"Mound of spring: An early developing Israel in a late developing world TL"

[yboxman]

ME map: a few remaining spoilers

Small retro- Djemal relocates his capital to Aleppo, not Homs.

any way, this is how the remains of the Ottoman empire and Northwestern Persia (spoiler) look by 1926. Syria is a french sphere of influence, Akkad is a nominally British sphere of influence.

Thick Black lines are planned routes of Oil pipelines from Akkad and Khuzestan to Haifa bay (follows OTL Mosul-Haifa pipeline route closely). Gray line is a proposed alternate route for the Kuzestan and projected Chaldaean fields which will cost more to construct (no pre-existing infrastructure) but will not pass through Akkad and will be somewhat shorter.

 

[yboxman]

The Mahdi? Oh my, things just got MUCH more complicated, didn't they?

Yup. Mecca in the hands of a heterodox Shia sect does quite a few things:

a. It results in Shia celebrations everywhere. If those Shia happen to be a minority mixed in with a Predominantly Sunni government and population (Hazara in Afghanistan, Shia refugees in Akkad, Shias in Bekka Valley in Syria*) the Sunni backlash is pretty ugly.

b. In areas where Shia predominate (Persia) it leads to messianic sentiments rising and secular rulers, whether foreign or domestic, being required to take it into account.

c. It causes some Sunni to abandon the Haj and denounce those who still perform it as heretics.

d. In India and Egypt it results in an Anti-British backlash by Sunni Muslims.

e.Biggest potential butterfly is In India where Shia and Sunni split. Shia account for 30% of India's Muslim population, and about 20% in Pakistan today. Probably accounted for more in the 1920s. This kind of thing is probably less likely to bring Hindus and (Sunni) Muslims together in opposing the British. It might result in Shia being given separate representation in the seratarian based provincial asemblies, or in separate representation being abolished to please the Hindus, or some kind of combination of both. Need to read more about India's early independence struggle and figure out how the early end to the war effects the Lucknow pact and the Agrararian unrest where Ghandi made his early mark.

f. In Egypt this is probably accompanied by attacks on Copts and remaining Jews, possibly also on the large expatraite European community (why? well, why not?). Assuming the British pull of some version of the unilateral declaration of Egyption independence ITTL, this might force them back in.

g. In peripherial Islamic areas (Indonesia, Africa) well Islam is not exactly orthodox, A Zaiidi Mecca might well lead to hetrodox elements persisting or acquiring a Shiite cast.

h. (Sunni) Islam's credibility among it's adherents takes a beating, especially in India where they are a minority exposed to alternative cultures. Modernist Islamic movements, including Hetrodox ones like the baha'i and the Ahmadi probably make considerable gains compared to OTL. French and Italian missionaries may prove more succesful than OTL in North Africa, though it is unlikely this will have much of a lasting effect.

i. However this plays out, the unity of thought in Islamic thought will likely decline. Al-Azhar in Egypt well probably become the alternative "Mecca" for Sunni Muslims but with no Haj where the Muslim elite meet annualy, heterodoxy, modernist, fundamentalist or Mahdist, is going to crop it's ugly head all over the place.

j. It will probably make the Zaiidi more similliar to the Twelvers (not so good)- or it might make the Twelvers more similliar to the Zaiidi (better). This depends largely on how things play out in Persia.

k. When Yihya dies, sometimes in the 1960s, the whole mahdi concept is going to take a beating. Of course, the death of Lubavitch doesn't seem to have much of an effect on his followers... maybe devout mahdists will claim he went into occultation again because they failed him. or that he is reincarnated in his son.

l. In Syria and Akkad, some Sunni are going to drift into the Ziaidi form of Shiism after performing the Haj. Djemal and Kemal might respond by forbidding preformance of the Haj.

There are probably other consequences I failed to consider, and some of the consequences I suggested are probably too extreme. anyone with constructive suggestions/criticism?

 

[Julius Vogel]

IIRC there was a bit of immigration from India to Iran post war (and maybe before), from the Shia community. No idea of numbers though

 

[yboxman]

IIRC there was a bit of immigration from India to Iran post war (and maybe before), from the Shia community. No idea of numbers though

Interesting. Post WWI? as oil industry workers or something else? Do you have references?

Persia as a whole will be a less attractive destination for immigration during the 1920s TTL, but the Khuzestan oil industry might attract just as many, or even more, foreign workers.

 

[Julius Vogel]

Interesting. Post WWI? as oil industry workers or something else? Do you have references?

Persia as a whole will be a less attractive destination for immigration during the 1920s TTL, but the Khuzestan oil industry might attract just as many, or even more, foreign workers.

All of the above. I've only seen it mentioned in passing - where someone is writing about Iran, Shia religion, travels though the region that kind of thing.

