The Jewish State, by Theodor Herzl
- Peter Myers; date January 15, 2004; update August 15, 2020
My comments are shown {thus}.
Write to me at contact.html.
You are at http://mailstar.net/herzl.html.
(1) The Jewish State, by Theodor Herzl
(2) the Late Amendment to the Balfour Declaration
(3) Balfour Declaration's author was a secret Jew (Leo Amery)
(4) Herzl: the area of the Jewish State stretches: "From the Brook
of Egypt to the Euphrates"
(1) The Jewish State, by Theodor Herzl
(Dover Publications, New York, 1988. Reprint - originally published in 1946 by the American Zionist Emergency Council, New York; edited, & the original translation (by Slyvie d'Avigdor) revised by Jacob M. Alkow)
{p. 85} NO ONE CAN DENY THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION OF the Jews. Wherever they live in perceptible numbers, they are more or less persecuted. Their equality before the law, granted by statute, has become practically a dead letter. They are debarred from filling even moderately high positions, either in the army, or in any public or private capacity. And attempts are made to thrust them out of business also: "Don't buy from Jews!"
Attacks in Parliaments, in assemblies, in the press, in the pulpit, in the street, on journeys - for example, their exclusion from certain hotels - even in places of recreation, become daily more numerous. The forms of persecutions varying according to the countries and social circles in which they occur. In Russia, imposts are levied on Jewish villages; in Rumania, a few persons are put to death; in Germany, they get a good beating occasionally; in Austria, Anti-Semites exercise terrorism over all public life; in Algeria, there are travelling agitators; in Paris, the Jews are shut out of the so-called best social circles and excluded from clubs. Shades of anti-Jewish feeiing are innumerable. But this is not to be an attempt to make out a doleful category of Jewish hardships.
I do not intend to arouse sympathetic emotions on our behalf. That would be foolish, futile, and undignified proceeding. I shall content myself with putting the following questions to the Jews: Is it not true that, in countries where we live in perceptible numbers, the position of Jewish lawyers, doctors, technicians, teachers, and employees of all descriptions becomes daily more intolerable? Is it not true,
{p. 86} that the Jewish middle classes are seriously threatened? Is it not true, that the passions of the mob are incited against our wealthy people? Is it not true, that our poor endure greater sufferings than any other proletariat? I think that this external pressure makes itself felt everywhere. In our economically upper classes it causes discomfort, in our middle classes continual and grave anxieties, in our lower classes absolute despair.
Everything tends, in fact, to one and the same conclusion, which is clearly enunciated in that classic Berlin phrase: "Juden Raus!" (Out with the Jews!)
I shall now put the Question in the briefest possible form: Are we to "get out" now and where to?
Or, may we yet remain? And, how long?
Let us first settle the point of staying where we are. Can we hope for better days, can we possess our souls in patience, can we wait in pious resignation till the princes and peoples of this earth are more mercifully disposed towards us? I say that we cannot hope for a change in the current of feeling. And why not? Even if we were as near to the hearts of princes as are their other subjects, they could not protect us. They would only feel popular hatred by showing us too much favor. By "too much," I really mean less than is claimed as a right by every ordinary citizen, or by every race. The nations in whose midst Jews live are all either covertly or openly Anti-Semitic.
The common people have not, and indeed cannot have, any historic comprehension. They do not know that the sins of the Middle Ages are now being visited on the nations of Europe. We are what the Ghetto made us. We have attained pre-eminence in finance, because mediaeval conditions drove us to it. The same process is now
{p. 87} being repeated. We are again being forced into finance, now it is the stock exchange, by being kept out of other branches of economic activity. Being on the stock exchange, we are consequently exposed afresh to contempt. At the same time we continue to produce an abundance of mediocre intellects who find no outlet, and this endangers our social position as much as does our increasing wealth. Educated Jews without means are now rapidly becoming Socialists. Hence we are certain to suffer very severely in the struggle between classes, bccause we stand in the most exposed position in the camps of both Socialists and capitalists.
