Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-07-14
The Jew and Palestine.

connection with the Jewish persecution in
Russia is the renewed interest which has
been made to centrein the land of Palestine.
For the last nineteen hundred years the
Jews have been people without country
strangers in strange lands but during
that entire period the beliefhas been gener-
al and almost unqestioned that they should
yet return in force and occupy the land of
their fathers, Circumstances have not hith
erto favored that return, but recent events
have certainly compelled attention to the
subject. Mr.. Lawrence Oliphant, who of
late years has personally visited and care
fully studied the Syrian peninsula, has advo-
Gated the propricty of colonizing the entire
region with Jews. His views were enthus-
lastlcally received by many Hebrews, and
since the commencement of the prosecutions
III Russia there did seem likelihood of
such colonization taking place on large
scale. But the Sultan has set his face reso-
lutely against it, and what for IL time SEEM
ed to promise an early fultilment of Scrip
ture prophecy suddenly came to naught.
In giving All account of his recent mission
to Eastern Europe in the interest of the
jewish societies Of London and Paris, Mr..
Ollphant tells us that he found the feeling
in favor OF Palestine to be deep and wide
spread among the Jewish exiles from Rus
sla, and also among the Jews of Roumania
and Bulgaria
According TO Turkish law the Jew NAV
freely establish himself in all parts of the
Sultan's dominion, except in Palestine In
accepting the Ottoman nationality he pledges
himself not to settle in that country. For
this arbitrary and cruel exclusion no reasons
are assigned. The Ottoman government
has, no doubt, its reasons for the course it
has been pleased to take, but, whatever the
reasons may be, it does seem hard that
when so many Jews are willing to assume
the Ottoman nationality they should be
formally excluded from the very part of the
Turkish dominions to which they arc
naturally led by the strongest impulses of
race and creed.
1t is very evident that in this case the
Turk is very seriously in the way But the
problem is a very difficult oneShow he is
to be gotten out of the way That Palestine
should not be closed against the Jews men
everywhere are very much agreed, and that
sooner or later they will again people and
control the land of their fathers there are
few indeed who entertain any doubt The
Turk may riot while he can, but DESTINY is
stronger than the Turk, and the inevitable
must come. The secret of the Sultan's OBJ
lection to the Jew settling in Palestine is
the fear that it might become distinctly
Jewish principality. The Jew is already
somewhat OF power in his own land.
Within the last six or seven years the num-
ber of Jewish inhabitants of the four sacred
cities - Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and
Safed lin Galilee) e)-has very considerably
increased. In Jarusalem alone the popula-
tion has risen from 10000 to 10000 souls,
the main part of the newcomers being Jews.
Many reasons have combined to cause the
immigration of Russian, Polish and German
Jews to the holy cities. The conscription is
dreaded by these peaceful money makers,
and the persecution which has now become
outrageous has long been suffered in a less
violent degree. Before the Crimean war the
Jews were afraid to venture into Syria, and
suffered from great disadvantages under
Moslem rule; but since British protection
has been extended to them they have begun
to increase go rapidly as to threaten in time
to become masters of Palestine.
In the final settlement of the Eastern
question Palestine and the Jews will form
no unimportant part of the general problem.
The system of control which Lord Beacons-
felds's Cabinet were anxious to establish in
the Sultan's dominions was we'll considered
and well fitted to the wants of the country.
Under such control, with Jewish enterprize
encouraged, with European capital pouring
into the country, secure of fair and hand
some interest; with roads, railways, lines of
telegraph, aqueducts and reservoirs spreda-
ingover the country, Syria would soon become
one of the richest and most remunerative
provinces of Asia. Such we may hope she
isstill destined to prove, though not, perhaps,
under Turkish rule. Her hills may become
covered with vines, her plains with corn,
her gardens with figs, olives, mulberries and
every species of fruit and vegetable-an
agricultural prosperity not inferior to that Of
the best times of Jewish independence.
The better time will come, and the forcible
exclusion of the Jews from the country will
not hinder the final consummation.