For the sake of Zion I will not be silent,

and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still,

till her righteousness goes forth as radiance,
and her salvation,
like a burning torch. Yesha’yahu 62:1

04. Non-Jewish Reactions to Zionism

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Non-Jewish Support for Zionism
1. For over a thousand years Christians had believed in replacement theology; the idea that the Church
was the “new Israel” which had supplanted the Jews in the divine plan since
the Jews had rejected the founder of Christianity. The early Church Fathers
saw no continued role for Jews in the world, and it was only the influence
of Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430) that gained a grudging recognition for the
value of Jews. He wrote that, “The Jews... are thus by their own Scriptures a
testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about [that man]”.
For centuries this was the fragile bulwark that stood against unlimited
Christian antisemitism.
2. John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882), an Anglo-Irish evangelist, invented the
doctrine of dispensationalism. This viewpoint holds that, rather than
replacing the Jews, the Christian church is only a temporary divergence
from a divine plan still centered on the Jewish people, and exists only to
bring gentiles to faith. The founder of Christianity could not “return” to John Nelson Darby
reign on Earth until certain events occurred, including the restoration of
the Jews to Eretz Yisroel.
3. In 1890 a prominent Christian businessman from Illinois named William
Eugene Blackstone (1841-1935) organized the Conference on the Past, Present
and Future of Israel in Chicago. Participants included leaders of both Jewish
and Christian communities. Resolutions of sympathy for the oppressed
Jews living in Russia were passed, but Blackstone was convinced that such
resolutions - even though passed by prominent men - were insufficient.
He advocated strongly for the resettlement of Jewish people in Palestine.
Accordingly, the Blackstone Memorial of 1891 was drafted as a petition
signed by 413 prominent Christian and Jewish leaders in the United States.
4. It read, in part: : “Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of
Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia to the Servians
William E. now give Palestine back to the Jews?…These provinces, as well as
Blackstone Romania, Montenegro, and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and
given to their natural owners. Does not Palestine as rightfully belong to
the Jews?”
5. The hugely influential 19th century Christian bible scholar and translator
Cyrus Scofield (1843-1921), promoted Darby’s views through his Reference
Bible, an annotated, and widely circulated, study Bible first published in
1909. Scofield said that, in those last days, the Bible predicts the return of
the Jews to the Holy Land and particularly to Jerusalem. Scofield further
predicted that, Islamic holy places would be destroyed, and the Temple in
Jerusalem would be rebuilt - signaling the very end of the Church Age
when the “Antichrist” would arise, and all who seek to do the divine will
would convert to Christianity in defiance of the “Antichrist”.
6. The successors of Scofield are those Evangelical Christian supporters of
Israel, notably in the United States. Ironically Christian Zionism actually
preceded secular Jewish Zionism.

Cyrus Scofield

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7. In addition to this theological support for a
Jewish state, a number of non-Jews were
motivated by vaguer feelings of empathy
for the Jews as well as a desire to see a
solution to antisemitism and recompense
for Christian persecution of Jews. Both
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) and
Arthur James Balfour (1848–1930) were of
this type.
8. Even some antisemites looked on Zionism
sympathetically, as a way to get rid of Jews.
9. Some Arabs supported Zionism. Seeing
certain verses of the Koran as indicating
that the Jews would have to return to Eretz David Lloyd George and Arthur James Balfour
Yisroel before the Day of Judgment. This
attitude led Emir Faisal (son of the King of
Hejaz) and Chaim Weizmann (later President
of the World Zionist Organization) to sign an
agreement in 1919 for Arab-Jewish
cooperation on the development of a Jewish
homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a
large part of the Middle East.

1918. Chaim Weizmann and Emir Feisal I

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Opposition to Zionism
1. The Arab world originally viewed Zionism with indifference, perhaps
because they viewed it as impractical. Rashid Rida (1865-1936), an
intellectual supporter of the pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism was the first
to warn against Zionism. He reproached the Arabs for their
complacency in the face of the Jew’s plan to take “their country”. (One
of Rida’s most significant students was Imam Hassan al Banna (1906 –
1949) the Egyptian social and political reformer best known as founder
of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is the Palestinian Arab branch of
this organization.
2. In 1899 the mayor of Jerusalem, Yusuf al-Khalidi, wrote to the Chief
Rabbi of France telling him that while Zionism could be understood in
theory, its implementation would require brute force since Palestine is
an inhabited country under Ottoman rule. It would be better for
everyone that "Palestine be left in peace". Herzl himself replied to this Sheikh Mohamed
letter, reassuring al-Khalidi that Arabs had nothing to fear from the Rashid Rida
immigration of the Jews who would make "faithful and good subjects"
of the Turkish Sultan and "excellent brothers" for the Arabs.
3. As Zionism became more of a reality, and less of an apparent pipe dream, Arab opposition to it
stiffened. The (mainly Russian) members of the Second aliya combined tough personalities with
socialist ideology that bordered on religious fervor. They refused to employ Arabs, not out of
prejudice against them, but based on a belief in “redemption through labor”. These Jews met banditry
against their settlements, not by hiring Arab watchmen, but with their own, armed resistance.
Gradually, the stage was being set for nationalistically motivated fighting between Jews and Arabs.
4. The two Jerusalem Arabs who were elected to the Ottoman Parliament in 1914 ran on anti-Zionist
platforms. In 1919 the Palestinian delegation to the Syrian Congress proclaimed, “Zionism is more
dangerous than the French occupation, for the French know they are foreigners, whilst the Zionists
believe that they are at home in Palestine”.
5. As we have seen, Jews had been reasonably secure in Muslim societies (at least in comparison to
Christian Europe) as long as they were willing to submit to Muslim subjugation. This new attitude of
self-reliance was increasingly intolerable to the Arabs.
6.The opponents of Zionism amongst the Arabs
found a champion and spokesman in Mohammad
Haj Amin al-Husayni (1895 or 1893 - 1974). He was
an Arab nationalist and Islamic scholar who was
appointed Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921. A skillful
politician, he consolidated his position as leader of
the Arabs of Palestine by a combination of
scheming and violence. He used the same methods
to influence British policies under the Mandate to
limit Jewish immigration. He fermented riots
against the Jews (often by using lying propaganda)
and terror against his Arab opponents. During
Haj Amin al-Husayni and friend WWII he traveled to Germany and helped the
Nazi regime. He broadcast propaganda for the
Nazis in Arabic, and recruited Muslims (mainly from Serbia) into the SS. One of his descendents was
Yasir Arafat.

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