** The chief spokesman of establishment opposition, as support for Zionism spread, was undoubtedly former Governor-General Sir Isaac Isaacs. Isaacs continued to subscribe fervently to the view that a Jewish state must render Australian Jews second-class, 'tolerated aliens' in other lands. In his view, Jews were a religious grouping rather than a nationality, and nationalist activity would lead inevitably to antisemitism. Extremist activity in Palestine, such as the bombing of the King David Hotel, as well as escalating attacks on Britain over its apparent intransigence on the issue of immigration into Palestine (including the notorious Exodus incident), seemed to confirm Isaacs? claims, most of which were made in lengthy letters to the Jewish and general press in the early 1940s.
