“It is money we want,” the doctor said, when the whole situation had
been explained. “Another two millions, and Palestine will be ours. I
have the best authority for saying this; our colleague Karl Lierhammer
had an audience with the Sultan last week. Only one hundred thousand
pounds is needed to allow us to start operations north-west of the
Jordan at once, and I can lay my hands on fifty thousand Jewish artisans
who are ready to begin. So you see our dream is not so far from being
realised after all.”
Lady Montella’s face glowed.
“How splendidly you have worked while we thought the movement was at a
standstill,” she said. “You may count on us for the hundred thousand; we
will raise it among ourselves and our relations. We can safely promise
this, I think?” she added, addressing her son.
Lionel answered in the affirmative.
“We do not require the money as a donation,” Dr. Engelmacher explained.
“It will all go into the national debt. Palestine will be a
self-supporting country in a comparatively short time; the fertility of
the land is remarkable. Will you believe me, dear people, when I tell
you that before the Zionist movement was conceived, that country was
barren from lack of water; but that since we began our operations there
the rain has fallen in due season, and all Nature has conduced to
further our aim?[7] Is not this a testimony—if such we need—to the
righteousness of our cause?”
Footnote 7:
A fact attested by the Rev. Dr. Gaster.
“Wonderful!” exclaimed Lady Montella, with glad surprise. “Yet people
say that miracles do not happen nowadays. Why, even Christians believe
that we are to be restored to our own land—the land of promise. Strange
that some of the Jews themselves should be so reluctant to act on that
belief.”
“Strange indeed,” returned the doctor. “I believe that prosperity and
freedom have combined to dim their spiritual vision. They live only for
the present, and being happy themselves, they are incapable of feeling
for their persecuted brethren abroad. Ah, if I can only succeed in
arousing the interest of all the rich Jews in England so far as to make
them invest their money Zionwards, our cause will be won. It is for this
purpose that I have come here.”
“If England expels the Jews, I’m afraid she will regret it before many
months are past,” said Montella thoughtfully. “I believe the Government
will not have the best side of the bargain after all.”
“The Government will find itself in the biggest pickle it has ever
known,” was Dr. Engelmacher’s reply. “It is safe to say that when
anti-Semitism attacks a country, that country is in a state of decline.
England, the justice-loving happy queen of nations, will soon find out
her mistake. She is but passing through a phase; she will come through
the cloud strengthened and purified. I know and love the English people
well enough to be certain of this.”
“Then you think—?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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