What finally compelled the Labour Zionists to move was the prestige which the Revisionists were gaining inside the Zionist camp by their putting European Jews on Palestine's coast. But even then their strictly selective approach remained unchanged. It is quite true that Palestine should be a refuge for every homeless Jew. But we are faced by the tragic compulsion of facts. Only a number of those who seek entrance can for the present be taken.
Selection is inevitable.
We know that in emigration from Germany preference is given to the Youth Aliyah. When the force of events places on human beings the terrible burden of allocating salvation, the question is not solved by a helter-skelter opening of doors to whoever manages to crowd in. Again, as with the Revisionists, there had to be exemptions to the rules. Some veteran Zionists were rewarded for their services by a place in the boats, sometimes other forms of influence performed the necessary miracle, as with relatives of Zionists who were taken along, or a rich Jew, carried for financial reasons. And, of course, those imposed upon them by the Nazis and other governments.