Jews did not limit themselves to prayer. Giving concrete expression to this hope, there were migrations of larger and smaller groups from the various diasporas, augmenting the existing Jewish centers in Eretz Israel. All this occurred in spite of unimaginable suffering Jews experienced en route to their ancient homeland and the great difficulties they encountered on arriving there.

The translation of the millennial dream to an actual political program, one capable of turning traditional attachment and religious hopes into political action for the restoration of sovereignty, had to await the turn of the century. The first World Zionist Congress was held in Basle in 1897. The events of the century now ending played a crucial role in the realization of Jewish sovereignty. Alas, a newly-empowered Jewry is itself now jeopardizing all that was so gained at so terrible a price.

The Czarist Pogroms of 1903: These produced a massive Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe. Jews fled in large numbers to Palestine, and in far greater numbers to America, where they were to become a powerful political and economic force lending critical support to an independent Israel.

The Balfour Declaration: On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour issued a declaration that the British government would "look with favor"upon the establishment "in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." It was done partly in an attempt to secure political support by American Jews in World War I and of Jewries in European countries leaning toward the Central Powers (especially Germany) because they despised Britain's Russian ally--the pogromist Russian empire.

The Russian Revolution: Many Jews were misled and misguided into supporting Communism, which promised equality, in contrast to the Russian and panslavic anti-Jewish aristocracy and cultural elites. The communists soon proved to be as anti-Semitic as their Czarist predecessors, prompting a new wave of emigration.

Great Britain's 1922 Betrayal: Three-fourths of the land promised to the Jews was detached to create the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan. It was the first of a series of White Papers which were to deprive the Balfour Declaration of its entire original intent.

The Rise of Nazism: In Germany, the Nuremberg Laws (September 15, 1935) institutionalized Jewish exclusion from citizenship, public office, the professions, and artistic and cultural life. In addition, there were boycotts of Jewish shops and businesses. Less systematic but analogous trends characterized life in much of Eastern Europe, especially Poland and Rumania.

Kristallnacht- November 9, 1938: This brutal attack on the Jewish citizens of Germany presaged the future, prompting terror and accelerating now largely-vain attempts to emigrate.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky Travels Throughout Europe, Urging Jews to Emigrate: His mission is doomed in September 1939 when the Germans invade Poland and all borders are sealed.

Nowhere To Go: The unwillingness of the "Free World", especially Western countries, to accept Jews helped seal

Jews have lived in the Land of Israel for almost 4,000 years.

The 1939 White Paper: This was the ultimate perfidy of Britain's Palestine policy. After Evian had shut the gates to the West, Britain now excluded the last potential refuge -- the supposed Jewish National Home itself. The White Paper provided that over a five-year period only 75,000 Jews would be admitted, and declared that after 1944 any Jewish immigration to the "National Homeland" would be dependent on Arab agreement.

The Holocaust: Throughout the conquered territories,

[(Continued on p.4)]

December 1999               - 3 -               Outpost