{see an image of the above paragraphs at: herzl-jewish-state-86-7.jpg}
PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS AT A SOLUTION
The artificial means heretofore employed to overcome the troubles of Jews have been either too petty - such as attempts at colonization - or attempts to convert the Jews into peasants in their present homes.
What is achieved by transporting a few thousand Jews to another country? Either they come to grief at once, or prosper, and then their prosperity creates Anti-Semitism. We have already discussed these attempts to divert poor Jews to fresh districts. This diversion is clearly inadeuate and futile, if it does not actually defeat its own ends; for it merely protracts and postpones a solution, and perhaps even aggravates difficulties.
Whoever would attempt to convert the Jew into a husbandman would be making an extraordinary mistake. For a pcasant is in a historical category, as proved by his costumc which in some countries he has worn for centuries; and by his tools, which are identical with those used by his earliest forefathers. His plough is unchanged; he carries the seced in his apron; mows with the historical
{p. 88} scythe, and threshes with the time-honored flail. But we know that all this can be done by machinery. The agrarian question is only a question of machinery. America must conquer Europe, in the same way as large landed possessions absorb small ones. The peasant is consequently a type which is in course of extinction. Whenever he is artificially preserved, it is done on account of the political interests which he is intended to serve. It is absurd, and indeed impossible, to make modern peasants on the old pattern. No one is wealthy or powerful enough to make civilization take a single retrograde step. The mere preservation of obsolete institutions is a task severe enough to require the enforcement of all the despotic measures of an autocratically governed State.
Are we, therefore, to credit Jews who are intelligent with a desire to become peasants of the old type ? One might just as well say to them: "Here is a cross-bow: now go to war!" What? With a cross-bow, while the others have rifles and long range guns? Under these circumstances the Jews are perfectly justified in refusing to stir when people try to make peasants of them. A cross-bow is a beautiful weapon, which inspires me with mournful feelings when I have time to devote to them. But it belongs by rights to a museum.
Now, there certainly are districts to which desperate Jews go out, or at any rate, are willing to go out and till the soil. And a little observation shows that these districts - such as the enclave of Hesse in Germany, and some provinces in Russia - these very districts are the principal seats of Anti-Semitism.
For the world's reformers, who send the Jews to the plough, forget a very important person, who has a great deal to say on the matter. This person is the agriculturist,
{p. 89} and the agriculturist is also perfectly justified. For the tax on land, the risks attached to crops, the pressure of large proprietors who cheapen labor, and American competition in particular, combine to make his life hard enough. Besides, the duties on corn cannot go on increasing indefinitely. Nor can the manufacturer be allowed to starve; his political influence is, in fact, in the ascendant, and he must therefore be treated with additional consideration.
All these difficulties are well known, therefore I refer to them only cursorily. I merely wanted to indicate clearly how futile had been past attempts - most of them well intentioned - to solve the Jewish Question. Neither a diversion of the stream, nor an artificial depression of the intellectual level of our proletariat, will overcome the dificulty. The supposed infallible expedient of assimilation has already been dealt with.
We cannot get the better of Anti-Semitism by any of these methods. It cannot die out so long as its causes are not removed. Are they removable ?
CAUSES OF ANTI-SEMITISM
We shall not again touch on those causes which are a result of temperament, prejudice and narrow views, but shall here restrict ourselves to political and economical causes alone. Modern Anti-Semitism is not to be confounded with the religious persecution of the Jews of former times. It does occasionally take a religious bias in some countries, but the main current of the aggressive movement has now changed. In the principal countries where Anti-Semitism prevails, it does so as a result of the emancipation of the Jews. When civilized nations awoke to the inhumanity of discriminatory legislation and en-
{p. 90} franchised us, our enfranchisernent came too late. It was no longer possible to remove our disabilities in our old homes. For we had, curiously enough, developed while in the Ghetto into a bourgeois people, and we stepped out of it only to enter into fierce competition with the middle classes. Hence, our emancipation set us suddenly within this middle-class circle, where we have a double pressure to sustain, from within and from without. The Christian bourgeoisie would not be unwilling to cast us as a sacrifice to Socialism, though that would not greatly improve matters.
