Overture for Israel

The idea was stated:

At the World Zionist Congress in Basel in 1903. They voted unanimously to accept – 295 to 177 votes (The Russians stormed out!)

Due to clement climes a delegation declared the Plateau of Masa, in Eastern Kenya, a suitable place for European sensibilities

That there were many lions and slavering Hyenas – not to mention the Maasai Tribe -  they should cool it

But the Congress declined it in 1905. Those in favour broke away, forming the Jewish Territorialist Organisation, whose members even migrated to Kenya where some of their ancestors are living today.

5. Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Far Eastern Russia

A little complex to outline here, this idea arose under Joseph Stalin, in 1930. It would grant Russia’s Jewish People a home in the Far East. Naturally, there was an ulterior motive behind it, that roughly goes like so:

The Soviet was against religion. The Soviet ran counter to the idea of any God – including a Jewish one. Exhile would quarantine the notion of a God

The State needed settlers on its’ far  Eastern flank

It had strings attached – it would be a Jewish worker’s paradise, without soul, with a socialist art.

6. The Fugu Plan

Possibly the more outlandish suggestions for a Jewish home forwarded by the Japanese and even signed into law at some point. Labelled after a poisonous fish that can kill, if not prepared correctly, “The Fugu Fish,” the Japanese based their plan accordingly:

Settle Jewish migrants in Manchuria, China, solving their colonial problem ( They wanted to rule in Manchuria )

Garnishee Jewish livelihoods, under the crazy notion that they are somehow business-orientated, helping Japanese commerce

Soothe America by appearing to welcome the downtrodden and the displaced after the war.

The Fugu Plan Named After A Fish. Image Credit

7. The Madagascar Solution

The major powers all had this one up their sleeves in the pre-War years although it was a major tenet of German thinking before the wars.

It entailed:

• The forcible repatriation of European Jews, to the island of Madagascar, in Africa
• An idea posited as a Jewish Homeland, by thinkers throughout Europe, of the interregnum
• Senseless notions springing from the book, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a popular anti-Semitic tome of its’ day. 

8. Various Attempts at Self-Governance by the Jewish People before Israel

Like any people searching for a home, the Jewish people through history attempted to establish this. Some of the tries were:

Khazar Kingdom, in Crimea in the Middle Ages, had Judaism as its’ official religion

Council of the Four Lands, from 1580 to 1740, in Poland had a Jewish state-within-a-state across Poland

Sitka, Alaska, was proposed in recent times as an autonomous town for Yiddish speakers. 

Conclusion

With the current debate about the, “Two State Solution,” it is interesting noting from where ideas of self-determination spring. The plan for a home for the Jewish people was, “in the air,” centuries before the ugly play we know as World War II, that led to the founding of Israel in 1948.  Self determination is the right of any group. Independence, freedom and knowing your roots is vital to your essence. This discussion should at least illuminate that life-force and its’ desire stretching back into antiquity for pride, place and a mother tongue for all.