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7%e י:.׳• • JEWISH LEGION VB f cutci• זי THE PALESTINE QUESTION Published by THE NEW ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA 55 West 42nd Street • New York * The following addresses were delivered at a dinner celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the creation of the Jewish Legion in World War I, at the Hotel Astor, New York City, on March 18, 1945. The dinner was held under the auspices of the New Zionist Organization of America in honor of the British Commander of the Legion, Colonel John Henry Patterson, D.S.O. The entire scope of the Jewish question and the role of Palestine in war as in peace are discussed in these ad- dresses. Jewish contribution to Allied victory in both wars, as compared with the Arab position, is one of the subjects dealt with in detail, while Britain's policy in the Arab region, and America's interest in the Middle East, are given special attention. The addresses also dwell upon the relation between the Jewish question and world peace, and the re• percussions which an unsolved Jewish problem will have in Europe, the Middle East and throughout the world in the post-war era. To all those who wish to acquire basic knowledge and true understanding of the Jewish question and the Palestine situation, we recommend these addresses as must reading of first rate importance. MAJOR WILLIAM R. FRIEDMAN Acting Chairman, Executive Board New Zionist Organization of America April, 1945. THE LEGACY OF THE JEWISH LEGION by Col. MORRIS J. MENDELSOHN President, New Zionist Organization of America My fellow Zionists and friends: On this occasion when we are met to commemorate the thirtieth an- niversary of that historic day when our honor guest of the evening assumed command of the Jewish Legion, it is eminently fitting and proper that we review that eventful circumstance and its repercussions as they affect the present status of the Palestine issue. Thrilling and triumphant was the saga of that first Jewish Legion instituted on March 19th, 1915 in the ancient Egyptian city of Alex- andria; the Legion of Trumpeldor, who fell, his body literally riddled with bullets, in defense of Tel Hai; the Zion Mule Corps, whose deeds of daring and intrepidity at Gallipoli won for them expressions of highest admiration from the Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces; the Legion of Jabotinsky—the Fighting Judeans—serving so courageously with the British Expeditionary Forces—battling for the recovery of the land their fathers loved and tilled at Amman, the ancient capital of Palestine; at Es Sault and Beersheba; at Gaza and Jaffa and Jericho—fitting echo of the Jewish valor of Joshua, Bar- Kochba, Akkiba and the Maccabees. Without Reward What a sad commentary upon our vaunted civilization, is the pro- verbial ingratitude of nations; that the enormous sacrifice of life and limb by those gallant Jewish patriots who bared their breasts to enemy shot and shell for Britain and for freedom's cause was so soon forgot- ten! How sad is the thought that these heroic defenders of liberty and democracy shall have fought and bled and suffered and died to achieve liberty and democracy for every other people but their own people— that they shall have died in vain! Thirty years have passed since those stirring events which left their indelible imprint in the annals of Jewish history, and here on this very platform, by the grace of God, we greet the intrepid Commander of the Jewish Legion who came here from the west coast to pay tribute to the gallant Legionnaires who served under his courageous leadership. 5 On this occasion I am greatly pleased to recall that in 1924 I was privileged, as Commander-in-Chief of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, to decorate this—truly one of nature's noblemen—in company with his great collaborator and associate, Vladimir Jabotinsky, with the Medallion of Honorary Membership of that militant Ex- servicemen's Association. Colonel John Henry Patterson, Honorary President of the New Zionist Organization of America, I extend to you the greetings of all the love and fervor of an admiring multitude of friends and well- wishers—may you be spared to us for many more years of active ser- vice in the cause of humanity. The Teachings of Jabotinsky Gone from our midsts is the immortal founder and leader of our movement—he whom you loved and who loved you—the indomitable Vladimir Jabotinsky who fought side by side with you against the common enemy, as previously he had fought against tremendous op- position for the formation of the Legion; and who inspired his follow- ers to prodigious deeds of unexampled heroism. Gone I say is the voice of Jabotinsky, but his spirit lingers on and his message to us is clear-cut and well defined—it