The
Illustrated Sunday Herald, February 8th 1920
ZIONISM versus BOLSHEVISM
A STRUGGLE
FOR THE SOUL OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
By the
Re. Hon. WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
Some people like Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man can doubt
the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most
remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.
Disraeli,
the Jew Prime Minister of England, and Leader of the Conservative Party,
who was always true to his race and proud of his origin, said on a well-known
occasion: "The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews."
Certainly when we look at the miserable state of Russia, where of all countries
in the world the Jews were the most cruelly treated, and contrast it with
the fortunes of our own country, which seems to have been so providentially
preserved amid the awful perils of these times, we must admit that nothing
that has since happened in the history of the world has falsified the truth
of Disraeli's confident assertion.
Good and
Bad Jews.
The conflict
between good and evil which proceeds unceasingly in the breast of man nowhere
reaches such an intensity as in the Jewish race. The dual nature of mankind
is nowhere more strongly or more terribly exemplified. We owe to the Jews
in the Christian revelation a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely
separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious
possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning
put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of
the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization.
And it may
well be that this same astounding race may at the present time he in the
actual process of producing another system of morals and philosophy, as malevolent
as Christianity was benevolent, which, if not arrested, would shatter irretrievably
all that Christianity has rendered possible. It would almost seem as if the
gospel of Christ and the gospel of Antichrist were destined to originate
among the same people; and that this mystic and mysterious race had been
chosen for the supreme manifestations, both of the divine and the diabolical.
'National'
Jews.
There
can be no greater mistake than to attribute to each individual a recognizable
share in the qualities which make up the national character. There are all
sorts of men -- good, bad and, for the most part, indifferent -- in every
country, and in every race. Nothing is more wrong than to deny to an individual,
on account of race or origin, his right to be judged on his personal merits
and conduct. In a people of peculiar genius like the Jews, contrasts are
more vivid, the extremes are more widely separated, the resulting consequences
are more decisive.
At the present
fateful period there are three main lines of political conception among the
Jews. two of which are helpful and hopeful in a very high degree to humanity,
and the third absolutely destructive.
First there
are the Jews who, dwelling in every country throughout the world, identify
themselves with that country, enter into its national life and, while adhering
faithfully to their own religion, regard themselves as citizens in the fullest
sense of the State which has received them. Such a Jew living in England
would say, "I am an English man practising the Jewish faith." This is a worthy
conception, and useful in the highest degree. We in Great Britain well know
that during the great struggle the influence of what may be called the "National
Jews" in many lands was cast preponderatingly on the side of the Allies;
and in our own Army Jewish soldiers have played a most distinguished part,
some rising to the command of armies, others winning the Victoria Cross for
valour.
The National
Russian Jews, in spite of the disabilities under which they have suffered,
have managed tn play an honorable and useful part in the national life even
of Russia. As bankers and industrialists they have strenuously promoted the
development of Russia's economic resources, and they were foremost in the
creation of those remarkable organizations, the Russian Co-operative Societies.
In politics their support has been given, for the most part, to liberal and
progressive movements, and they have been among the staunchest upholder of
friendship with France and Great Britain.
International
Jews.
In violent
opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International
Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up
among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account
of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their
forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next
world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt
to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary),
Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-wide
conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of
society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and
impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer,
Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely recognizable part in the tragedy
of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive
movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary
personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America
have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become
practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.
Terrorist
Jews.
There
is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and
in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international
and for the most part atheistical Jews, it is certainly a very great one;
it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the
majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration
and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders. Thus Tchitcherin, a pure
Russian, is eclipsed by his nominal subordinate Litvinoff, and the influence
of Russians like Bukharin or Lunacharski cannot be compared with the power
of Trotsky, or of Zinovieff, the Dictator of the Red Citadel (Petrograd) or
of Krassin or Radek -- all Jews. In the Soviet institutions the predominance
of Jews is even more astonishing. And the prominent, if not indeed the principal,
part in the system of terrorism applied by the Extraordinary Commissions
for Combating Counter-Revolution has been taken by Jews, and in some notable
cases by Jewesses. The same evil prominence was obtained by Jews in the brief
period of terror during which Bela Kun ruled in Hungary. The same phenomenon
has been presented in Germany (especially in Bavaria), so far as this madness
has been allowed to prey upon the temporary prostration of the German people.
