One of those tells us of a letter exchange between Albert Einstein and Jawaharlal Nehru, then the prime minister of India, which was discovered in Israeli archives (The Guardian, Feb. 16, 2005).
In his plea, which Nehru politely declined, Einstein wrote: "The Jewish people alone has for centuries been in the anomalous position of being victimized and hounded as a people, though bereft of all the rights and protections which even the smallest people normally has.... Zionism offered the means of ending this discrimination. Through the return to the land to which they were bound by close historic ties ... Jews sought to abolish their pariah status among peoples."
And concerning the Arabs' demands to own all of Palestine, Einstein wrote: "In the august scale of justice, which weighs need against need, there is no doubt as to whose [need] is more heavy."
I find Einstein's letter heroic, not because of any risk he took in this exchange, but because he agreed to forgo personal hesitations and harness his worldwide reputation and friendly relations with Nehru to his people's calling.
Read More
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment