Mark Twain 1835 -

Truth Harbourers

Excerpts - Mark Twain 1835 -1910

Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim's Progress (1869):

. . . a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds - a silent mournful expanse . . . A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action . . . We never saw a human being on the whole route . . . There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country:"

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910), while a fair person in his judgements of others, could never be mistaken for harbouring special sentiment towards Jews. Particular portions of his writings do, however illuminate some truths as to what actually went on in Palestine long before the rebirth of the State of Israel. Today, the “Palestinians” lay claim to the land of modern-day Israel. It is interesting though, that in all 651 pages of Mark Twain's book “Innocents Abroad” (the result of a trip to the Middle East in 1867), he does not mention the word “Palestinian” even once. He does, however, refer to “Israelites” numerous times and to Jews more than a dozen. Where then, were the “Palestinians"?

Let’s take a look at some observations of this educated and truly objective observer from his visit in Palestine over 130 years ago. The following are excerpts are from his book “Innocents Abroad”:..

TWAIN: ….. The population of Jerusalem is composed of Moslems, Jews, Greeks, Latins, Armenians, Syrians, Copts, Abyssinians, Greek Catholics, and a handful of Protestants. One hundred of the latter sect are all that dwell now in this birthplace of Christianity. The nice shades of nationality comprised in the above list, and the languages spoken by them, are altogether too numerous to mention.

Arabs claim to have "made the desert bloom" - TWAIN: "...a desolation is here that not even imagintion can... ". IN FACT IT ONLY BEGAN TO BLOOM AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY WHEN THE JEWS BEGAN TO ARRIVE IN GREAT NUMBERS.

TWAIN:" . . .we never saw a human being on the whole route . . ." WHERE WAS THE "PALESTINIAN NATION"?

The pages of Mr. Twain's book are, however, overflowing with references to Jewish history including colorful discriptions of the multitude of Jewish characters that created history in "Palestine" over a period lasting thousands of years. His only real reference to Arabs history is the fact that they built their mosque (using stones from King Solomon's temple) in Jerusalem on the site where the Jewish prophet Abraham tried to sacrifice his son Yitzchak. it was built in what is classified as recent history - about 1300 years ago - the Jewish profit Abraham, on the other hand, walked on that site about 5000 years ago - or in other words about 3700 years before anyone dreamed up the idea of a mosque on that site - or anywhere else for that matter...).

TWAIN: .....It seems to me that all the races and colors and tongues of the earth must be represented among the fourteen thousand souls that dwell in Jerusalem. Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt, those signs and symbols that indicate the presence of Moslem rule more surely than the crescent-flag itself, abound. Lepers, cripples, the blind, and the idiotic, assail you on every hand, and they know but one word of but one language apparently -- the eternal "bucksheesh." To see the numbers of maimed, malformed and diseased humanity that...

TWAIN:...Jerusalem is mournful, and dreary, and lifeless. I would not desire to live here.

TWAIN: ...Every where about the Mosque of Omar are portions of pillars, curiously wrought altars, and fragments of elegantly carved marble -- precious remains of Solomon's Temple. These have been dug from all depths in the soil and rubbish of Mount Moriah, and the Moslems have always shown a disposition to preserve them with the utmost care. At that portion of the ancient wall of Solomon's Temple which is called the Jew's Place of Wailing, and where the Hebrews assemble every Friday to kiss the venerated stones and weep over the fallen greatness of Zion, any one can see a part of the unquestioned and undisputed Temple of Solomon…

TWAIN: ...orangetrees that flourish in the court of the great Mosque, is a wilderness of pillars -- remains of the ancient Temple; they supported it. There are ponderous archways down there, also, over which the destroying "plough" of prophecy passed harmless. It is pleasant to know we are disappointed, in that we never dreamed we might see portions of the actual Temple of Solomon….

TWAIN: .. Renowned Jerusalem itself, the stateliest name in history, has lost all its ancient grandeur, and is become a pauper village; the riches of Solomon are no longer there to compel the admiration of visiting Oriental queens; the wonderful temple which was the pride and the glory of Israel, is gone, and the Ottoman crescent is lifted above the spot…..(NOT THE FLAG OF THE "PALESTINIAN NATION"???)

TWAIN: ...Magdala is the home of beggared Arabs; Bethsaida and Chorazin have vanished from the earth, and the "desert places" round about them where thousands of men once listened to the Saviour's voice and ate the miraculous bread, sleep in the hush of a solitude that is inhabited only by birds of prey and skulking foxes...

TWAIN:...Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land? Palestine is no more of this work-day world. It is sacred to poetry and tradition -- it is dream-land.