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No. 16. | Vienna, 15 April 1904 — 30 Nisan 5664. | 8th Year.

Peace in the Movement.

Scarcely ever have our fellow Zionists followed a deliberation with greater concern than on this occasion the conference of the Greater Zionist Actions Committee. For months all those who are in earnest about our movement had looked forward to this meeting with anxious expectation; for a grave decision was at stake. Would the men whom the confidence of the Congress had placed at our head find a means of removing for ever the misunderstandings that had all too long brought confusion into our ranks, and of restoring the old firm unity which gives us the strength and the capacity to fulfil our task, so beautiful and so hard? Or would those be proved right who for months past have been proclaiming triumphantly on every side that the end of political Zionism had come? That was the great question, so decisive for us who wish to live for our people.

This we all felt: the conflict of opinions, which had flared up so fiercely, could not, must not continue, unless we were willing to let a grave injury to our movement, a perhaps fatal schism, become an accomplished fact. Yet it was precisely out of this feeling, out of the love of Zion and the unshakable devotion, well known to us all, of the leading persons chosen by the Congress, that we drew again and again the hope that an agreement would come, must come.

The political tact and the firmness of the Vienna leadership, unshakable for all its readiness to meet the other side, on the one hand; the recognition of the danger of an irreconcilable attitude and the prudent appreciation of the concessions obtained on the part of the Russian oppositionists on the other; and not least the general conviction that the great labours of our movement might suffer severely under this baneful strife, perhaps at this very moment — all this has contributed its share to the desired understanding.

And we will hope that this understanding may prove a lasting one. The very fact that in this conclusion of peace there are neither victors nor vanquished allows us to expect the best. The resolutions of the Congress have been respected, and at the same time all those safeguards have once more been strengthened which must render our Zionist programme immovable even in the eyes of the most anxious. The resolution adopted almost unanimously by the Greater Actions Committee, together with the supplementary motion of the Vienna A.-C., likewise accepted, form the outward result of the negotiations on the point of dispute which for months had most violently agitated the minds of our fellow Zionists.

Far more highly than this outward result, however, must it be rated that these deliberations have shown once again how firmly our organisation is already established. It was the general conviction of the necessity of an inviolable organisation that gave the negotiations this desired conclusion, which will surely be greeted with joy in the circles of our fellow Zionists. Much may have happened since the last Congress that might have become dangerous to this bulwark of ours. At the decisive moment our representatives have shown that they all know well how great a thing was created therewith, and that they are resolved to preserve it unimpaired.

With this many fears of the Zionists, and all the hopes of our opponents, fall to the ground. So long as our organisation is preserved in its firmness, it matters nothing at all if the opinions of our fellow Zionists sometimes clash. Certainly, we are not all agreed in all our views. But in this we are agreed: that our Zionist way is the right one, and for the redemption of our people now the only practicable one. Let there be differences of opinion over the several stages of this way; the goal was, and is, and remains Zion, and nothing but Zion!

Therefore we may rejoice with our whole heart over the results of the Vienna Conference. Our element of life is the struggle for our people, the faith in its happier future. But in order to be able to wage this struggle and to uphold this faith, we need inner peace. And