Diversity Plus Proximity in Palestine during the First World War

Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940)

It is a truism at Chateau Heartiste that “Diversity + Proximity = War”. I was reminded of this useful formula recently while reading Vladimir Jabotinsky’s book The Story of the Jewish Legion, relating the creation and wartime service of an (almost) all-Jewish fighting force that helped the British defeat the Turks toward the close of the First World War. The Legion was made up of Jewish volunteers from the United States, Britain, Canada, Palestine, and other countries; and in one of his chapters, “Why There Was Quiet in Palestine”, Jabotinsky contrasts the character traits of the major Jewish nationalities and their attitudes toward the Palestinian Arabs:

The real potential source of trouble […] was […] the Palestine Volunteers, those who had themselves grown up in an Oriental environment. They did not dislike the Arab; on the contrary, they knew him, were friendly with him, and spoke his language as well as he did. And it was just this that brought about the majority and the most unpleasant of the clashes. Here is a typical picture of such a clash. One of these men, home on leave, meets an Arab acquaintance; they greet one another and kiss in true Oriental fashion; they go into a café, have drinks together and sit down to a game of cards; they twit each other, as friends will; they become sarcastically witty – and the result is an exchange of blows. Or, more often, something I have already mentioned: a drunken Arab drops a curse in the street. The fiery American may not always understand him, for he knows no Arabic. But this Jew understands Arabic, and can, moreover, reply in the same tongue. He stops in his stride and launches his reply. The Arab curse-vocabulary is extremely comprehensive and contains numerous gradations; but the supreme gradation is always the ancient Esperanto of the fist.

To many readers this observation will come as a surprise, for we love to talk about the necessity of the Jews in Palestine “establishing closer contact” with the natives, mixing with them, and so on, in order to make our peace with them. This may or may not be so. But I tell only of what I saw, and I saw that the closer we approached the less hope there was of peace. And perhaps this could be observed not only in Palestine. That old wise man Mendelssohn, too, once thought that the Jews, by forcing themselves into the life of Germany, would attain brotherhood. Shall we discuss the consequences? Careful, my friends.

Rainer Chlodwig von K.


Rainer is the author of Drugs, Jungles, and Jingoism.