 

[Tongera]

Ethnic Greeks remain in Bulgaria, Ethnic Serbs in Austrian Croatia and Hungary, ethnic Croats in Serbian Bosnia, Ethnic Albanians in Greece, Serbia and Macedonia and Ethnic Bulgarians in Romania. In short the situation is no more stable than it was prior to the great war.

No populations transfers, like the one's in the Balkans after WW1 and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922? If not there, is bound to be trouble in the Balkans in the years to come.

 

[yboxman]

No populations transfers, like the one's in the Balkans after WW1 and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922? If not there, is bound to be trouble in the Balkans in the years to come.

On the whole no since the exchange of territory between the Balkan states was accomplished by treaty rather than war-most of the population transfers during the Balkan wars occured as armies were given discreet permission to pillage, loot and rape the "enemy" population under the fog of war. The minorities who stayed put afterwards tended to remain in place.

Between AH and Serbia no population transfer. Serbia would oppose such a transfer as it's nationalists view Croats and Slovenes as their kin who should be united with the motherland. the official view from Vienna is that all AH citizens aside from a minority of troublemakers from Serbia are loyal and deserve certain rights- expelling the Serbs in Croatia and Hungary would conflict with this ideology. However, as Budapest breaks with Vienna, Zagreb breaks with Budapest, and as Croats in Bosnia find the Serb-Orthodox chauvinism increasingly irritating the idea of "encouraging" a Croat-Serb population transfer will likely be aired.

If Romania tries to expel it's Bulgarian minority it would spark a war under unfavorable circumstances (a possible trigger for a third Balkan war- but one which dies not fit OTLs interwar Romanian behavior). Romania will probably try to "romanise" Bulgarian and Ukrainian minorities. that that might have the same effect.

Bulgaria will not outright expel Greeks- but it will make life uncomfortable economically for them (they form a economic elite of merchants and landlords who can be targeted) under a number of pretexts. Many will immigrate and those who remain will be subject to bulgarization. This will be a constant source of tension with Greece.

Albanians in Greece and Serbia will not be expelled- that would lead to war with Italy. Some may be resettled in Bosnia/Ionia and replaced with Serb/Greek settlers to reduce cross border infiltration from rump Albania.

 

[yboxman]

What next?

I'm pretty much done with my tour of (non-Jewish) fragments of the Ottoman empire. Was planning to focus on Canaan next for at least half a dozen posts.

But the process of researching background on each of the fragments got me considering the details of changes to the rest of the world- and how those changes would effect Canaanite development.

A few threads I'd like to look into, in their order of relevance to Canaanite development.
a. Political developments within, and between Russia and Poland. I'm pretty much satisfied that the most likely course is post war unrest by socialists and minorities crushed by the conservative leadership who also make limited (and temporary?) concessions to the Middle class and some (Polish, Finnish, Armenian) minorities.

From the Jewish perspective this means that the door to immigration remains open, where the USSR OTL effectively prevented it. The incentive to immigration also increases since the Tsar in Russia and Roman Dmwoski in Poland will be far more hostile to Jews as such than the Soviets and Pilsudski were. How hostile and in what way will effect the numbers, composition, ideological orientation and economic resources of the immigrants and the New Society.

b. British Imperial divestment and internal politics. For Britain Decolonization actually started post WWI, in Ireland, Egypt, India and the dominions.
The development of national feelings in each were greatly accelerated by WWI and the resources and flexibility the British had for dealing with them were greatly decreased. TTL, the Irish situation will probably be resolved without division or civil war, freeing Asquith's political energies to deal with an Egypt and an India where rising Sunni religious militancy will significantly change the political calculus.

Obviously the level of indpendence, support and cultural imprinting Canaan will have will be shaped by the imperial environment. And whatever happens in Egypt, still the primary market, source of raw materials, and watersource of Sinai agriculture will pretty much determine the orientation of Canaan's foreign policy.

c. OTL, political Islam became a dominant force in Muslim countries only in the 1980s, following the Islamic revolution in Iran. The 1920s-1970s were dominated by attempts to emulate Ataturk's and Reza Sha's secular nationalism and

The Shiite-Sunni schism developed slowly during the Iran-Iraq war and the U.S invasion of Iraq. TTLs Mecca war will fast track both effects simultaneously, but with Secular nationalist alternatives to political Islam not yet developed, tried, ossified and discredited and with much less mass media communication.

In spite of the formation of numerous European protectorates and minority statelets Canaan's neighbors and a significant minority of it's population are still Muslim. What that means, and how they relate to each other and to Canaan will have a massive impact on Canaan's development.

d. Persia was unified, modernized and crushed tribal seperatism in the aftermath of WWI. It could have done neither if the RCW and British imperial exhaustion had not combined to give Reza Shah the space to manuver. He won't have that space TTL.

