After he had been asked by Dr. Chaim Koffler of the Jewish organisation Keren Hajessod to sign a petition condemning the Arab riots of 1929, in which more than a hundred Jewish settlers were killed, Sigmund Freud replied as follows.
Vienna: 26 February 1930
Dear Sir,
I cannot do as you wish. I am unable to overcome my aversion to burdening the public with my name, and even the present critical time does not seem to me to warrant it. Whoever wants to influence the masses must give them something rousing and inflammatory and my sober judgement of Zionism does not permit this. I certainly sympathise with its goals, am proud of our University in Jerusalem and am delighted with our settlement’s prosperity. But, on the other hand, I do not think that Palestine could ever become a Jewish state, nor that the Christian and Islamic worlds would ever be prepared to have their holy places under Jewish care. It would have seemed more sensible to me to establish a Jewish homeland on a less historically-burdened land. But I know that such a rational viewpoint would never have gained the enthusiasm of the masses and the financial support of the wealthy. I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives.
Now judge for yourself whether I, with such a critical point of view, am the right person to come forward as the solace of a people deluded by unjustified hope.
Your obedient servant,
Freud
It is interesting that he signed himself like a British peer.
Albert Einstein in a presentation to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry into Palestine in January 1946 opposed the creation of a Jewish State.
Judge Hutcheson: I have asked these various persons if it is essential to the right or the privilege of the Jews to go to Palestine, if it is essential to real Zionism that a setup be fixed so that the Jews have a Jewish state and a Jewish majority without regard to the Arab view. Do you share that point of view, or do you think the matter can be handled on any other basis?In a speech to the National Labor Committee for Palestine, in New York, on April 17, 1938 he said.
Dr. Einstein: Yes, absolutely. The state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why it is needed. It is connected with many difficulties and a narrow-mindedness. I believe it is bad.
....one thing, above all, must be emphasized: Judaism owes a great debt of gratitude to Zionism. The Zionist movement has revived among Jews the sense of community....
But went on:
I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from the practical considerations, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain — especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight without a Jewish state.
The speech was republished by Einstein in 1950, after Israel came into existence.
I came across these by chance on this webpage, led there looking for references to Michael Seltzer's book The Wizard and the Wineskin (1970), which I read recently.
Seltzer reminded me that only a small minority of Jews supported a Jewish homeland before the Second World War.
Thinking about what Freud and Einstein thought, I am reminded of something Rupert Murdoch, who is a leading backer of Israel, reportedly said in private a few years ago. 'Creating Israel was a mistake but now it exists we have to support it.'
What should have happened instead?
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