Nearly 2,000 years after Roman ruin, 19th century Zionist pioneers began to rebuild their nation out of a desolate wasteland described in numerous accounts by visitors to the Holy Land in articles, books, scientific reports and photographs. Zionists introduced electricity and developed industry, transforming a neglected province of the Ottoman Empire into a modern agricultural and industrial state benefiting Arab and Jew alike.
In 1947, the Palestinian Arabs attacking their Jewish neighbors were so confident of victory that they brought their wives and other non-combatants with them to battle carrying sacks for looting. (See Karsh, The Arab-Israeli Conflict, The Palestine War 1948.) At a sacrifice of 1% of our total population, the massacres that the Arab leaders boasted of never took place. |
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