What happens in Persia won't effect Canaan directly but it will effect the Sunni-Shia schism and thereby Canaan's interaction with Yemen and Egypt. It will also impact the "second Israel" in Chaldea and Baha'i development there.

e. Afghanistan followed much the same road as Persia did OTL until 1979. It was able to do so because, again, British imperial exhaustion and the RCW gave it the space to go it's own way and exclude external meddling. The seminal event was the Third Anglo-Afghan war. With Britain less exhusted by WWI, and with Sunni Muslims in India more millitant, how does that turn out TTL? And how does that interact with Indian political development?


What I think I'm going to do for the 1917-1928 period (end of the war to the beginning of the great slump) is intersperse viewpoint posts from Canaan and the New society with posts devoted to each of the above threads and a few tangential threads (Chinese warlords, Spain, Japan, Italy, France, German Kaiserreich politics, Balkans and AH ethnic squabbling)

Candidates for Canaanite and Jewish viewpoint characters:
1. Joseph Trumpeldor- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Trumpeldor Anarcho-communist war hero turned dominant centrist statesman.
2. Zeev Zabotinski- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze'ev_Zhabotinsky the right-wing "loyal opposition" and moving spirit behind the Maccabi Mercenary corps.
3. David Ben Gurion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ben_Gurion- Leader of the grassroots union based left opposition to the New Society cartel domination of national life.
4. Walter rotschild http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rothschild- presiding president and stock holder of the Steam Punkish New Society mega-corporation.
5. Maayan Nevo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_rand- traumatized mad visionary of the Final Society.
6. Pincahs Rutenberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinchas_Rutenberg- a technocarat given free reign to reshape Canaan and beyond.
7. Ahmad Shukairi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shukeiri and some of his descendants: representing the viewpoint of those who seek to preserve a communal identity and political power within a Jewish dominated Canaan. Sort of a more realistic Reshid Bey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_New_Land#References_to_Arabs http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/herzl-s-vision-of-racism-1.269714
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_Hadawi: Representing the ambiguous position of Christians within Canaan.


Suggestions for additional Jewish and non Jewish viewpoint characters?

 

[yboxman]

Post #27: Out of the North, an Evil shall break forth


People
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksei_Brusilov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Nicholas_Nikolaevich_of_Russia_(1856–1929)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Stürmer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Rodzianko
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Purishkevich

organizations/events
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_the_Russian_People
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hundreds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russkoye_sobraniye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urkun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basmachi_movement



Young Alisa Rosenbaum

St Petersburg, March 1917

Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum hugged his wife and two youngest daughters to him, attempting to quiet their fears as the sounds of fighting drifted into the barricaded cellar beneath his pharmacy.

Alisa, his oldest daughter needed no such reassurance. What she did need, what she demanded, was explanations. "Why, father? Why are they rioting now, when we have won the war? Why not earlier when it appeared we might lose?"

Zinovy didn't understand it himself. The last time revolution approaching this in scope had broken out had been a dozen years previously, indeed, Alisa had been a child of that failed revolution. And that revolution, as Alisa had noted, had come on the heels of a humiliating defeat (1).

In the end he shrugged and gave the easiest answer. "They are hungry". (2)

And they were. The war may have ended two months ago but with the men at the front few fields had been sown, stocks were nearly depleted, and the railways, the life arteries of the Northern city, were still overwhelmed with demobilizing soldiers.

That was not enough to satisfy his daughter. "Well, why don’t they bring in wheat from America and Argentina?"

That one was easier to answer. "Russia does not import Grain. It exports it, to pay for all the things we need from the West. If we bought Grain now then Russia would have an even higher debt and need to pay even higher interest on it."

Alisa Frowns. "But all the workers are rioting instead of working, and the soldiers are putting them down instead of going back to their farms won't the government spend even more money?"

Zinovy Smiled. "It would… but the Tsar's advisers are obviously not as wise as you are".

To that Alisa nodded impatiently. It was a matter of fiath with her that she was smarter than anybody else with the possible eception of her father. "Will the workers get more food now?"

The hellish chatter of a machine gun broke through the walls of the cellar causing his wife to moan in terror. "No. I don’t think so. I think that instead the riots will block what food supplies might reach the city from the Ukraine and that without work they will be unable to pay for bread even if there was bread to be had."

"Then the rioters are even bigger fools."

Bored with the conversation she picked up her notepad and returned to scribbling her Ideas for a new play, one featuring a Blond, leggy, and altogether superior heroine.

Tsarskoye Selo, Russian council of state/STAVKA, May 1917

Alexi Brusilov clenched his fists in frusturation as Boris Strumer and the other sycophants surrounding his sovereign continued their inconsequential inanities.

