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The
Opponents of Zionism.
I
have tried to show, as briefly and objectively as possible, what Zionism
is, what it wants, how it has arisen, and how it has hitherto developed. I
have also mentioned repeatedly that out of Jewry itself there have arisen
against it opponents who are exceedingly violent. I hardly consider it the
task of this dispassionate study to engage in controversy with them. Such
a polemic would be fruitless, and prove repugnant to readers who merely
seek information. Hence only a few pertinent observations are devoted to
the opponents of Zionism.
Personal
opponents
Many
opponents confine themselves to uttering slanders and insults against the
leaders of the Zionist movement. This mode of hostility can well be
despised by those who are calumniated. Opponents who fight with such
weapons are so inferior morally that they do not come within the horizon
of those whom they attack. Those who, without the least advantage to
expect for themselves, out of the purest, most unselfish love for their
unfortunate brethren, out of reverence for their forefathers in the grave,
out of a general feeling of humanity, bring the heaviest sacrifices of
money, time, health, and strength, for the uplifting of their people and
the deliverance of millions of innocently persecuted beings from the
bitterest misery, have a right to shrug their shoulders with a smile when
irresponsible fanatics or pitiable hacks reproach them with self-interest
or vanity.
Opponents
by reason of ignorance or bad faith
Among
those subordinate opponents there are such as not merely utter falsehood
and slanders, but also try to argue. They like to compare the apostles of
Zionism with the false Messiahs-of the type of the notorious Sabbatai
Zevi-who form a too frequent phenomenon in Jewish history and who have
always brought the direst evil upon the Jewish people deceived by them. To
compare Zionism with the extravagances or deceptions of the false Messiahs
of the stamp of a Sabbatai Zevi presupposes very much ignorance or gross
bad faith. Zionism is distinguished by the very absence of every mystical
element. It promises to followers no wonders; it rather impresses upon
them always that their deliverance from a condition that is felt to be
intolerable can only be the result of their own work, only the fruit of a
prolonged, serious, and general endeavor.