Following their return and a feedback meeting, some families withdrew from the project when they realised that moving to Palestine would take time to organise. Hardegg and Hoffmann, however, were spurred on by the start of the Franco-Austrian war in 1859, viewing it as a sign of the approaching apocalypse, with the supposition that Napoleon III was the beast which comes up from the bottomless pit and predictions in connection with the coming of the Antichrist and the return of Christ.