Strumer was the one who had supported the insane Idea of forbidding the May 1st parades. It had taken Brusilov a month to put down the march riots in the Northern cities. He may have lost half his soldiers to desertion along the way but by May the cities were, if only barely, pacified and grain had begun to flow northwards, however sluggishly. And now, spurred on by his wife, in turn manipulated by the madman Rasputin the Tsar had overturned all his careful work. The Ukaz banning the may 1st parades had been the equivalent of a glove tossed before a duel and was taken as such by the socialist parties. The massive, nation wide marches were too large to be contained by specialist troops and had to be met with the bayonets of conscripts. In some cities the result was a bloodbath and the restoration of order. In others, it was the soldiers who were overwhelmed or joined the rioters.

"Your highness, we have lost control of St-Petersburg. I strongly recommend relocating the government and your own family to Moscow, or even to Kiev. But that is not all. The insurrection has spread to the rural regions. I dare not proceed with Demobilization, too many of the Muzhniks are all too likely to join the SR radicals in storming the estates. "

Strumer sneered. "Are you saying that you lack confidence in your ability to contain the insurrection, dear general? Are a few Narodniks more of a challenge than the German armies"

For a moment a red mist covered Brusilov's eyes as he recalled how many of his men he had sent to their deaths, ill armed and ill prepared to face the scientifically commanded and artillery backed troops of the central powers. Strumer, and his own ruler, were blithely oblivious to how near they had come to utter ruin. They remained utterly convinced that it was Nicholas's steady hand and inspirational leadership which had delivered victory from the jaws of defeat. And now they seemed determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

"Those armies are still a threat. The Germans may have withdrawn west of the Vistula but remain undefeated and have failed to complete their own demobilization. If they are emboldened by the Crisis and reoccupy East Prussia I lack the men and logistics to expel them. Nor I am uncertain that the Anglo-French threats will hold them back (3). Indeed, at our current state I lack confidence in repulsing even the Austrians- and we can no longer depend on Italy and the Balkan states to hold them back."

Nicholas spoke for the first time in the meeting. As usual he was distant, uninterested in detail, and did not respond directly to the points raised.

"God save poor Russia! Am I to abandon her to the Zhid and the Menshevik?"

Brusilov lept into the opening before it could close "heaven forbid your majesty! But as you have said the danger of Bolshevik-Jewish insurrection must frighten every good Russian, even those who have not always supported the monarchy as you might wish. Surely, they do not wish to see Lev Bronshtein extend his foul reign across all of the Rodina (4) ! Nor does anyone wish to see the Kaiser sweep away our victory while Russia goes up in flames!

I pray your majesty to pull back our forces from Poland, Finland and Vaspurakan. Let Dmwoski deal with Pilsudski, Mannerheim deal with his own Soviets and Catholicos George deal with the Dinshaks. They shall do better in doing so without the presence of Great Russian troops.

As for the Rodina itself, immediately open talks with the Octoberists, Kadets, even the Trudoviks. Discuss with them what measures might be required to restore the confidence of the people in you. By now they assuredly realize the need for a strong Tsar in Russia to protect property from the mob. I am sure that this realization can be reflected in a constitution… "

Brusilov cursed himself as he saw the brief opening close. For the Tsarina "constitution" was the equivalent of a red flag to a bull. Her voice rising up in hysteria she denounced him "you would dilute the birthright, the heritage, the divine right of my Alexi!? And you dare to call yourself loyal servant of the crown?"

As her rant continued Brusilov took a moment to evaluate the other STAVKA members. War had purged away most of the incompetents and sycophants, leaving
Younger, more capable commanders who had a better understanding of reality and a stronger sense of their own power and limitations than their soverign.

Kornilov he was certain of. Kaledin and Alexsiyev less so… but with every insult hurled at him by the Tsarina he was becoming more confident on where they stood. At last, her tirade complete, he turned to the Tsar.

"Your majesty, I have endeavoured to serve you and your family loyally. Will you consider my advice and undertake the measures required to restore your people's confidence in you?"

Nicholas, with the serenity of an imbecile, stared at him. "Restore the confidence of my people? It is rather they who must restore my confidence in them!"

Brusilov bowed his head. "I am sorry your majesty."

"Think nothing of it. The strain of war has obviously worn you down. It is time for you to retire to your home and spend time in the comfort of your family. Why I recall"

For the first time in his life, Brusilov interrupts his soverign. "You misunderstand, your majesty. Men!"

Officers loyal to him personally, men he had led in the recapture of Lvov stormed into the room, overpowering the guards.

"Escort their majesties to their quarters and ensure both their safety and dignity!" He commanded. Strumer, dumbfounded began to protest. "Throw that one in the Gaol. Do not rough him up too much- we may yet require him as a scapegoat".

The room cleared of non-millitary men, Kornilov stood up and ironically bowed to him. "Well, tovarishch dictator, what now?"

"Now? Now we hope that Rodzianko and the moderates in the Duma will support us and that we can find a Romanov who is capable of seeing reason to take the throne."


