Lawrence of Arabia, Zionism and Palestine - The World War I ...

120 ZIONISM AND PALESTINE
supported Zionism. I cannot agree. The fact remains
that we have supported Zionism ; and we must continue
to support it with undeterred but unhustled moderation
and justice.
Nothing great has ever been easy, nor accomplished
without deep searchings of spirit. Though I encountered
—perhaps not less than others—some of the asperities
of Zion, I could never understand the dullness of soul
in Europe which failed to perceive that Zionism, for
all its inherent difficulties and gratuitous errors, is one
of the most remarkable and original conceptions in
history. Concluding a public speech in London during
the spring of 1921, after my first but before my second
scouring in the Laver of Ablution provided by the
Jewish World Press, I proclaimed the faith which after
fifteen years, not excluding 1929 and 1936, I see no
reason to recant:
"I have mentioned some of the drawbacks of living
in Palestine, but you are not to infer that we are not
fully aware of the privilege and honour we enjoy in
serving there. In Jerusalem there meet, and have met
for centuries, the highest interests of the three great
religions of the world. From Jerusalem has gone forth
at sundry times and in divers tones a God-gifted organvoice,
which has thrilled and dominated mankind. I
do not dare to prophesy, for the East is a university in
which the scholar never takes his degree; but I do dare
to believe that what has happened before may happen
again, and that if we can succeed in fulfilling, with justice,
the task that has been imposed upon us by the will of
the nations, and if we can reconcile or unite at the source
the chiefs and the followers of those three mighty
religions, there may sound once more for the healing
of the nations a voice out of Zion. If that should ever
be, not the least of England's achievements will have
been her part therein."