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Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936

"The New Jerusalem"


It is needless for Dr. Weizmann to tell us that he does not desire
to enter Palestine like a Junker or drive thousands of Arabs forcibly
out of the land; nobody supposes that Dr. Weizmann looks like a Junker;
and nobody among the enemies of the Jews says that they have driven
their foes in that fashion since the wars with the Canaanites.
But for the Jews to reassure us by insisting on their own economic
culture or commercial education is exactly like the Junkers
reassuring us by insisting on the unquestioned supremacy of
their Kaiser or the unquestioned obedience of their soldiers.
Men bar themselves in their houses, or even hide themselves
in their cellars, when such virtues are abroad in the land.
In short the fear of the Jews in Palestine, reasonable or unreasonable,
is a thing that must be answered by reason. It is idle for the unpopular
thing to answer with boasts, especially boasts of the very quality
that makes it unpopular. But I think it could be answered by reason,
or at any rate tested by reason; and the tests by consideration.
The principle is still as stated above; that the tests must
not merely insist on the virtues the Jews do show, but rather
deal with the particular virtues which they are generally accused
of not showing.


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