ZIONISM M O M THE STANDPOINT Of ITS \ i n [MS *7 who in his Rom e and Jerusalem ( 1S62) uses the same theoreti­ cal language to be given to Mordecai: Whal we have to Jo at present for the regeneration of the Jewish nation is. first, to keep alive the hope of the political rebirth of our people, and. next, to reawaken that hope where it slumbers. When political conditions in the Orient shape themselves so as to permit the organization of a beginning of the restoration of the Jewish state, this beginning will express itself in the founding of Jewish colonies in the land of their ancestors, to which enterprise France will undoubtedly lend a hand, France, beloved friend, is the savior who will restore our people to its place in universal history. Just as we once searched in the West for a road to India, and incidentally discovered a new world, so will our lost fatherland be rediscovered on the road to India and China that is now being built in the Orient,4 Hess continues his paean to France (since every Zionist saw one or another o f the imperial powers as patron) by quoting at some length from Ernest Laharanne’s The New Eastern Question, from w'hich Hess draws the following passage for his peroration: “ A great calling is reserved for the Jews: to be a living channel of communication between three continents. You shall be the bearers of civilization to peoples who are still inexperienced and their teachers in the European sciences, to which your race has contributed so much. You shall be the mediators ' between Europe and far Asia, opening the roads that lead to India and China— those unknown regions which must ulti­ mately be thrown open to civilisation. You will come to the land of your fathers decorated with the crown of age-long martyrdom, and there, finally, you will be completely healed from all your ills! Your capital will again bring the wide stretches of barren land under cultivation; your labor and industry will once more turn the ancient soil into fruitful valleys, reclaiming it from the encroaching sands of the desert, and the world will again pay its homage to the oldest of peoples."’