The oppression we endure does not improve us, for we are not a whit
better than ordinary people. It is true that we do not love our
enemies; but he alone who can conquer himself dare reproach us with
that fault. Oppression naturally creates hostility against oppressors,
and our hostility aggravates the pressure. It is impossible to escape
from this eternal circle.
"No!" Some soft-hearted visionaries will say: "No, it is possible!
Possible by means of the ultimate perfection of humanity."
Is it necessary to point to the sentimental folly of this view? He who
would found his hope for improved conditions on the ultimate
perfection of humanity would indeed be relying upon a Utopia!
I referred previously to our "assimilation". I do not for a moment
wish to imply that I desire such an end. Our national character is too
historically famous, and, in spite of every degradation, too fine to
make its annihilation desirable. We might perhaps be able to merge
ourselves entirely into surrounding races, if these were to leave us
in peace for a period of two generations. But they will not leave us
in peace. For a little period they manage to tolerate us, and then
their hostility breaks out again and again. The world is provoked
somehow by our prosperity, because it has for many centuries been
accustomed to consider us as the most contemptible among the
poverty-stricken. In its ignorance and narrowness of heart, it fails
to observe that prosperity weakens our Judaism and extinguishes our
peculiarities. It is only pressure that forces us back to the parent
stem; it is only hatred encompassing us that makes us strangers once
more.
Thus, whether we like it or not, we are now, and shall henceforth
remain, a historic group with unmistakable characteristics common to
us all.
We are one people--our enemies have made us one without our consent,
as repeatedly happens in history. Distress binds us together, and,
thus united, we suddenly discover our strength. Yes, we are strong
enough to form a State, and, indeed, a model State. We possess all
human and material resources necessary for the purpose.
This is therefore the appropriate place to give an account of what has
been somewhat roughly termed our "human material." But it would not be
appreciated till the broad lines of the plan, on which everything
depends, has first been marked out.