A Consulate Opinion

A century ago, former US Consul to historical Palestine (1893-1898), Edwin Sherman Wallace ("Jerusalem the Holy. A Brief History of Ancient Jerusalem; With an Account of the Modern City and Its Conditions Political, Religious, and Social", Fleming H. Revel Co., New York, 1898, p. 344) and republished in 1977 by Arno Press



provided an insight regarding Palestinian Muslims, published more than a decade prior to the Balfour Declaration:-

Their religion [Islam] is intolerant. It has little sympathy for the adherents of other faiths. It once advocated an extermination of the infidels. Perhaps it would continue in that advocacy did its leaders dare.

And he also wrote:

"My own belief is that the time is not far distant when Palestine will be in the hands of a people who will restore it to its former condition of productiveness. The Land is waiting, the people are ready to come, and will come as soon as protection of life and property is assured . . . . This must be accepted or the numerous prophecies that asserted so positively must be thrown out as worthless . . . . (Yet) the present movements among Jews in many parts of the world indicate their belief in the prophetic assertions. Their eyes are turning toward the Land that once was theirs and their hearts are longing for the day when they as a people can dwell securely in it."