[HAIFA AND THE BAY OF AKKA. LOOKING EAST FROM
MOUNT CARMEL] Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
[THE BAZAAR OF JAFFA ON A MARKET DAY] Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
[STORMY SEA BREAKING OVER ROCKS OFF JAFFA] Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
[THE AUTHOR'S SISTER ON HER HORSE TAYAR] Photograph by Mr. Julius Rosenwald in March, 1914
[BEIRUT, FROM THE DECK OF AN OUTGOING STEAMER] Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
INTRODUCTION
While Belgium is bleeding and hoping, while Poland suffers and dreams of liberation, while Serbia is waiting for redemption, there is a little country the soul of which is torn to pieces—a little country that is so remote, so remote that her ardent sighs cannot be heard.
It is the country of perpetual sacrifice, the country that saw Abraham build the altar upon which he was ready to immolate his only son, the country that Moses saw from a distance, stretching in beauty and loveliness,—a land of promise never to be attained,—the country that gave the world its symbols of soul and spirit. Palestine!
No war correspondents, no Red Cross or relief committees have gone to Palestine, because no actual fighting has taken place there, and yet hundreds of thousands are suffering there that worst of agonies, the agony of the spirit.