Although in all these countries there are many non-Jews every whit as bad
as the worst of the Jewish revolutionaries, the part played by the latter
in proportion to their numbers in the population is astonishing.
'Protector
of the Jews.'
Needless
to say, the most intense passions of revenge have been excited in the breasts
of the Russian people. Wherever General Denikin's authority could reach,
protection was always accorded to the Jewish population, and strenuous efforts
were made by his officers to prevent reprisals and to punish those guilty
of them. So much was this the case that the Petlurist propaganda against
General Denikin denounced him as the Protector of the Jews. The Misses Healy,
nieces of Mr. Tim Healy, in relating their personal experiences in Kieff,
have declared that to their knowledge on more than one occasion officers
who committed offenses against Jews were reduced to the ranks and sent out
of the city to the front. But the hordes of brigands by whom the whole. vast
expanse of the Russian Empire is becoming infested do not hesitate to gratify
their lust for blood and for revenge at the expense of the innocent Jewish
population whenever an opportunity occurs. The brigand Makhno, the hordes
of Petlura and of Gregorieff, who signalized their every success by the most
brutal massacres, everywhere found among the half-stupefied, half-infuriated
population an eager response to anti-Semitism in its worst and foulest forms.
The fact
that in many cases Jewish interests and Jewish places of worship are excepted
by the Bolsheviks from their universal hostility has tended more and more
to associate the Jewish race in Russia with the villainies, which are now
being perpetrated. This is an injustice on millions of helpless people, most
of whom are themselves sufferers from the revolutionary regime. It becomes,
therefore, specially important to foster and develop any strongly-marked Jewish
movement which leads directly away from these fatal associations. And it
is here that Zionism has such a deep significance for the whole world at
the present time.
A Home
for the Jews.
Zionism
offers the third sphere to the political conceptions of the Jewish race.
In violent contrast to international communism, it presents to the Jew a
national idea of a commanding character. it has fallen to the British Government,
as the result of the conquest of Palestine, to have the opportunity and the
responsibility of securing for the Jewish race all over the world a home
and centre of national life. The statesmanship and historic sense of Mr.
Balfour were prompt to seize this opportunity. Declarations have now been
made which have irrevocably decided the policy of Great Britain. The fiery
energies of Dr. Weissmann, the leader, for practical purposes, of the Zionist
project. backed by many of the most prominent British Jews, and supported
by the full authority of Lord Allenby, are all directed to achieving the
success of this inspiring movement.
Of course,
Palestine is far too small to accommodate more than a fraction of the Jewish
race, nor do the majority of national Jews wish to go there. But if, as may
well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of
the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which
might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event would have occurred
in the history of the world which would, from every point of view, be beneficial,
and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British
Empire.
Zionism has
already become a factor in the political convulsions of Russia, as a powerful
competing influence in Bolshevik circles with the international communistic
system. Nothing could be more significant than the fury with which Trotsky
has attacked the Zionists generally, and Dr. Weissmann in particular. The
cruel penetration of his mind leaves him in no doubt that his schemes of
a world-wide communistic State under Jewish domination are directly thwarted
and hindered by this new ideal, which directs the energies and the hopes
of Jews in every land towards a simpler, a truer, and a far more attainable
goal. The struggle which is now beginning between the Zionist and Bolshevik
Jews is little less than a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people.
Duty of
Loyal Jews.
It is
particularly important in these circumstances that the national Jews in every
country who are loyal to the land of their adoption should come forward on
every occasion, as many of them in England have already done, and take a
prominent part in every measure for combating the Bolshevik conspiracy. In
this way they will be able to vindicate the honor of the Jewish name and
make it clear to all the world that the Bolshevik movement is not a Jewish
movement, but is repudiated vehemently by the great mass of the Jewish race.
But a negative
resistance to Bolshevism in any field is not enough. Positive and practicable
alternatives are needed in the moral as well as in the social sphere; and
in building up with the utmost possible rapidity a Jewish national centre
in Palestine which may become not only a refuge to the oppressed from the
unhappy lands of Central Europe, but which will also be a symbol of Jewish
unity and the temple of Jewish glory, a task is presented on which many blessings
rest.