Russian Empire, near Kiev, July 1917

Grand duke Nicholas felt the old excitement rise within him again as he galloped through the woods after his hounds, his wife and coterie at his sides, his bodyguards discreetly behind them. In the clearing he slowed his mound to a halt and dismounted. The hounds had cornered and captured one of the pack, one hound holding it from the left, and the other holding him from the right.

His coterie remained mounted, they knew he preferred to perform the final deed on his own- and that the tensions of the past few months called out for relief. The captured wolf grew silent as he approached and ceased his struggles, almost as if it too were eager to participate in his private dark ritual. Seizing the Wolf's ruff with his gauntleted fist he exposed his throat and sliced it open in a single, well rehearsed motion.

Turning back towards his followers he realized that a messenger from headquarters had caught up with them, a telegram in hand. Grand duke Nicholas was a slow and deliberate man, not given to overt displays of excitement or triumph. Still, he could not help but allow a small smile of satisfaction to play on his lips as he handed the telegram to his wife after reading it. Even afoot he was nearly level at the same level as her and he carefully watched her face as she read it as well his grin widening as she gasped with pleasure.

"So, dearest. Good things come to those who wait after all."

Anastasia lightly kissed him on his cheek, ignoring the specks of wolf blood and wishing that they were alone rather than in company. The day her husband had been dismissed from command of the Russian armies and sent into exile to command the forces sent to Serbia and her homeland of Montenegro had been the bitterest in her life, all the more so since she knew that she was in no small part the tool, if not the cause, of his exile. Had it not been for her there would have been no distant front to send him to, far from the halls of power and influence. He might have been relieved of command, but not of power and influence within the court. Instead…

When his nephew had overseen the final triumph of Russian arms she had despaired of ever returning to the center of power. But instead of using his triumph to shore up his rule Nicky had engaged in his usual self destructive behavior and had eventually been betrayed by his Generals. Her own husband, in titular command of a high morale, well disciplined force, well supplied by Britian and France and supplemented with Serbian, greek and Montenegran volunteers, had left the Balkans and secured Odessa from the revolutionaries.. Under the operational command of Yudenevitch, and supported by loyal Cossack hosts and the resurgent Black hundreds, he had pacified most of Southern Russia and established the center of his own power base in Kiev.

Now, with the support of British and French mediation, Brusilov's Junta and the Duma were offering him the regency. His childlessness, she was sure, was one factor in the offer. They knew she was too old to bear another child and her children from her previous marriage could obviously never be eligible for the throne. Still…what marriages and stations might she secure for them as stepchildren to the regent, and perhaps one day Tsar?

Giving her hand a final squeeze Nicholas turned to his trusted political advisor, Vladimir Purishkevich. "It seems I have been called to Moscow. As Regent I will remember who aided Russia in her time of need- and I will know well how to reward and how to use them. Call forth your followers, our followers, to a rally. When I assume the regency in Moscow I wish to be sure that they shall stand at my side and shall fully participate in the crusade against the Zhid revolutionaires".





St Petersburg, November 1917.

"Is it over papa? Is the fighting truly over?"

Zinovy Rosenblaum sighed. In truth, he was not sure. This was not like the war with the Germans where a clear front line existed. Control over the capital of the Russian empire had fluctuated for the past Six months with Tsarist forces occasionally sallying forth to establish checkpoints and sweep the populace for weapons and known revolutionaries and then withdrawing once snipers and bombers began taking their toll on their patrols. The Petrograd Soviet had occasionally torn itself into factional fighting as well with Leon Trotsky barely holding the Menshevik and Bolshevik factions of the Social democrats together and occasionally skirmishing for political supremacy with the myriad socialist revolutionary and anarchist bands.

News from the rest the country was patchy with newspapers an almost completely untrustworthy source of information. Grand duke Nicholas had been proclaimed regent- but rumors soon abounded that he, or his wife, or both, had been assassinated. Kerensky and the trudovniks had been lambasted by the red press as traitors and running dogs to the Reaction- but had then been reported as martyrs to the cause, excecuted by the treacherous Tsarist forces. Trotsky had been reported killed three times by the White press- and had been reported as having captured Moscow, or Warsaw, or Riga just as often by the Red.

Over the past month, however, Tsarist forces had won back control of the city, using a combination of curfews, mass registration drives, mass executions, and exile to end terror attacks on their forces. British, French and even German (5) ships in the harbor had underlined the foreign support provided to the regime. The view from the roof showed no new explosions, no fires, no marching rioters and only sporadic patrols of soldiers.

Uprisings, especially by landless peasants in the countryside against the great estates still continued, disrupting food supplies to the cities but the pharmacy had received new supplies and it's old customers had gradually returned, though many had been forced to pay for their medication with credit.

As for Trotsky… "Hopefully he is dead and someone else, someone who is not Jewish, will head what is left of the insurrection" her father says bluntly. "I'm afraid that all of us will be blamed for this treason, not just those who are red".