may be summed up in one word: FIGHT! It is only by determination and aggression—by militant action— that the rightful demands of our downtrodden brethren may be ex- pected to be heard. It is only to those nations which have fought for their liberties with every means at their command that history accords a place among the living, the respected, and the free. This is the lesson that Jabotinsky taught us, and which history has so emphatically— and alas—so tragically confirmed. If we follow in the footsteps of him who was a prophet in his generation, it follows as inevitably as day follows night that the people of Israel shall at long last be free. During the war, England had for its motto—"There will always be an England, and England shall be free." Let Israel follow in the path charted by Jabotinsky and it may rest assured: "There will always be a Jewish people, and the Jewish people shall be free." 6 THE JEWISH PROBLEM AND ITS SOLUTION By WILLIAM B. ZIFF Author, "The Gentlemen Talk of Peace" Mr. Chairman: Ten years ago I returned from a visit to Europe, convinced that that continent was in the throes of violent social change which would show itself in chauvinist reaction of the blackest kind. I wrote at that time that unless the Jews of Europe were taken out of there, they would all be slaughtered under conditions unequalled on this earth since the bitter days when the ruffian hordes of the wild Cos- sack Chmielnicki ravaged Eastern Europe. A Hopeless Situation It was clear that in the old world at least, the Jewish problem was a universal problem. More accurately, perhaps, it was not a Jewish problem at all, but an anti-Semite problem. In any case, it represented a pathological condition which only could grow hopelessly worse as it went along. This was a potentially desperate situation, which obvi- ously could not be cured by the use of such mild political poultices as pacts, agreements, or minority clauses, or the assurances embodied in so-called educational measures. The remedies of Socialism and edu- cation were also to prove valueless. It was in Germany, the most highly socialized and best educated of all the Western countries, that the lightning of hatred and cultural cannibalism struck first and hardest. What is the Solution? It was apparent that the only common-sense solution for this major problem was to allow the Jews to normalize their lives by becoming like other nations, rather than to flit through history as an apparition whose very identity was in question. The persecuted Jews of Europe who wished to live as nationals under a Jewish Government could then do so. Those who wished to merge their identities with other peoples, and perhaps disappear as Jews altogether, also would be free to do so, relieved for the first time of those ghostlike conventions by which they were linked, in the popular judgment, with an alien and gypsy past. Jews Everywhere Affected Thus, this became a question affecting not only the Jews who were persecuted, but in a certain sense, Jews everywhere. Its solution pat- 7 ently meant giving the Jewish people a home, a territorial base where Jews were in the majority and Jewish culture dominated. This would bear the same relation to Jews elsewhere as Italy or Ireland bear to their scattered sons and daughters, people whose interest in the mother• land is purely a matter of sentimental and perhaps, remote concern. Fighting Against Their Own Interests This reasoned and common-sense solution to the Jewish problem was naturally to encounter a certain amount of serious opposition, as the self-interest or prejudices of others became affected by it. Perhaps its most conspicuous foes were to be found among a great sector of the Jewish people themselves, many of whom were in mortal fear of having their own lives and attachments confused with the purposes of this movement. It was they, on the basis of one pet theory or another, who cried the loudest against the forthright solutions embodied in the law of the nations under the Palestine Mandate. And it is they, in con- sequence, who must bear much of the responsibility for the millions who died as Oswiecim, Treblinka and Majdanek. It was behind this powerful cover of influential anti-Zionist Jews that the Imperialistic politicians of Whitehall were able to carry out that great betrayal of the Jewish hope with which we now, unfortunately, must deal. Zionist Leadership Inadequate Zionist leaders were for the most part unworldly and inexperienced, a group of cloistered intellectuals whose souls had been captured by this great vision of a reborn Israel. Denied that support which should have been their first bulwark against the pressures of hostile British and Arab politicians, they were thrown into ignominious retreat.

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