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

ZIONISM AND PALESTINE 97
As is said in the Egyptian proverb: "They fear, but
do not respect." The temptation grows to attitudinize
before their public, to brave dangers of floggings and
hangings which they well know they will never be called
upon to endure. Sir Eldon Gorst used to say that his
prestige in Egypt would be immeasurably enhanced if
only he could commit once a year one act of glaring
illegality, the bazaars arguing: "if the Ruler must
obey the Law like me, how is he my Superior?" The
French Administration in Syria had frequent and double
tastes of these impertinences, when Damascus cried:
"Give us all the Zionists in the world, if only under
British rule", while Jerusalem answered: "Give us
even French exploitation, provided it be without
Zionism."
In a word, what with the feasts, the fasts, and the
anniversaries, the impassioned conferences and congresses
with the resulting journalistic diatribes; what
with the protests, the boycottings, the shuttings of
shops, the stupid provocations and the disgusting
retaliations, there were those among us who would
cry, with Mercutio, "A plague on both your houses !"
and would sigh for the appointment of some "crusted"
African or West Indian Colonial Governor, who would
"knock their heads together", or "give them something
to cry for".
Here then were two parties each with a strong case
to plead, yet, each being his own lawyer, having but
too often (as the saying is) a fool for his client. The
Arab patriot adjuring his hearers not to allow one foot
of the sacred soil conquered by their forefathers to pass
into the clutch of the obscene invader, might sometimes
be himself a land-broker, only too anxious to sell
his own and his friends' property to buyers of any land
and of all nationalities. Zion could muster many able
but some irritatingly disingenuous pens, arguing for
instance that the French troubles in Syria proved that