"Lieutenant General Sir Walter Congreve, who commanded troops in Egypt and Palestine, believed in the idea of the Jewish national home, with all its limitations, and had even expressed "cordial sympathy" for Zionism. Chaim Weissman described him as a friendly gentleman who knew little about Zionism; he felt sure he could train the General. However. Congreve feared the support for Zionism would lead to conflagration throughout the Arab world, and he tended to blame the Jews for this development. Had the Jews acted wisely, quietly, and slowly, he later wrote, everything might have worked out; but the Jew is aggressive, contentious, and unbridled. He expressed the hope that the Balfour Declaration would be revoked. "We might as well declare that England belongs to Italy because it was once occupied by the Romans, he wrote, claiming that many of the military administration's officers shared his opinion. They were convinced that the Zionists wanted to flood the country with Jews, especially with lower-class Jews from Russia, Poland, and Romania, so as to create a Jewish majority in Palestine. When they got strong enough, Congreve argued, the Jews would crush the Arab, expel them from their land, and get rid of the British as well."
One Palestine, Complete by Tom Segev, p. 9. |
