A Socialist Zionist and a Bundist (Workers Party in Eastern Europe)walk in to a Bar..
Two arguments as though it was a dialog between two people.
Socialist Zionist-
The messianic age is at hand, and it seems inevitable that a Jewish commonwealth will emerge in Palestine. In Laqueur’s article there are a lot of great ideas for winning peace such as setting up higher level universities, to help the Arabs find their own way.
There is no Arab political leadership, and will not be for another 3 years. We have the chance to get in at the bottom floor of politics and actively work with politics to ensure favorable results. The land is sparsely populated and many of the elite land owners are not there. But we have to act now to take advantage of the power vacume. We believe with A.D. Gordon that only through a return to the soil, will we find redemption. Jewish self defense should register high on our priorities. And Palestine is a place where we can start.
I have heard a reort from Lilienblum who traveled to Palestine, he said that the Arabs were small and backward, that if a hundred thousand Jewish families settled Jews would no longer be strangers. Both the Jews and Arabs would befit from this.There is no Arab political leadership, and will not be for another 3 years. We have the chance to get in at the bottom floor of politics and actively work with politics to ensure favorable results. The land is sparsely populated and many of the elite land owners are not there. But we have to act now to take advantage of the powervacuum. We believe with A.D. Gordon that only through a return to the soil, will we find redemption. Jewish self defense should register high on our priorities. And Palestine is a place where we can start.
No matter what agreements we the Jews of Eastern Europe come to with the power that may be in charge we will never be accepted and considered a part of witch ever power may be in charge at the time, or win the favor of the non Jewish citizens that we live with. Throughout the entire futile system, control of land has been paramount in securing safety and by extension the rights of its citizens. A Jew is a Jew and we just need to have our own space if we are to preserve what makes us socially progressive.
Where there is a will there is a way, or as Hertzle put it “If you will it, it is no dream”. The pogroms have never been worst so it is time to go. There are better times ahead in Palestine, were the limitations of class system are in the process of being worked out. The nihilist attitude of the Bund for the national homeland is not helping. A Bund member might tell you this is an impossible task, but I say it is possible and it is time.
It is true that we do not have a concrete immediate answer for the problems facing the Jewish worker, but neither did the Bund when it first started up. The Bundist thought is no place for a Jew because they have no qualms about encouraging a Jew to work on Shabbat.
Liked it
