Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds 1
had managed to get the British Government to declare that
Palestine ought to be a Jewish State. Sokolow had persuaded
several European powers to agree—France and Italy, for example.
And the Americans had brought in President Wilson. He died
soon after, it was sad. But then the British, who have Palestine
as a Protectorate, restricted immigration to avoid offending
the Arabs. Zionism now is bending all its efforts to promoting
immigration and arguing with the British.’
‘Are you getting anywhere?’
‘It’s hard to tell. They said we couldn’t be farmers—my father
says that Jews cannot be farmers—but we are farmers now. We
have a university at Jaffa which teaches agriculture as well as all
the other subjects. And General Allenby even lifted the quarantine
on trade with Trieste to provide myrtles for the Feast of
Tabernacles. It will work. It has to work!’
‘Your father does not think so,’ commented Phryne. Simon
was too full of an excellent dinner to lose his temper, but his
voice rose a notch.
‘Father is too comfortable. He does not care about the rest
of the world. His family, his factory, that is all. But Sokolow
reported on the rise of anti-Semitism in the world. A scoundrel
called Hitler in Germany published Mein Kampf in 1924, a long
rant about the Jews, a declaration of war against us. He is a gangster,
but some people will always listen to such scum. Germany,
some fear, will rise again after the war reparations are paid, and
Germany has never been our friend. Mussolini in Italy is anti-
Semitic. Hungary and Rumania and Poland are no safe places
for Jews, and Russia is allowing pogroms. The Revolution does
not include the Chosen people. We make the ideal scapegoat.
The world will go hungry again. Whose fault is it? The Jews.
The world will have plagues. Who causes plagues? The Jews.
The Jews of Spain were fat and rich, but they walked over the
mountains and died in the journey when Isabella and Ferdinand
needed the Church on their side. The Jews here think they are
safe, too. But they are not. One cannot find safety by assimilating,
until there is no Jewishness left in us. How many of those