Alisa is confused. For most of her life the issue of her parents nominal Jewishness had never arisen. A few half remembered holidays furtively worshipped when she was younger. Few in the past years, none since her youngest sister had been born. "I am not a Jew" She said firmly "I don’t believe in God, any God".

Her father winces. "Well you had better believe that if you say something like that where someone else can hear you, there well be hell of the material, if not spiritual, nature to pay. The Okharana will be sure to jump with their hobnailed boots on anyone who sounds like a Red- and they will be sure to land with both their feet on Jewish Atheists, where a Christian Atheist might get by with only one".

Alisa frowns. "Father? If you don't believe either than why do you not accept baptism?"

As usual, his daughter had a habbit of following a hard question with a harder one. "Well, perhaps I believe a little after all. Or perhaps the god I choose not to believe in is the Jewish one rather than Christ. And perhaps being baptized will not be enough to make me, and you, like everyone else. A baptized Jew is expected to be more zealous than the chief synod in denouncing unbaptized jews- and if he refuses to do so, then he is held in suspicion by Christian born and Jew alike. And perhaps I simply refuse to cheapen myself by lying about something so important to gain personal advantage".

Alisa looks him in the eye for a long time and then nods. "I vow never lie about who I am or what I am. And I will never ask for someone else to lie for my sake".

Zinovy felt a chill pass over his spine and tried to dispel it with a joke "Well, to whom are you vowing if there is no god to hear you? While you care considering that why don’t we go have a look over the pharmacy together, shall we? Business is finally picking back up and I want to make a list of shortages which can now be made good".

Alisa sighs. She would much rather spend time writing and thinking than going through inventory. But with business in such steep decline her father had been forced to fire many of his workers and had begun insisting she assist him in the family business when not at her frustratingly easy schoolwork.

The men who burst into his pharmacy are not Tsarist Soldiers, although they are wearing a uniform of sorts. This calms Zinovy for only a short while before he recognizes the symbol. It is the newly formed, or re-formed, "Black Myriads". Made up of volunteers who wish to assist the police in combating socialist terrorism, they have carried out extensive Pogroms against the Jews during Regent Nicholas's triumphant march to Kiev and Moscow. But this, Zinovy reminds his erraticly beating heart is not some provincial town in Southern Russia. This is St petersborg, most European of Russian cities, and the fleets of the Western powers are in it's bay. And he is no provincial Hassid innkeeper either. He is a guidsman of the first class, with his family granted rights of residency for the past century. Surely they would never dare, not here, not now, not to him.

Then he recognizes one of the millitamen. It is Evgeny, a worker whom he had been forced to relieve three months ago. A sinking feeling fills his stomach as he understands this is no official visit.

Evgeny smiles, half apologetic, half smirking. "Mr Rosenblaum. I'm here to see if you have a license to operate this pharmacy. "

"Of course I have a license to operate the Pharmacy!" Protested Mr Rosenbaum. "you know that!, you've worked here before when business was better!"

"Can't be too careful", growls one of his companions. "Too many of your people have swarmed into the city during the war, spying for the Germans and undermining the Rodina. Who knows what poisons you have been selling here to innocent Russians? Who knows how much of your ill gotten wealth you have been giving to Trotsky's reds?"

Evgeny lays his hand on his companion's shoulder. "Now there, Rosenblaum is not a bad sort- for a Zhid. He just doesn't know, not yet, about the new licensing registration regulations for zhids like him in the city. But now that he does I am sure that he will pay both the fine and the registration fee to us- and that he will be sure to keep on paying it every Saturday from now on. Isn’t that right, Rosenbaum?"

Rosenbaum stiffened. He had been shaken before, by thugs much like this, albeit adorned with the Red star of the Bolsheviks. But his daughter did not see him give in to them then. He glances at his daughter, her fists clenched and a look of disgust on her face.

"You can go squeeze money from the Devil's grandmother. If there had been a new license needed a Ukase would have been issued by the Tsar. I will pay no protection money and will go to the millitary court if these shakedowns continue".

Evgeny's truncheon upends a shelf filled with priceless medicine and is then at his throat pressing his neck against the wall as his friends lay down blows upon him. His daughter, horrified, tries to stop them only to be backhanded onto the broken glass.

As the truncheons pound him into pulp the last sounds he hears before he loses conscioucness are his daughter's screams. They are not screams of fear or horror. They are promises of vengenance.

Ferrangha valley, Russian Turkestan, March 1919.
The Kalmyks and Buryats had turned the Tajik village into little more than a pile of rubble, and those of their inhabitants who had failed to flee the raid were now prisoners. Ungern Sternberg, surrounded by his personal Assyrian guard nodded with satisfaction. Heathens they might be but he felt as if he and these Mongol-Kin were made for each other, even more so than the Assyrians who had followed him from Urmiah to Baku and from Baku to the Dhagestan. Yudenevich, who had been well pleased with his work in Assyria against the Kurd and Persian and his massacre of both Menshevik and Jadidst revolutionaries in the caucasus had seemed taken aback by the short work he made of Makhno's anarchists and their Zhid supporters in Tambov (6).

