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No. 9. — Vienna, 28 February 1902. — 6th Year

The Adroitness of Our Opponents.

Whatever else may be said of the adversaries of Zionism, one thing must surely be granted them: there is nothing that can put them out of countenance. However imperiously our newly awakened national life, with its mighty pulse-beats, may knock at their Jewish conscience, demanding their co-operation in the work of national self-liberation, the equanimity of our opponents is not to be shaken. Let a long, unbroken chain of irrefutable arguments bear witness to the rightness of our ideas, let a whole series of important achievements confirm their practicability, let the people itself, by its existence of suffering and by the unmistakable manifestations of its will, demonstrate their necessity — our opponents keep cool blood and will not be robbed of their "sober criticism." How, then, does the "criticism" of the anti-Zionists stand in truth? It is by no means sober, by no means rational, but a dense web of the trickiest dexterities, of the most audacious sophisms. The most evident successes of our movement, which simply cannot be misconstrued, are either disputed away outright by the spokesmen and pamphleteers of anti-Zionism, with the aid of fantastically vague conjectures and untenable combinations, or, where this is not well possible, are belittled and diminished with a gigantic muster of impotent ingenuity.

Indeed, when we call to mind the attitude of our opponents from the first beginnings of political Zionism down to the present day, we blush deeply at the incredible nimbleness and dexterity with which the anti-Zionist jugglers contrived to slip away from the most compelling conclusions of reason, which must of necessity have led them onto the track of our ideas. In the face of the most eloquent facts they always had a subterfuge ready, a little back door open, a belittling objection at hand. At first the endeavour was to deny the existence of any popular movement at all, and to deliver our aspirations up to the curse of ridicule as the immature offspring of a few isolated youthful hotheads. Zionism was to be represented, as it were, as a knife without a blade that lacks a handle. On the one hand our opponents disputed what has since proved indisputable — that Zionism has behind it the great masses of our people, the whole Jewish East; on the other hand they assumed an air of infinite superiority when we set about interesting authoritative political factors in our cause. Never were so many prophets seen in Israel. No serious statesman, the seers foretold, would pay any heed to our "castles in the air." We should call down terrible misfortune upon all Jewry, and upon the Jews of Turkey in particular, others foreboded with horror. It is known how groundless all these weather-prophecies and pot-house anxieties were. In the most authoritative quarters our wishes, by virtue of their loyalty and reasonableness, have awakened warm sympathy and found a favourable ear. What, then, did our opponents do? Did they perhaps rouse themselves in manly fashion to an open confession of their error? Not a bit of it! They were promptly on the spot with their adroitness, quibbled and carped, and by way of variety insinuated sundry villainies against us as well.

Undeterred, we went on our way. We did not give up the hope that our opponents would in the end do honour to the truth that is in our work. Every one of our Congresses was a fresh assurance to us. Our following grew beyond all expectation. Our organisations branched out over land and sea. In the remotest corners of the earth, on the most secluded islands, new comrades arose for us. In the Jewish Colonial Bank the people created, by its own strength, an instrument for the preparation of its future destinies. The Sovereign of Palestine made known to us his goodwill towards the Jewish people and repeatedly gave us unmistakable tokens of his friendly disposition.

Our opponents, however, continue their adroitness as before. No quibble is too far-fetched for them, no imputation too bold, for them to scruple, our progress and achievements