The Doctrine of Beitar

• 113 -

Many times already. I will mention just one clear case. Three years ago, Mr. Sokolov, while in the Land of Israel, delivered a speech. On the matter of that "misunderstanding," he proved clearly what cruel error poisons the Arabs. If they think that we are plotting to take from them their capital and their property, or to expel them, or to oppress them, no; but we do not want a Hebrew government, we only want a government in which the League of Nations is represented – to these words of his, the Arab newspaper "Al-Karmil" responded in its lead article, whose content is logical beyond compare, but whose conclusions are the opposite. The Zionist gentlemen, it said, are upset for nothing; none of this is true. What Mr. Sokolov says about the functions of Zionism is correct; but the Arabs know this even without him. It is self-evident that today the Zionists cannot dream of expelling the Arabs, or of oppressing them, or of a Hebrew state; it is self-evident that today they aspire to only one thing – that the Arabs will not interfere with their work in the land. And it is also foreseen by the Zionists that immigration will also be limited, so that, as they say, they will be able to absorb it in the economic sense; but regarding this as well, the Arabs have no doubt – otherwise it would be impossible to immigrate at all. And the Arab editor even agrees that the absorptive capacity of the land in the potential sense is very great, i.e., that it is possible to settle many Jews in the land without expelling a single Arab; "But this" is what the Jews want, and precisely "this" is what the Arabs do not want, because in this way the Jews over time will become a majority, and then a Hebrew state will automatically arise, and the fate of the Arab minority will then depend on the mercy of the Jews. And whoever wishes to be a minority should look at the fate of the Jewish minorities. Their accounts and reckonings are very explicit. And therefore there is no "misunderstanding" here: The Zionists want only one thing – free immigration of Jews, and it is precisely this free immigration that the Arabs do not want.

The logic of the Arab editor is so simple and understandable that we must place it as the foundation for all our thoughts on the Arab question. It does not matter what words we use to explain our colonizing efforts – whether in the words of Herzl, or in the words of Herbert Samuel. Every colonization – carries within it its own explanation, the only explanation that cannot be relinquished and which is clear to the eye of every Jew in the Land of Israel and to the eye of every Arab in the Land of Israel. This explanation has only one flaw: for the Arabs of the Land of Israel, this explanation cannot be accepted; this is understandable by the nature of things.