A Concise History of the Middle East

The Beginnings of Political Zionism ••• 275

for Jews throughout North Africa and the Middle East, upgrading their
standard of education in the late nineteenth century. It also founded an
agricultural school near Jaffa in 1870, a great help to the settlers even
though the Alliance did not favor a Jewish state. At this time the total
number of Jewish settlers in Palestine could not have exceeded 20,000; the
local inhabitants, numbering about 570,000, spoke Arabic. The land was
governed by the Ottoman Empire—inefficient, corrupt, and suspicious of
the Zionists. Not a few Jewish settlers quit in disgust and went home—or
to the US.

Theodor Herzl

Zionism based solely on Russian resources—mainly youthful enthusiasm—
probably would not have lasted. What gave the movement endurance and
wider appeal was the work of an assimilated Jewish journalist living in Vi¬
enna, Theodor Herzl, who in 1896 wrote Der Judenstaat (The Jews' State),
an eloquent plea for political Zionism. Because Herzl was a popular writer,
his book carried the ideas of Pinsker and other early Zionists to thousands
of German-speaking Jews. Their conversion to Zionism enabled Herzl to
bring together the first International Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland,
in 1897. At its conclusion, the conferees adopted the following resolution:

The goal of Zionism is the establishment for the Jewish people of a home in

Palestine guaranteed by public law. The Congress anticipates the following

means to reach that goal:

1. The promotion, in suitable ways, of the colonization of Palestine
   by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers.


2. The organizing and uniting of all Jews by means of suitable insti¬
   tutions, local and international, in compliance with the laws of all
   countries.


3. The strengthening and encouraging of Jewish national sentiment
   and awareness.


4. Introducing moves towards receiving governmental approval
   where needed for the realization of Zionism's goal.

Herzl proceeded to work unremittingly toward the formation of the
Jewish state by writing more books, making speeches, and courting sup¬
port from rich Jews and various European governments as well as from
the Jewish middle class. At one time he even got an offer from the British