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The following letter is part of Menahem Daniel’s correspondence with Zionist leader Dr. Chaim Weizmann. The Secretary Zionist Organisation London Baghdad, 8th September 1922 Dear Sir, I have the pleasure to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 20th July 1922. It is needless to say that I greatly appreciate and admire your noble ideal, and would have been glad to be able to contribute towards its realization. But in this country [Iraq] the Zionist Movement is not an entirely idealistic subject. To the Jews, perhaps to a greater extent than to other elements, it represents a problem the various aspects of which need to be very carefully considered . Very peculiar considerations, with which none of the European Jewish Communities are confronted, force themselves upon us in this connection. You are doubtless aware that, in all Arab countries, the Zionist Movement is regarded as a serious threat to Arab national life. If no active resistance has hitherto been opposed to it, it is nonetheless the feeling of every Arab that it is a violation of his legitimate rights, which it is his duty to denounce and fight to the best of his ability. Mesopotamia has ever been, and is now still more, an active centre of Arab culture and activity, and the public mind here is thoroughly stirred up as regards Palestine by an active propaganda. At present the feeling of hostility towards the Palestinian policy is the more strong as it is in some sort associated in the mind of the Arab with his internal difficulties in the political field, where his position is more or less critical. To him any sympathy with the Zionist Movement is nothing short of a betrayal of the Arab cause. On the other hand the Jews in this country hold indeed a conspicuous position . They form one third of the population of the Capital, hold the larger part 19 | Letter to Chayyim Weizmann Menahem Salih Daniel to Chayyim Weizmann, September 8, 1922, English Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Z 4/2101. Letter to Chayyim Weizmann | 111 of the commerce of the country and offer [have] a higher standard of literacy than the Moslems. In Baghdad the situation of the Jew is nearly an outstanding feature of the town, and though he has not yet learnt to take full advantage of his position, he is nevertheless being regarded by the waking up Moslem as a very lucky person, from whom the country should expect full return for its lavish favours. He is moreover beginning to give the Moslem an unpleasant experience of a successful competition in Government functions, which having regard to the large number of unemployed former officials, may well risk to embitter feeling against him. In this delicate situation the Jew cannot maintain himself unless he gives proof of an unimpeachable loyalty to his country, and avoid with care any action which may be misconstrued. This country is now trying to build up a future of its own, in which the Jew is expected to play a prominent part. The task will be of extreme difficulty and will need a strained effort on the part of every inhabitant. Any failing on the part of the Jew will be most detrimental to his future. On the other hand, the large majority of the Jews are unable to understand that all they can reasonably do for Zionism is to offer it a discrete financial help. We have had, since Dr. Bension’s arrival to this country,1 a sad experience of the regrettable effects which an influx of Zionist ideas here may have. There was for some time a wild outburst of popular feelings towards Zionism, which expressed itself by noisy manifestations of sympathy crowded gatherings and a general and vague impression among the lower class that Zionism was going to end the worries of life, and that no restraint was any longer necessary in the way of expressing opinions or showing scorn to the Arabs. This feeling it is needless to say was altogether unenlightened. It was more Messianic than Zionistic. To an observer it was merely the reaction of a subdued race, which for a moment thought that by magic the tables were turned and that it was to become an overlord . Very few stopped to think whether the Promised Land was already conquered , and if so how long it would take till all the Jews of Mesopotamia repaired to it, and whether any reasonable policy was in the meanwhile desirable. In...

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