Things that donors know: Was Mark Twain a Zionist?

Zeev sends an excited manifesto concerning the right of the Jewish people to the land. In particular, he was intrigued by one paragraph based on the famous American writer Mark Twain. "In conclusion, I will direct you to a kind and humorous book. Its name is "Pleasure Journey in the Holy Land" and it was written by a writer named Samuel Longhorn (known as Mark Twain) in 1867. He toured Israel through and through. He saw no Palestinians here, no green gardeners, no Arab villages, no bustling cities. is nothing. He saw and describes desolation, swamps, calamity, fever, sands. "The land of the plague", that's what he called the Land of Israel. Everything that is here, this paradise called Israel - was built by the Jewish genius" 

Is it possible, Zeev wonders, that Mark Twain personally testifies that the earth was empty until we redeemed it? Why doesn't our advocacy use such convincing and reliable testimony? 

Well, Zeev, Mark Twain's book about his journey to the East (the innocents abroad) was a bestseller upon its publication and is the most popular American travel book to this day. The book was partially translated into Hebrew and it manages to be funny and fascinating even today, 142 years after it was written. Indeed a wolf, the book is very rich in descriptions of desolation and wilderness. This is how, for example, a morning in the Hula Valley is described: "It is seven o'clock in the morning and since we are in nature, the grass should have shimmered, the flowers should have spread their scent and the birds should have been singing in the trees. But unfortunately there is no dew, no flowers, no birds and no trees here. There is a ravine and a lake without shade and beyond them, bare mountains." 

An organized trip to the holy sites of Christianity

But, nevertheless, as a historical testimony to the help of Zionism, Twain's book does not quite deliver the goods. First, Twain did not "tour Israel the length and breadth", he joined an organized trip of a group of pilgrims, devout Christians, who focused on the places that were important to them: Nazareth, the Sea of ​​Galilee and, of course, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Sharon, the Shefala and the coastal plain were not visited by Twain. If Twain had traveled not only the length of the country but also the width of it, he might have been impressed by the orchards around Jaffa where at that time a large-scale cultivation of Hashemoti oranges began: a local development that created the first Israeli Haaretz brand - the Jaffa orange.

 Second, most of the horror descriptions of the country's landscape are simply descriptions of a typical Mediterranean summer as experienced by those whose native landscape is the ever-green Mississippi Basin. "That the flames of the sun sprang upon the earth like daggers of fire pouring out of a burner; It seemed that the rays landed in a continuous stream on the head and dripped down like rain on the roof... The desert shone so brightly that my eyes filled with tears all the time." What to do, burning sun and yellow hills are the main element of September (the month in which Twain was impressed by our country) in the Middle East. Completely different descriptions of the landscape can be heard from those who traveled in the country in the spring, the painter David Roberts, who recorded the landscapes of the country, describes the Sharon in March 1839 as "a carpet of flowers, a plain dotted with small villages and palm trees." The most beautiful area I have ever seen in my life"

Third, embarrassingly, Twain provides a little too much description of desolation and desolation. Here, for example, is this paragraph (which was not included in the partial translation into Hebrew) about the desolate land "We saw no plowed fields, very few villages, no trees, grass or vegetation of any kind and barely a few isolated houses. The land is black, gloomy and desert without agriculture, crafts and trade.. Unfortunately, Israeli propaganda is prevented from using this testimony because the country described is actually Greece, which he also visited on his way here.

And the main thing: what made Twain's book so popular, what makes it fascinating even today is that the geography and demography of the Land of Israel are nothing more than a setting for the book's central theme: the pilgrims themselves. The development of the steam engine transformed the transatlantic voyage from a dangerous and tedious adventure into a means of transportation for the masses. When Twain set out on his journey, the trip from the East Coast to the ports of England took only about a week and a half. Many affluent Americans began flocking to the "Old World" creating the beginnings of modern tourism.

