To the modern Jew who lacks the gift of prophecy, the outcome of an undertaking must be determined by a consideration not only of the force propelling the movement, but of the opposition confronting it. A consideration of this opposition will afford an opportunity, moreover, for a clear and summarizing definition of what the movement is, and, equally important, of what it is not. Opposition to Zionism divides itself into three categories--ignorant; theoretic; practical. One is reminded of Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the servant, and Geshem the Arabian, who mocked and threatened Nehemiah when he undertook to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Ignorant opposition assails Zionism with arguments that are incontrovertible, but totally irrelevant; it busies itself with destroying claims which the Zionists have never made. A trio may be taken as representative. It is pointed out with cogency that Palestine is not capable of supporting the twelve million of Jews who inhabit our world; and more conclusively, the twelve million of Jews do not wish to go to Palestine. Briefly, the Zionists in seeking a home for the Jew in Canaan no more expect all the Jews to congregate within its bounds than a man who builds himself a house expects that all his posterity will live in it. As a matter of history, more Jews after the fall of the first Temple have lived without Palestine than within. Only a remnant returned after the captivity; and Babylon, Alexandria, and Rome contained a larger Jewish population than Jerusalem. Throughout the dispersion, the majority of the Jews lived apart from the nation center--whether that center was the Mesapotamia of Talmudic times, the Spain of the Middle Ages, or the Poland of the early modern period. The Zionist object is only to secure such a national center (free from outward pressure) as a ganglion radiating Hebraic culture, which can preserve Jewish unity and identity and inspire Jewish culture elsewhere, precisely as the Judæa of old rendered similar service;[43] and the modern Palestine with a soil capable of supporting a million inhabitants without extensive irrigation amply satisfies the Zionist purpose. _Zionism Leaves the Status of the Jew Uninjured_