Instead of integrating the Sanharib brigade into the forces subduing the SR revolts in rural Russia, the Tsar had him sent across the Urals to the arid Kirghiz (7) steppes with very particular instructions. He was to smite the Muslims, drive those who rebelled against Tsarist rule in the wastes of Chinsese Turkestan and Afghanistan. Then he was to join the forces seeking to regain control of Tashkent and the Amur Darya valley.

The trouble in the Rodina, after all, was caused by the lower classes having too little land and coveting that of their betters. If more land would be made available for them in Anatolia and Central Asia then the devil of rebellion and socialism would have a harder time getting hold of them. The Kirghiz steppes had been simple. The Buriat and Kalmyk auxilaries had been promised a share of the Khirgiz grazing lands and the slaughter they perpetrated ensured that few of the Kirghiz would remain in Eastern Turkestan.

Ferrengha had been more confusing. The Tashkent Soviet, the pro-Tsarist settlers, the Jadidist Islamic reformers (8), the traditionalist feudal Islamic leaders and The Emir of Bukhara had all made shifting alliances before he had arrived with reinforcements to enforce the writ of the Tsar. The emir and the Turkmen tribes had swiftly renewed their alliegences, furnishing him with more auxilaries, while the Russian settlers had, even prior to his arrival, united against their Muslim neighbors. Nationality, in the Central Asian frontier at least, had trumped class. And trained, organized armies trumped unorganized, badly armed rebels. With promises of amnesty, and threats of anahliation, many of the Tajik and Uzbek (9) clans had turned on the Jadidists. Those who did not…

Grinning at the devastation around him he bellowed at his captives “I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

Ungern then turned towards his own troops, his grin widening: "The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms."

"Ungern Khan! Ungern Khan!" as his cheering troops chanted, Ungern grabbed a Tajik girl by her surprisingly light auburn hair. Dragging her behind his saddle he laughed again when his men descended upon the wailing captives. Those who survived the night would be released, sending fear across the valley and leading more of the rebel clans to flee or surrender rather than resist the Great White Tsar.

Lvov, Autonomous grand Duchy of Poland, Russian empire, August 1921

"Sign the papers".

Zinovy Rosenbaum cannot bear to look at the scarred face of his daughter. He had paid the best Doctors in St.Petersburg to treat her, with some small success. His attempts to repair the deeper scars on her body and soul were less successful (10). The Ukaz revoking all exceptions to Jews living east of the Pale of settlement, and allowing resident of St Petersburg and Moscow two weeks to leave had in any event interrupted those efforts. Perhaps if they hadn't…

She had flat out refused his attempts to send her to Vienna to be treated by the Alienists in that city. For a year, she has spent almost every day reading and writing in her room, refusing to step out of the house. A year later, as if a decision had been reached she returned to school, refusing to apply any makeup to disguise her horrific scars and icily staring down anyone who dared to comment on her disfigurement. At least it was an All-Jewish school. Unlike St Petersburg, Lvov had a large Jewish population which had drawn more and more closely together in the years following the Great war and Dmwoski's persecutions.

He has even resumed visits to Shul. Partly in order to make business contacts, partly in order to resume another kind of contact of the type he had thought he had long left behind. Is that why his daughter would no longer look at him? She had obviously gone on another path.

What that path was, he could not say. By the time Alisa was prepared to leave their home and meet an Alienist the path westwards was barred as both Austria and Germany had enacted draconic legistlation to halt entry of Jewish refugees from Poland and Russia.

And now this.

"Is it because of… him?"

Vladimir Zhabotinsky himself had made a tour of Poland last month and had spoken in almost every major Jewish city. His words were not aimed at men like Zinovy Rosenbaum however. No, they were aimed at their children.

He told them that they were living at the edge of a volcano, that the post war persecution, even if it appeared to be ebbing as both Russia and Poland stabilized would eventually resume and intensify. That any improvement could only be limited and temporary since relief in Russia would drive immigration into it from Poland and Vice versa, leading to an eventual backlash as had already occurred in the central powers. That the very Idea that Jews could live as a minority within the body politic of either Russian or polish state was inherently un-natural. That it was better to prepare to leave now, when they might sell their property in an organized fashion and use the capital to settle in the new land than later, when their property would be subject to seizure.

He reminded them that The Russian army took in Jewish boys and sent them to perform the most vile and menial of tasks, and that the Polish government was only too pleased to ensure that Jewish Poles should serve in the imperial rather than national army. Without saying so directly he stated what they already knew- that all too many of the Jewish boys sent into the Siberian and central Asian wastes never returned and that no one could know where the tsar would send him until he was conscripted.


