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Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.

By J. M. Manicoff

Onward

I
WHERE are you going, soldiers,

With banners and drawn sword?

We’re marching East to Palestine

To battle for the Lord!

What captain leads your bands

Along the sandy coasts?

The Mighty One of Israel,

His name is Lord of Hosts!

To Palestine, to Palestine,

The Lord will lead us through—

To blow before the heathen walls

The trumpets of the Jew.

II
What flag is this you carry,

In this your Holy War?

The same our grandsires raised aloft,

The same our fathers bore.

On many a battlefield, intact,

It caught the crimson rain,

For what was woven in God’s loom,

No man can rend in twain.

To Palestine, to Palestine

The Lord will lead us through,

To plant upon its mountain-heights

The standard of the Jew.

III
What song is this you’re singing?

The same that Israel sang

When Moses led the mighty choir,

And Miriam’s timbrel rang.

“To Palestine, to Palestine!”

Both young and old have cried;

“To Palestine, to Palestine”—

The people’s voice replied.

To Palestine, to Palestine,

The Lord will lead us through

To thunder in the usurper’s ear

The anthem of the Jew.

IV
When Salem’s foes are scattered

And all the path lies free,

What follows next in order?

Our God to that will see.

He’ll break the tyrant’s sceptre,

He’ll build the people’s throne—

When half the world is Freedom’s,

Then all the world’s our own.

To Palestine, to Palestine,

The Lord will lead us through.