Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-29
Continued From First Page.)

1
anvil position. Furthermore, 1t is MOI
an easily defensible country. The Al
0hans. too, are at a dangerous gate,
| that to India, but the trail there Is
| difIlcult one among the most forbidding
mountains Of the world, with countless
natural strong positions, where rev
determined men might stop thousands.
| Mountainous Afghanistan has dan
gerous situation, but its difcult ter
rian protects its people. Not so Pales-
tine. It Is a fairly level. equable coun-
try, with little more than high rolling
hills in places.
such was the situation of the ancient
Jews and their capital, Jerusalem, and
i their history is one of juggling politics
between Egypt and the powers OF the
Euphrates. It was nearly always sub
| feet, and always trying to pick the
| winning side in the interminable wars.
If the Jews sided with Egypt, and II
Babylon or Assyria then won, the Jews
were out of luck. The same the other
way around. The best they could hope
winning power. There was one brief
space when Egypt and Babylon were
both in a process of internal trouble
and decay. Each had at intervals Pc
RODS Of weakness, and this time the
period of weakness happened to COIN
eide. The peoples of Palestine TOOK
advantage Of this. The Jews arose 10
their only real period Of national inde-
pendence and greatness. This was the
time of the kingdom OF Solomon.
Palestine Again Falls.
Then the rival territories Of empire
grew strong again, and again Palestine
knew the conqueror, and the same o!o
thing was under way once more. Final
ly. the Jews got so deeply into trouble
that the Babylonian captivity ensued.
They were restored tot heir beloved but
difficult land by the Persians. the
Persian empire had succeeded the BABY.
lonian In the EuphrateS Valley. II 1el
by the hand Of Alexander and the pow
er of the Macedonians and Greeks.
When Alexander's empire split up, the
old war game Of battledore and shut
| tlecock between the peoples OF the Nile
and the EuphrateS was resumed, the
empires of the Ptolmys and the Seleu-
cids. and once more Palestine and the
Jews were between two fires. Pales-
| tine once more became the shuttlecock.
This situation came to an end with
| the rise Of the power OF Rome. Rome
| took all into her own capacious DO
main. and the Jews no longer had
the post between the hammer and the
anvil. Small good 1t did them. They
reyolted against Rome, and the Roman
hand was heavy. Jerusalem was taken
| and destroyed.
The Jews were rooted out Of their land
and spread over the world, where lot
century after century they were 10
dream of being restored to the molly
earth that had been theirs. Their place
was taken by people of adjoining terri
tories and by natives of their own He
brew blood who did not remain faithful
to the Mosaic tradition Of religion and
nationality.
For ages Palestine was dominated by
the irteraction of the empires OF NLe
and Euphrates, but there was tnlro
factor, which for long time was not
spectacular. On the east OF the fertile
roadway Of empire was the vast expanse
of the Arabian desert, populated by
camel-riding Bedouins, lean, hawk-llke
men, all born robbers and warriors. IL
is to be expected that they would take
some hand in the good lands adjoining
them, They did, with plundering raids
and an infiltration of desert people VINO
took to agricultural life. Herod the
Great, King of Jews when Christ was
born. was an Idumean Arab. But the
Bedouins of the desert were In general
too weak in their scattered, nomadlc
life to take much of an important hand
until Mahomet united them with the
creed of Islam and sent them forth to
conquer. Then they stormed and carved
out kingdoms from Spain to India.
| One Of First to Fall.
| Palestine, at their door, was one OF
] the first lands to fall. It was swiftly
| taken and MoslemiZed. Arabs moved
into the land that had been Solomons 5,
Presently Palestine was Thoroughly
made Arab. The people quickly caileo
| themselves Arabs, and they do today.
It is generally agreed that they are not
Arab by descent, but are mongrel de.
scendants of the old native people and
| the MANY races who have swept pack
and forth over Palestine. But since
the time Of Mahomet and the carry
caliphs they have adopted the renglOn,
the language, the customs ana tne
name of Arabs.
The Christians came in the crusades
| to conquer the holy places. The wars
between Christian and Moslem went on
for centuries. The Jews, badly ueateo
in Christian lands, were rather wei
treated by the Moslens. They were
kindred peoples, friendly. That Is one
of the ironies, when now CnriStlan
power protects the Jews against Islam
But the Jews Of the centuries were
dreaming of Jerusalem and their noiy
nlaces. It was q vague aspiration FOL
long. and then finally crystalllzeo N
the Zionist movement. The World wal
broke the power of the Turk, thanks
nartIy to the genius of Col. Lawrence
and the Zionist idea was poWer1u!
enough to bring about the movement
for a Jewish homeland under the pro-
lection of Great Britain.
This was a turn of history Where tne
romantic and mysterious LaWten,C os
played an important part. IL may De
pertinent to sketch briefly his part ~
the World War. which led to his having
a voice-though perhaps futile voice
i'm the making of peace IN the Neal
East. The British in Egypt, with tne
incredibly important Suez Canai %
Guard. were much in the same position
Of the ancient Pharaohs, the Ptolemys
and Napoleon striking at Turkey from
a base in Egypt. The British nao u
| guard against invasion through the mar
row Palestinian corridor. AZ the SAM
that same corridor when they advanced
against the Turk.
Arabs Might Turn Scales.
On the flank of this immensely sig
nificant corridor was the desert and the
Arabs. The hard-fighting, hard-r1dine
Bedouins, with constant raids out OF tne
desert, might turn the scale. They mlgns
easily be q decisive factor. They were
co-religionists of the Turks, but had Q
national hatred for them. Winning
| them over to one side or other was Q
| neat and delicate game. England dlo
gain their support-and savage, strone
| fighting support 1t was-agatnSt the
| Turks, and this was largely because OF
the unparalleled achievements OF Col
Lawrence. Young scholar OF OXFORD
student of Near Eastern archaeology, ne
represented Britain among the ARABS
persuaded them to mighty efforts In the
behalf of the allies, became a Leader
among them, handled them on their
| camel-back raids. Thus he came to be