A crucial change to the status quo came on February 28th 1940 with the British Government's White Paper, which restricted the purchase of land from Arabs and provided for the establishment within ten years of a single independent state with Jewish and Arab government participation in proportion to the population. This radical move was the follow-up of a failed attempt by the British to partition the Jewish and Palestinian areas into two states, with Jerusalem as a neutral haven. Jews throughout the world saw the White Paper as an act of treason by the English, seemingly going against the Balfour Declaration and the Palestinian Mandate. Zionists emphatically denied the offer. The White Paper ultimately represented a safeguard by the British Government against further problems in Palestine, especially in view of the growing Arab reactionary movement -culminating in the revolt of 1936-39.

Despite these great influences on the history of man, Jews have been persecuted and oppressed by the gentiles throughout history. To search the reason for this trend would mean to dive into the very basis of the Jewish mind, its inherent tragedy and glory, and the very constant of its millennial saga. Apart from all other peoples, and for the greatest part of their history, the Jews have remained a highly united social and religious community, highly immune to any external influences. It is in this very element that one can find the reason for their oppression, for the antipathy engendered inside the gentile individual constantly coerced to give his allegiance to the ever fleeting political, religious and social constructions of the past centuries.

It was under a growing social defiance towards Jews that Theodor Herzl, the father of the Zionist movement, was born in the Budapest of 1860. His family later moved to Vienna, where he followed law school in the capital of the most ethnically diverse empires in Europe. It was here that Herzl most vividly realized the awkward position Jews shared with all other nationalities, the common disapproval and odium that was burdening their shoulders. In 1986 he published a pamphlet entitled The Jewish Problem in which he postulated the idea of a common home for all Jews. The inspired idea of Palestine as a solution to his writing did not occur to him until much later. Even so, the basic ideas of behind his observations were met with enthusiasm, especially in the latter years of the 19th century. Concurrently, the Russian pogrom exodus, together with the Dreyfus Affair and increasing French anti-Semitism convinced most Jewish minds throughout Europe that the sole solution was to embrace Herzl's idea.

The idea of nationalism grew during the 19th century in close contact with Jewish sentiments. While it was largely disreputed at first as a gentile concept with no bearing on the strong social and religious unity of the Jews, the necessity for an escape from the unequal laws of the government, together with a growing -and erronate- outside opinion of the Jewish community as a simple religious aggregate, artificially national, attracted the beliefs of many Jews in Western Europe towards a strong nationalistic stance. As the movement towards national recognition spread to the East, more adepts were found among the Jews sharing communities with majoritary gentiles. Nonetheless, in a true parallel to the development of the entire European continent, the Eastern Jews of the Russian Tsarist Empire and surrounding states did not find the call for national unity until much later, towards the end of the 19th century.

No other people in history has suffered the changes of history, the evolution of human thought as the Jews, no other community has been able to draw together in such a clear unity of purpose in front of such social and political opposition. However, one must not fall into the pit of idealism, granting the Jewish success to social harmony alone. It is important to note the role of the internation

Some common words found in the essay are:
Elders Zion, Christianity Islam, Europe Jewish, Jews Arabs, Arabs Jews, Western Jews, Western Europe, United Britain, Europe Herzl, Furthermore Enlightenment, jewish people, world war, throughout world, 19th century, white paper, jewish community, international community, eretz yisrael, ascension mount zion, jewish world, british government, local arab population, impact jewish people, world war ii,
Approximate Word count = 2893
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)