The Struggle for Independence 153
against the entire Zionist programme. No British officer con-
sulted by the Commission believed that the Zionist programme
could be carried out except by force of arms. Officers generally
thought that a force of not less than 50,000 soldiers would be
required even to initiate the programme/ The American govern-
ment pigeon-holed the Commission's Report, and it was pub-
lished unofficially only after Wilson had relinquished the Presi-
dency.
In their intense and passionate enthusiasm and zeal to rebuild
their National Home the Zionists in Palestine struck out wildly
against anyone who made objections to their extreme demands,
anyone who imposed a brake on their dynamic career. Sir Ronald
Storrs who became Military Governor ofjerusaleni in 1918 with a
sincere sympathy for Zionism, has written, 'From the beginning
we encountered a critical Zionist press, which soon developed into
pan-Jewish hostility. We were inefficient, ill-educated; those with
official experience strongly pro-Arab, violently anti-Zionist, even
anti-Jewish.'1 Their incomprehension and intolerance for the
British officers who were administering the country extended also
to its Arabic-speaking inhabitants. The Anglo-American Com-
mittee of 1946 has impartially summed up their attitude: 'Too
often the Jew is content to refer to the indirect benefits accruing to
the Arab from his corning, and leaves the matter there. Passionately
loving every foot of Eretz Israel, he finds it impossible to look at
the issue from the Arab point of view, and to realize the depth of
feeling aroused by his "invasion" of Palestine. He compares his
own achievements with the slow improvements made by the
Arab village always to die disadvantage of the latter; and forgets
the enormous financial and educational advantages bestowed upon
him by world Zionism. When challenged on his relations with
the Arabs, he is too often content to point out the superficial
friendliness of everyday life in town and village—a friendliness
which indubitably exists. In so doing, he sometimes ignores the
deep political antagonism which inspires the whole Arab com-
munity; or thinks that he has explained it away by stating that it is
the "result of self-seeking propaganda by the rich efiendi class". It
!, is not unfair to say that the Jewish community in Palestine has
"never, as a community, faced the problem of co-operation with
the Arabs. It is, for instance, significant that, in the Jewish Agency's
, l Orientations, 359 ff.