Book 2, Chapter 6 Summary

Since the French Revolution, Jews enjoy full and unqualified citizenship until 1893, when Jew hating again erupts when Alfred Dreyfus is court-martialed for treason. Well-to-do Theodor Herzl hears the cries of death to Jews and pens a pamphlet, "The Jewish State," to which he dedicates his short life. In 1897, he calls the first parliament of world Jewry, which, while pogroms occur across Europe, dares proclaim Jews must create in Palestine a homeland secured by public law. Jews split over whether Herzl as a true or false Messiah, which hinders his efforts to sell heads of state on his ideas. Abdul Hamid II, the corrupt and bankrupt Ottoman Sultan, dismisses Herzl bribes, but Britain, jockeying for position in the Middle East, offers land in the Sinai. Herzl holds out for Palestine. Continuing pogroms convince him to accept an offer in Uganda, but fellow...