Bisbee daily review., 1918-02-17
By WALTER WILLIAMS

it is pitifully small Missouri is near ly six times its size From Dan to Beersheba is only IA miles and the authorized possession, never, save fol a brief space during the golden age of Solomon, covered more than 25,00C square miles. The republic for which the Zionists seek-nOw soon to be at tained-cOuld be put in the Missouri River valley from Kansas City to Jef ferson City Upon any well ordered map of the earth's surface, Palestine is a mere dot; a pencil point will cover all it's sacred places.
 But in any history of the world s civilizations the Land of Israel Occu- pies more space than any other land The Holy Land is holy land to Mos lem, Jew and Christian 4 tradition, one of the many which cluster around Jerusalem, locates there the actual center of the world on a stone in the worn flooring of a Greek Catholic sanctuary The tradition has a basis of fact. for Palestine is the center of the religious world in that from it has gone out the faith 10 which the world clings and, most of all, because upon its hills and through its valley walked the man Christ Jesus
 In peculiar isolation is Palestine The Mediterranean sea, without a sin gle natural harbor, lies to it's west ward, full of mystery and storm and death. To the south is the great and terrible desert of IsraeIs wanderings- Across the desert came AHenby and his British men-no mama found for r1 -- Hn ~-1 lr- less desert of Arabia, and to the north a rugged wall of mountains which. pierced only by a narrow passageway, a Roman centurion's band might de fend against a million men. Here may Allenby be halted.
 The Center of Civilization
 Thus isolated, Palestine, singularly enough. was yet at the very center of the civilizations of the ancient world From the days of Abraham and beyond it was the westland of the eastern peoples toward which a rest less tide immigration and adventure tended To the Pharaohs of the south it was the midland across which they sent their hosts on errand of com merce or mission of conquest To the armies of Alexander and. later, 10 the legions of Rome, it was the great high bridge on which they ascended or de scended into the rich basins of the Nile or of the Euphrates.
 The greatest Palestine geOgrapher. Dr. George Adam Smith. has fittingly described it as "a land lying between two cOntinents-Asia and Africa; be- tween two primeval homes of man the Euphrates and the Nile; between two great centers of empire-West- ern Asia and Egypt; between all these, representing the eastern and ancient world, and the Mediterranean which is the gateway to the western and modern world Its mountain strongholds seldom knew the disturb ing tread of invading hosts. but ifs western highway was for centuries the faTOrite route in war and peace between the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe Every great war riOr of the past. from the Macedonian prince to the Little Corsican, marched his armies along the nigh roads, and here went about doing good the PriQce of Peace. This paradOZical relation of exclusion and ready inter-cOmmunica- tion made Palestine the appropriate home of the peculiar people who were at one time to dwell apart from all nations and at another time to carry the message of life to all the peoples of the earth-and who now plan of Il a national home.
 The best commentary upon the Book, born in this land, is the Book itself Next to it in helpful interpre- taJion is the land. The Bible, which l is for all peoples, comes from a land which touches all lands
 The seacOast of Palestine iron Beirut to Jaffa-the ancient Joppa- is almost unindented by harbor lines. It is not strange that the Jews never became a maritime power Their dO- miniOn seldom stretched to the sea: I had it done so permanently there was no safe anchorage for fleets upon the coast. The warpath of the nations for 5000 years has been along the coast l IL was never crossed by the Jews and | their only naval battle was upon the l Sea of Galilee with the Romans in the Maccabean times. and there they were most insloriOusly defeated On the Dog river near Beirut are nine beau tiful tablets cut in the solid rock tell ing of the Assyrian and Egyptian mon archs who went this way. In the old rOadbed beside the tzblets the foot holes Of the horses and the grooves worn by the chariot wheels of armies I are still visible
 A Road of War and Commerce
 Along this great road have swarmed for centuries Syrians. Egyptians. I Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders. the warriors, traders and travellers of the east On this road, though farther south beyond Carmel, the caravan of Ishmaelites to whom Joseph was sold | as a slave came from Gilead with their eamels. bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry il down to Egypt"
 It IS only a few hours journey by sea from Beirut to Jana. but in these few hours may be seen much sugges- tive of the sacred story. Mount Carmel | is the most prominent IL can be seen many miles in every direction and it's conspicuous cone recalls at once the cOnflic which Elijah had there with the prophets of Baal Tyre and