"At no time did I get the impression that the Arab problem might threaten the development of the Palestine project. I believe rather that, among the working classes especially, Jew and Arab on the whole get on excellently together."
Albert Einstein writing in regard to his joy in participating in fund raising for a Hebrew University there.
"I firmly believe that the Jews, given the smallness and dependence of their colony in Palestine, will be immune from the folly of power." (Einstein Letter to Maurice Solovine, March 8, 1921)
Four months later Einstein tempered his joy with his first apprehension about Zionist organizing.
"I am very glad to have followed Weizmann's invitation. In several places, however, a high-tensioned Jewish nationalism shows itself that threatens to degenerate into intolerance and bigotry, but hopefully this is only an infantile disorder." (Einstein Letter to Paul Ehrenfest, June18, 1921)
After Einstein's stay in Palestine in 1923, he had written in his 'My Impressions of Palestine' article for New Palestine Magazine,
"A remarkable tribute to the real power of Palestine is the fact that the Jewish elements which have been resident in the country for decades stand distinctly higher, both in the matter of culture and in their display of energy, than those elements which have only recently arrived."
(An observation that would reflect itself as a Revisionist conquering attitude eventually replaced the original Labor Zionists international socialist philosophy, which was shared by Einstein.)
I have myself seen more than once insurance of friendly relations between Jewish and Arab workers. I believe that most of the difficulty comes from the intellectuals and, at that, not from the Arab intellectual alone." Einstein, Albert,"My Impression of Palestine," in New Palestine Magazine February 3rd 1928. Published by The Zionist Organization of America.
Two years later, Einstein said he would not remain associated with the Zionist movement unless it tried to make peace with the Arabs, in deed as well as in word.
"The Jews should form committees with the Arab peasants and workers, and not try to negotiate only with the leaders." Clark, Ronald W., Einstein: The Life and Times, (William Morrow & Company) p.482, citing Norman Bentwich, My 77 years, (NY: Jewish Publication Society) p.99
Interestingly, Einstein never wavered from expressing confidence in Arab-Jewish peaceful and cooperative co-existence even after the horrific Arab massacre of Jews at Hebron and other places in August of 1929.
On November 25, 1929, Einstein wrote to Chaim Weizmann - the future first President of Israel - stating:
"If we do not succeed in finding the path of honest cooperation and coming to terms with the Arabs, we will not have learned anything from our two thousand year old ordeal and will deserve the fate which will beset us." ("Einstein and Germany - Physics Today," [Letter to Chaim Weizmann, 29 November. 1929, in the Weizmann Archives; Einstein on Peace, Schocken, New York (1960), p. 25.)
Einstein, a strong and outspoken socialist, (see his 'Why Socialism?'[9]) followed the progress of Jewish settlement in the British Mandate, and when, in the 1930s, international socialist Zionism came under pressure from the political right, he wrote,
"Under the guise of nationalist propaganda Revisionism seeks to support the destructive speculation in land; it seeks to exploit the people and derive them of their rights," in JEWISH-ARAB AMITY URGED BY EINSTEIN, New York Times. April 20, 1935
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