At the same time, the equal rights of Jews before the law cannot be withdrawn where they have once been conceded. Not only because their withdrawal would be opposed to the spirit of our age, but also because it would immediately drive all Jews, rich and poor alike, into the ranks of subversive parties. Nothing effectual can really be done to our injury. In olden days our jewels were seized. How is our movable property to be got hold of now? It consists of printed papers which are locked up somewhere or other in the world, perhaps in the coffers of Christians. It is, of course, possible to get at shares and debentures in railways, banks and industrial undertakings of all descriptions by taxation, and where the progressive income-tax is in force all our movable property can eventually be laid hold of. But all these efforts cannot be directed against Jews alone, and wherever they might nevertheless be made, severe economic crises would be their immediate consequences, which would be by no means confined to the Jews who would be the first affected. The very impossibility of getting at the Jews nourishes and embitters hatred of them. Anti-semitism increases day by day and hour by hour among the nations; indeed it is bound to increase, because the causes of its growth con-
{p. 91} tinue to exist and cannot be removed. Its remote cause is or loss of the power of assimilation during the Middle Ages; its immediate cause is our excessive production of mediocre intellects, who cannot find an outlet downwards or upwards - that is to say, no wholesome outlet in either direction. When we sink, we become a revolutionary proletariat, the subordinate officers of all revolutionary parties; and at the same time, when we rise, there rises also our terrible power of the purse.
{see an image of the above paragraphs at: herzl-jewish-state-90-1.jpg}
EFFECTS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
The oppression we endure does not improve us, for we are not a whit better than ordinary people. It is true that we do not love our enemies; but he alone who can conquer himself dare reproach us with that fault. Oppression naturally creates hostility against oppressors, and our hostility aggravates the pressure. It is impossible to escape from this eternal circle.
"No!" Some soft-hearted visionaries will say: "No, it is possible! Possible bv means of the ultimate perfection of humanity."
Is it necessary to point to the sentimental folly of this view? He who would found his hope for improved conditions on the ultimate perfection of humanity would indeed be relying upon a Utopia!
I referred previously to our "assimilation". I do not for a moment wish to imply that I desire such an end. Our national character is too historically famous, and, in spite of every degradation, too fine to make its annihilation desirable. We might perhaps be able to merge ourselves entirely into surrounding races, if these were to leave us in peace for a period of two generations. But they will not ...
{endquote}
Herzl says, "We are again being forced into finance, now it is the stock exchange, by being kept out of other branches of economic activity" (p. 87).
Yet in the U.S., Jews are not subject to such coercion; nevertheless they are once again in finance. During the Asia Crisis, the leading financial players were disproportionately Jewish: asia-crisis.html.
Herzl writes of people saying "Don't buy from Jews!"
Some years ago, a Jewish bookshop proprietor said to me - assuming that I was a Jew - "There are only 500 Jews" - in the city where he operated a small business - "it's not good for business".
I couldn't understand this, until I recalled how Japanese package tourists in Queensland in the 1980s were preferentially buying at Japanese shops. Tribalism - it's the way a minority survives and preserves itself.
(2) the Late Amendment to the Balfour Declaration
It had been observed that whereas among most peoples, the classes form a triangle with a wide base at the bottom narrowing to few in the upper classes at the top, Jews instead tended to form an inverted triangle, with few in the lower classes and a concentration at the top.
This meant that, despite their small numbers, their influence in Western societies was disproportionate.
The reason given was that they lacked their own country. It was put forward as a reason for Zionism, the creation of Israel being a correction.
During the 20 years from the first Zionist Congess (1897) to the Balfour Declaration (1917), an argument commonly used was that Jews had to segregate themselves (in a recreated Israel) for defence against discrimination.
A late amendment to the Balfour Declaration addressed the worry that Jews remaining in the West might thereby be pressured to leave, or forgo their disproportionate influence in Western countries.
