EARLY Z10NISM, THE BIBLICAL LANDSCAPE, AND ECOLOGY
Walter Jacob
QUESTION: Did the early religious Zionist settlements in Israel concern themselves with recreating the biblical landscape and shaping an environmentally friendly policy of land use, or were they solely concerned with resettling the land, tilling, and building a modern state?(L.F,, Los Angeles , CA )
ANSWER: The creation of a Jewish state was seen as settling Jews in the Land of Israel as farmers. The obstacles were immense and included draining malarial swamps, reclaiming long neglected farmlands, rebuilding irrigation systems and adding new ones, and reforestation, not to speak of the issues surrounding land ownership and the nomadic and peasant population that lived on the land. The idealized image of the land that emerges from the early Zionist literature has little to do with the biblical landscape. We should also remember that our picture of the biblical land must be pieced together from descriptive fragments found in the biblical books. The settlers came largely from Europe and sought to construct an economically viable agricultural base. They planted crops that they needed and that could be sold. Modern Israeli agriculture must produce what is commonly consumed nowadays and must compete on the world market. During one period oranges totally unknown in biblical times, were grown for export. They did not become common in the Mediterranean Basin until the late Roman period. Now they