[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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Nachmanides wrote that the devastation “constitutes a good tiding, proclaiming that during all our exiles, our land will not accept our enemies... Since the time that we left it, [the land] has not accepted any nation or people, and they all try to settle it... This is a great proof and assurance to us.”

[SkyPilot]

That land was indeed cursed, and God was waiting for its real citizens to return.

I'll search for the article, but I once read a very detailed piece on how the weather patterns in Israel changed since 1917, through 1948, to today.

The amount of rainfall increased incredibly, and allowed a once arid and desolate land to bloom again.

That, combined with ingenious Israeli irrigation techniques, have turn Israel into a literal garden.

[editor-surveyor]

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Clemons was a bit of a sourpuss.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the post.

What is striking about his comments is his obvious contempt for historical places, and what took place in them.

Even if your an agnostic, the Biblical stories did take place. The sites where they took place add perspective to the stories. So even if you don’t believe in God, the people who wrote those stories did. They did exist. They did have lives in these places. They did document things that took place there. You can find interest in that.

People over there could come to Twain’s (Clemens’) home in the states and find nothing of value there. The fact that a well known person lived there, would be of note, and cause them to picture that setting whenever they thought of him.

The same could be said of places and things he touched on in his writings.

Some times folks are too cute by half, and tell others a lot more than they might wish to have.

Twain seems a bit of a jerk in this presentation.

[Mr. Mojo]

<< Throughout Innocents Abroad, Twain explicitly states that the area was desolate and devoid of inhabitants. >>

Devoid of Arabs, who came in droves only much later, AFTER the Jewish immigrants turned the desert into an oasis.

[Rusty0604]

But, but the Palestinians claim that they populated the land until the Jews came and occupied it.

[HandyDandy]

In “Innocents Abroad”, Twain spoke of the Sea Of Galilee. He wrote that the price that the Arabs were charging, for a ferry ride, was so exorbitant, that “it’s no wonder Christ walked!.”

[The_Media_never_lie]

Read later.

[Albion Wilde]

Twain’s decision to purchase a Bible over any other trinket is evidence that he was moved by the religious holiness and spirit of the land.

Or else he knew how to please his mother. Good for her witness on behalf of her smart aleck son.