Evening star., 1925-04-02

Yesterday marked the end of the
longest span between chapters of the
greatest melodrama of the human
race-the chapter which closed in 7C
AID, with Titus sacking, Jerusalem
and scattering the chosen people
and the new chapter which opens
with the dedication of the University
of Jerusalem, celebrated on Mount
Scopus and in all the capitals and
great cities of the world.
Many of the faithful Zionists be-
lieve that that event marks the full
fillment of the hopes of nearly Is
centuries, that the Jews will now be
restored to their Promised Land and
may there set up kin gdom which
will be theirs indeed and grow to
domination of the world How liter
ally must prophecy be taken?
Was the greatness of the Holy
Land ever based upon armies, fleets
and predatory intrigues? Yet from
that tiny region-40 by $50 miles
has come greater influence upon CIV
ilization than from all the mighty
empires of xerxes, Cyrus, Darius
Alexander or the Caesars. How car
we compare the power of the Pha-
raohs with that of the descendants
of Abraham; or the invading million
soldiers of Darius, fleeing from his
Grecian defeat, with the hosts OF
Moses at the base of Sinai? From
which leader has come the world
influence? How compare the wisdom
and eloquence of the prophets, which
today guide civilization, with the
classics of Greece and Rome, known
but vaguely by cloistered scholars
What is the power of Palestine?
What constitutes a State?
Not high-raised battlements or labored mound
W. lak tod
Not cities proud. with spires and turret
crowned.
No-men, high-minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endue6
In forest, brake or den,
AS beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and, Knowing, dars
Prevent the long aimed blow,
And crush the tyrant, while they rend II
These constitute State.
4 X x
When the Zionist movement was
first broached, world conditions mad,
1t appear fantastic and utterly un-
thinkable. The unspeakable Turl
ruled Palestine. The Gear of all the
Russias sat upon his mighty throne
and yet was unable 20 prevSnt po.
groms and deadly prosecutions Of the
Jews within his empire, and ever
suffered the severance of diplomatic
relations with the United State!
through that impotence to maintain
citizens within his territory. There
was not a country in Europe wher,
the Jew could get justice. Nor fol
the Jew was that national motto
'Tiberte, .F'raternite, Egalite" else
how could it be that the monstrou!
outrage upon Capt. Dreyfus coult
have shamed France?
In 1882 the dream was first ex
pressed by a scholar that Jews Nigh
re-establish themselves in Palestine
but that dream was too vague for Sc
rious consideration. In 1897. at 81
international congress at Basle, Swift
zerland, the assembled Jews called
upon the world for publicly Sc
cured and legally assured homeland
in Palestine"-the territory of Mos
lem Turkey. What an impossible
dream!
Twenty years later Great Britain
was driving out the Turk from Pal
estine. AS Jerusalem, for whose cap
ture all the Crusades had been tough
in the Middle Ages, fell before thu
British knights of the World War
Hon. Arthur Balfour, secretary o
state for foreign affairs, made nj.
memorable pronouncement which
electrified the world of Jews:
His majesty's government view
with favor the establishment in Pal
estine of a national home for th'
Jewish people, and will use their bes
endeavors to facilitate the achieve
ment of this object, 1t being clearl!
understood that nothing shall be dom
that may prejudice the civil and re
ligious rights of non-Jewish commu