A trip of a lifetime

Those who set out on a once-in-a-lifetime trip really wanted to cram as much scenery and experiences into a short vacation as possible, accordingly we built for them travel agents and guides for quick and concentrated short trips. John McGregor, a British geographer who sailed along the Jordan River in his boat "Rob Roy" and mapped it for the first time a year after Twain's trip, describes an encounter with American tourists on his way[there is 1]  From Mount Harbel to Kinneret "In the middle of the slope we discovered an American sitting in his tent. The next day he disappeared like nothing. These cousins ​​of ours travel the world at such a rare speed. I met about thirty of them during my travels, but I didn't hear a word from anyone and I didn't see a look that would indicate an appreciation or enjoyment of the wonderful land through which I will run... this bad measure of evil haste in a land that you can't tour in a hurry.." . Trying to extract demographic, economic or social information from the letters of these tourists is like analyzing the situation of Turkey or Cyprus based on impressions from an all-inclusive week in Ayia Napa or Antalya. Twain was smart enough to understand this and he did not write, and did not intend to write another travel book that would weigh down the crowded shelf of books about the Land of Israel in the American bookcase. He often quotes from the books of other travelers and mocks the flighty, god-soaked descriptions that crowd them. In fact, a considerable part of the descriptions of the desolation and wilderness are a humorous attack on the description of the same landscapes in the travel books in them as "a land flowing with milk and honey". Mark Twain observes first and foremost his fellow travelers, the remote province of the Ottoman Empire is a kind of laboratory where the mentality of the inhabitants of the American "Bible Belt" is revealed. In a way reminiscent of Israeli backpackers, his companions on Twain's road show narrow-mindedness and a strong motivation to bring their America abroad. Of course, because the real name of the place is Al-Ha or Al-Da, but the boys still refuse to recognize the Arab names or their names." The place of hotel towels is taken by 19th century tourists with stone chips that they pick up from historical sites as souvenirs. The tendency to engrave the visitor's name on the walls and the petty haggling with the locals have not changed at all over the generations. 

And what about the Palestinians? Are there "no Palestinians" on Twain's island? 

Twain's Land of Israel is not empty of inhabitants, from the slopes of the Tabor to Nazareth, for example, the author reports a traffic jam of donkey and camel caravans and schedules about two hours. The Jezreel Valley as seen from the peak of the Tabor "is interspersed with fields and to the appearance smooth and flat like a chessboard, dotted at its edges with white villages crowded with houses and lightly sketched with the crooked lines of roads and paths". Twain describes a definitely inhabited country although, if we accept his testimony, the main livelihood of the inhabitants is on "elderly" American pilgrims. Twain's Land of Israel is a mirror in which American culture is reflected and the locals are an eastern arrival of the Indians from the West. From the pilgrims' point of view, the differences between all non-Yankees blur until farmers from the village of Banias literally blend in with the red-skinned tribes of the Great Plains "This morning, at mealtime, the crowd of Halkhais sat, patiently, outside the enchanted circle of the camp and waited for the crumbs of food that the power of compassion would give them In their suffering..all the women and the children looked tired, dejected and starving. They reminded me of the Indians. Their clothing was scanty, but everything they wore was colorful and colorful... Without saying a word, they sat, and with a patience that knows no sign, we watched each of our movements with that hurtful and unrepentant rudeness, which is so characteristic of the Indians, disturbing, annoying and exciting the white man to the point that he would ask to get up and make a bride in the tribe . These people around us had additional qualities that I listed under the noble red skin: they were swarming with lice, and the mud froze on them until it became a shell." If you insist on seeing Mark Twain as a harbinger of Zionism, then the Ottoman Land of Israel is a "land without a people" just like the plains of Oklahoma or Kansas in the 19th century, a claim that is a little hard to sell in the era of political correctness. 

To the point: in 1883 the population of the country (from Dan to Beer Sheva) was estimated at 457,000, which means a population density of about 30 inhabitants per square meter - similar to the population density in the USA today (36 inhabitants per square meter) and double the population density in New Zealand, for example. The Land of Israel was an agricultural land at a time when agriculture was based on manual labor and as such looked quite similar to other rural areas in its climatic region, not "a land of milk and honey" but not a land of hunger either. Edward Hall who documented the land in 1883 Thus describes the area where Netivot resides today "The extent of cultivated land here, as well as all the way to Gaza, is enormous, and the harvest of grains such as wheat, barley and corn, far exceeds the needs of the residents. In fact, large quantities of agricultural products grown in this area are exported every year from Jaffa and other cities" elsewhere he describes the abundance of orchards, olive groves and orchards in the area between Jaffa - Azor (Yazor) and Ramla.

In 1891 there was someone who conducted exactly the same investigation that Mark Twain prevented us from doing: Is Palestine empty and waiting for Jewish settlers. Ahad Ha'am, one of the pioneers of Zionism, actually found quite a few "green orchards" in the land. But it really isn't. In all the land it is difficult to find fields of seed that will not be sown.. In the Land of Israel, as in all lands, the worker of his land will eat bread, and even in this year, even though it is not blessed, the traveler will see from the side of the roads fertile fields and valleys surrounded by wild 

Thanks. Zeev for making me purchase the book. It is wholeheartedly recommended if you intend to have fun, laugh and learn something about travels and the souls of tourists of all generations. If you want to learn about the history of AI - Mark Twain is not the address. 

Did an interesting, intriguing, strange, delusional or funny question occur to you? sent to ysorek@gmail.com