The late amendment addressed these concerns by adding the words, "nothing shall be done which may prejudice ... the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
{quote} THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. Yours sincerely, ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR
{end}
(3) Balfour Declaration's author was a secret Jew (Leo Amery)
Balfour Declaration's author was a secret Jew
Jerusalem Post Tuesday, January 12, 1999
http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/12.Jan.1999/News/Article-9.html
By DOUGLAS DAVIS
LONDON (January 12) - Leopold Amery, the author of the Balfour Declaration - the 1917 document from British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild which laid the groundwork for the establishment of the State of Israel - was a secret Jew.
This has been disclosed in just-published research by William Rubinstein, professor of modern history at the University of Wales, who says Amery hid his Jewish background.
Ironically, one of Amery's sons, John, achieved infamy when he defected to Nazi Germany and was hanged for treason in London after World War II. The other son, Julian, succeeded his father as a member of Parliament and was a staunch supporter of Israel. He died two years ago.
In his 1955 autobiography, Amery, who was assistant secretary to the British war cabinet in 1917, said his own father, Charles Frederick Amery, came from an old English family.
His mother, Elisabeth Leitner Amery, he wrote, was part of a stream of Hungarian exiles who fled first to Constantinople and then to England.
According to Rubinstein's research, Amery's mother was born to Jewish parents in 1841 and was named Elisabeth Joanna Saphir. The family lived in Pest, which later became part of Budapest and contained the city's first Jewish quarter.
Both of her parents were Jewish, says Rubinstein, who adds that Amery himself changed his middle name from Moritz to Maurice in an attempt to disguise its origins.
As assistant secretary to the war cabinet, Amery not only drafted the Balfour Declaration, but also was responsible for establishing the Jewish Legion, the first organized Jewish fighting force since Roman times, which proved to be the forerunner of the modern Israel Defense Forces.
Later, as secretary of state for dominion affairs from 1925 to 1929, he spearheaded what many regard as the most impressive period of peaceful growth in pre-state Palestine.
But his most significant contribution to British politics was a powerful speech in parliament which is thought to have played a key role in precipitating the departure of prime minister Joseph Chamberlain in 1940 and the accession to power of Winston Churchill, who was to lead Britain through World War II.
Rubinstein, whose disclosures are contained in the February edition of History Today, describes Amery's deception as "possibly the most remarkable example of concealment of identity in 20th century British political history."
Rubinstein, who suspects that both of Amery's sons knew of their Jewish origins, believes Leopold Amery decided to conceal his own Jewishness for fear of persecution, because he was confused about his status following his relatives' conversion to Protestantism, and because of the obstacles it might have posed at the time to his political ambitions.
Finally, Rubinstein believes Amery might have hidden his origins to avoid pressure for favors from the Jewish community.
{end}
(4) Herzl: the area of the Jewish State stretches: "From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates"
In his Complete Diaries, Vol. II. p. 711, Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, says that the area of the Jewish State stretches: "From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates":
{quote} Discussed with Bodenheimer the demands we will make.
Area: from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates. Stipulate a transitional
period with our own institutions. A Jewish governor for this period. Afterwards,
a relationship like that between Egypt and the Sultan. As soon as the Jewish
inhabitants of a district amount to 2/3 of the population, Jewish administration
goes in force politically, while local government (communal autonomy) always
depends on the number of voters in the community.
These are Bodenheimer's ideas, in part excellent.
A transitional stage is a good idea.
{endquote}
Source: The Complete Diaries of Theodore Herzl, Volume 2, p. 711 (New York: Herzl Press and Thomas Yoseloff, 1960).
For an image of the text, with the computerized call slip from the National Library of Australia, see herzl.jpg.
{end}
David Lloyd-George on the Balfour Declaration: l-george.html.
Robert John, Behind the Balfour Declaration: balfour.html.
Back to the Zionism/Communism index: zioncom.html.
Write to me at contact.html.
