(Guardian-UK) Benny Morris - In 1947 Zionist leaders asked Albert Einstein to help persuade a skeptical India to support the birth of a Jewish state. Einstein's four-page letter to Jawaharlal Nehru of June 13, 1947, focused on moral and historical arguments and appealed for "the rights of an ancient people whose roots are in the East." "Can Jewish need, no matter how acute, be met without the infringement of the vital rights of others? My answer is in the affirmative. One of the most extraordinary features of the Jewish rebuilding of Palestine is that the influx of Jewish pioneers has resulted not in the displacement and impoverishment of the local Arab population, but in its phenomenal increase and greater prosperity." Then Einstein addressed "the nature of [the] Arab opposition. Though the Arab of Palestine has benefited...economically, he wants exclusive national sovereignty, such as is enjoyed by the Arabs of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria [sic]. It is a legitimate and natural desire, and justice would seem to call for its satisfaction." But at the end of the first world war, the Allies gave the Arabs 99% of the "vast, underpopulated territories" liberated from the Turks to satisfy their national aspirations and five independent Arab states were established. One percent was reserved for the Jews "in the land of their origin." "In the august scale of justice, which weighs need against need, there is no doubt as to whose is more heavy." What the Jews were allotted in the Balfour Declaration "redresses the balance" of justice and history. Einstein concluded by appealing to Nehru to support "the glorious renascence which has begun in Palestine." However, on November 29 India voted with the Muslim states against partition.
2005-02-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive