The Israeli incursion into Gaza bothers me dearly, as I know it does many Kossacks and much of the world. Arguments abound over culpability, but determining which side is (more) guilty is akin to the chicken and the egg paradox. But what if it never had to be? What if, not only the I/P conflict, but the Holocaust could have been avoided as well? But, how? The answer lies in the oft forgotten Uganda Proposal which would have created a sanctuary for the Jewish people in the British controlled land. I would like to offer an extremely brief history of the proposal and discuss with all of you the impact of its rejection.
Theodor Herzl was the first leader of the Zionist movement, the goal of which was to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The movement was catapulted by Dreyfus Affair (1894) which proved, to Herzl and others, that anti-Semitism was an ubiquitous force in Europe, and perhaps the world. Nowhere was this more evident at the time than in Russia, where pogroms, or anti-Jewish riots, had become commonplace throughout the 19th Century. The Jewish State would provide shelter for these and all other Jews.
As leader of the Zionists, Herzl negotiated with British Government and came to an agreement to allow for the creation of a Jewish homeland in British controlled Uganda. The land was lush, with great biodiversity and fertile land. In 1903, Herzl proposed the agreement to the Sixth Zionist Congress, which decided to send a group to evaluate the territory. The relatively narrow margin by which the motion to send the expedition passed and the large number of abstentions, however, indicated the rift in the Zionist movement.
At the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905, the proposal was rejected. Ironically, much of the resistance came from eastern European Jews, exactly those the proposed State was to protect. Most of the support came from western Europe. Although the land in Uganda was intended to be a temporary homeland for use until the Jews could claim Palestine which they viewed as their birthright, the opposition to the proposal was primarily that Palestine was the only acceptable place for a Jewish State.
In other words, the Zionists put ideology before safety and common sense. The few hundred amassed at the Zionist Congress condemned the many Jews in Europe to persecution and eventually genocide. They eschewed reason in the name of "purity". They allowed a fictionalized history determine the course of their peoples' lives.
I bring this topic up for a few reasons. First of all, I grew up in a Jewish household, although I abandoned the faith at a very early age. My mother, however insists on reminding me of my heritage in disturbing ways. Recently, she has been sending me pro-Israel propaganda that I would ordinarily characterize as right wing nonsense. These forwards are not only going into my inbox and it frightens me to think that the American Jewry may be in lock-step with the Israeli government, regardless of their aggression. The Uganda Proposal, to me is emblematic of myopic people who refuse to think critically. Of course, this description is not unique to Jews and applies to any fundamentalism, religious or otherwise.
The other motivating factor in bringing up this topic is to consider how the world would be different if the proposal had been accepted. Could the Ugandan homeland have been a refuge for Jews remaining in Europe in World War II? With a few decades to develop, could the State have been a military power with the ability to fight the Nazis? Would Hitler have even come to power? Of course these are questions no one can answer, but the fact that they could be raised is a condemnation of the kind of thought that went into rejecting the Uganda Proposal.