listen! "The burden of the word
of the Eterna! for Israel, saith the
Eterna!. ... Behold, 1 will make Je–
rusalem a cup of trembling unto all
the people round about, when they
shall be in the siege both against
Judah (the Jews] and against Jerusa–
lem. And in that day will
1
make
Jerusalem a burdensome stone for
all people (all nations]: all that bur–
den themselves with it
sha/1 be cut in
pieces,
though all the people of the
earth be gathered together against
it" (Zech. 12: 1-3).
The Jews' Answer to the Shelk
But what is the
Jewish view
on this
question? Have they an answer to
Sheik Hafiz Wabba's "unanswer–
able" argument?
In New York, returning from Eu–
rope, 1 spent nearly an entire after–
noon in conference at the American
office of the World Confederation of
General Zionists with ltzhak (Isaac)
J. Karpman, executive director of
tbe World Confederation.
A young Jewish Palestine labor
leader, Hapoel Hatzair, had just ar–
rived in New York from Palestine,
and he sat in on our chat for about
an hour.
I told Mr. Karpman what the
Arabian minister had told me- the
Arab's "unanswerable" argument.
And did he have an answer? He had
a
sizzling answer!
"First, Jet me state a few census
figures," he said, "so you'll have the
exact relative populations in mind.
According to the 1944 official Pales–
tine census, there are 1,750,000 total
population in Palestine. [Now over
two million.] Of these, 1,100,000 are
Moslems, mostly Arabs; 530,000 are
Jews; 140,000 are Christians; 15,000
miscellaneous."
(Actually, today, 1948, there are
about 1,300,000 Arabs and 710,000
Jews in all Palestine. In the new
J ewish na tion called "IsRAEL,"
roughly half of Palestine, there are
about 600,000 Jews and only
395,000 Arabs. In the city of Jerusa–
lem today are approximately
100,000 Jews and 100,000 Arabs.)
"All right," said Isaac Ka rpman.
"let's take the Arabian minister's ex–
ample- California- and see if the
circumstances a re the same.
6
"Conditions are altogether differ–
ent. Today, the real
liJe
in Palestine
is JEWISH! The real life in California
is American, not Japanese. In Pales–
tine today industry, banking, insur–
ance, commerce is
90 percent
Jewish!
Only 10 percent Arab! Agri–
culture in Palest ine-40 percent Jew–
ish ! Jews pay 87 percent of the
income tax in Palestine. How much
do the Japanese pay in California?
"Now Jet me tell you what
Hadas–
sah
has accomplished!
Hadassah
is
the women's Zionist organization of
America, with 220,000 members.
Since 1920 they have been caring
for the health and hospitalization
needs in Palestine. They maintain in
Palestine a large organization of so–
cial workers and spend four million
dollars a year in bringing about bet–
ter health and sanitation conditions
in Palestine. Now there are more
than three hundred million Arabs–
only about a million of them are in
Palestine. But because of the chari–
table work of this Jewish women's
organization, the highest birth rate
and lowest death rate of Arabs in
the world are in Palest ine. These
conditions are terrible in Egypt,
Iraq, Syria, and other Arab na–
tions."
How Jews Feel About Palestlne
" If a Jew feels he is a Jew," contin–
ued the Zionist executive director,
"if
he is connected with Jewish
people, he feels a
connection
with
Palestine. All Jewish life, through all
the history of the Jewish people, has
centered around Jerusalem and Pal–
estine.
"All Jewish education has in–
stilled in Jewisb people a definite
connection with Palest ine. From
childhood all Jewish boys and girls
have been taught of the glory of the
Jewish people in ancient Palestine.
The glory of God is inseparably in–
terwoven with the glory of Palestine.
Palestine is the center of Jewish
education, of Jewish religion, of
Jewish culture, of Jewish family
life-it is the very
hearí
ofthe Jew!
It
means his
liJe!
To separate our
people from Palestine would be
to
tear our hearts out!
"The basic Jewish law, of family
life, of social relationships, of reli–
gious ljfe. is laid down by the San–
hedrin, inseparably connected with
Palestine. For many centuries our
people have been dispersed, driven
from nation to nation, scattered a ll
over the world, with no national
home or nation of our own. But
through all these centuries the Jews
have felt they were exiled and
driven cruelly from
their home–
PALESTINE! All these centuries Pa l–
estine has been, in their hearts, their
HOME from which they were tempo–
rarily driven.
lt
is the
only
national
home and center of the Jews! But
Palestine has never been the na–
tional home, or center, of the Arabs,
but just a small part of their terri–
tory-just a place where
a sma/1 part
of them have settled and lived.
" Mr. Wabba 's California illustra–
tion is not a fair comparison at all!"
And Mr. Karpman waxed almost
vehement. "The Japanese have their
ancient borne in Japan. If such an
absurd event should happen as for
them to ask for California for a new
Japanese nation, such demand
would bave no basis whatever. But
we have
every
basis for demanding
Palestine for our borne! Or, 1 sup–
pose he might say the lndians might
demand California back as their na–
tional home. The Indians were there
before the white man. But the In–
dians had never developed Califor–
nia; the Jews did, and are now.
developing Palest ine. Arabs never
did, and are not now, developing
Palestine! California never was the
center of Indian life, religion. and
industry, or any semblance of na–
tional life. There is no comparison
whatever!"
52 Natlons Gave Jews Rlght To
SeHie In Palestlne
" Now, do the Jews bave any real
right
to be in Palestine today? The
Arabian sheik doesn't want to base
his claims on the Bible, because he
must know God rejected lshmael
and gave the land to the descen–
dants of Isaac. But aside from the
Bible claim, Jet us look at our rights
in Palestine based only on the au–
thority of modero nations and con–
ditions as of today. Palestine was
opened to Jews after 52 nations (the
League of Nations] decided they
had a
right
to go there and create a
Jewish national home in Palestine.
And these nations based this right
on the Bible, on Jewish history, Jew-
The PLAIN TAUTH February 1979