Was the land of Israel ever devoid of Jews ???
Sorry about the long answers. The Land of Israel was never devoid of Jews, although at times they numbered only in the tens of thousands. This was because the land was virtually uninhabitable when the Jews once again began their God-given right AND duty to return en masse to the land of their forefathers (the Zionist Movement) in the 1880s. The silly rhetoric about a massive Arab presence being overrun by “invading Jews” is quickly dispelled by Mark Twain, who visited the area in 1867. From his book, “The Innocents Abroad”… “A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent mournful expanse…. a desolation…. we never saw a human being on the whole route…. hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.” The Jews did not displace anyone, because very few of the people who were there actually owned the land. Most were absentee owners residing else