"It is because of what he represents"

And then he told them about Canaan and the Maccabi Corps. About a land where Jews rule themselves. About a land with no ever decreasing Jewish quotas at schools, universities and government positions. About bountiful farms under an ever sunny sky, irrigated by science rather than dependent on unpredictable weather.

About a Jewish army which had won it's own land and which had displayed such bravery that foreign rulers bid for it's services in exotic realms such as Somaliland and Akkad. About how the New Society ensured that all those who provided three years of service in the military, or seven years in the Labor battalions, would be entitled to a share in the New Society stocks as well as housing, medical insurance, and education subsidies for their own children.

"You would leave a life of learning and culture for the life of a peasant?"

Wordlessly, she handed him another paper. It was an application to the Warsaw engineering college. Rejected. As were all other applications.

"That life is no longer ours. Do you not understand? The mundanes have had their use of us and have now decided that they can do without us. They want their own doctors, their own engineers and their own bankers. They will no longer allow us to occupy those positions on the basis of individual talent. Not in spite of our greater talents- but precisely because of them. Your generation can still, perhaps, enjoy the fruit of their industry and labor. But they will not allow your children, they will not allow me, to rise to our full potential. And if we do, if they find that they cannot do without us then they will humiliate and mutilate us so that we never think ourselves their equals. "

The Bundists and the Agudaists had demonstrated against Zhbotinsky, The Bundists had many arguments to support their position. That the claim that Jews could live full and free lives only in Eretz yisrael was surrender and accommodation with injustice rather than a determination to fight it with Non Jewish partners. That an attempt to form a nationally based state was a perpetuation of the injustice Jews were suffering under in Russia-Poland. Those most hostile, and most convoluted, claimed that since the national project benifitted from persecution of the Russo-Polish Jews it was therefore an accomplice to such injustice and could not therefore be a worthy goal (11).

The Agudaists, of course, simply claimed it was not the will of god to return to Eretz Yisrael before the Messiah arrived- and that it was better to send their children to the army of the Tsar than to see their souls defiled by the secularist New Society.

"I can write to…"

He still had connections.

"No. That is not the main reason why I must go. "

"Why then? Why?"

"Because I vowed never lie about who I am or what I am. Or to ask for another to lie for my sake. And that is what I am doing here, what we are all doing here, every day we remain."

Haifa Bay, May 1922
Name?" Asks the fatigued New Society official.

The determined, dark haired young woman, one side of her face Horribly scarred, hesitated.

"Alisa Rosen …Wait. I can change my name now, may I not?"

Vered nods wearily. She had processed two hundred newly arrived refugees already and her day has just begun. Did the girl even understand how bad things were in the Shikunim? She looked plump enough. Was she prepared for the rationing, the hot bunking, the endless shifts at the mills? Well, let her enjoy her new life while she could.

"Sure. What will it be?"

"Maayan. Maayna Nevo (12)."


(1) Actually, almost every large scale war Tsarist Russia had been involved in, whether it ended in defeat or victory, resulted in revolution, coup, assasination or political upheaval.
(2) And international Women's day is giving the socialist paties a grand opportunity to make a show of forth, and Nicholas II is absolutely opposing any post-war reforms, and some of the demobilizing troops have kept their weapons and are using them against their landlords and…..
(3) With the Rhineland demilitarized and Germany partially demobilized The Entente powers hold the initial advantage in any confortation- and no-one knows quite how long Russia will remain in upheaval or how badly their armies are effected. AH isn't doing great either and the Germans have their own domestic issues.
(4) Lenin gets arrested by the Austrians when he tries to slip across the Swiss border. Trotsky, manages to reach first Sweden and then Russia from the U.S.
(5) Kissing up to the new regime, and trying to split up the entente. Success is limited but the gesture costs little.
(6) To the best of my knowledge, Makhno had little to no Jewish support or membership in his army. But Unger Sternberg is just that kind of crazy guy.
(7) Kazakhs- but prior to the Russian revolution they were all called Khirgiz.
(8) Who are an interesting what if? In and of themselves. OTLs Bolshevik takeover eliminated them in the USSR, though a branch of that school of thought emerged in Iran later as the Mujahidin Khalk.
(9) Not that Uzbeks are differentiated from Kazkhs in Russian numenclatura at this time.
(10) Why did the looting of her father's shop go even worse TTL than OTL? Because OTL the Bolsheviks trashed the shop because order broke down and the rosenbaum's were rich. TTL, they are being attacked because they are Jews AND because they are rich and order broke down.
(11) Yes, that argument is still around. Any first year student of logic can spot the inconsistancies in it in about five seconds so let's just leave it at that shall we?
(12) Maayan is a spring. Nevo is simultaneously a reference to the mountain Moses is buried at, flowing water and also prophecy. So her new name means the prophetic, or flowing, Spring. In other words… The Fountainhead.

 

[yboxman]

maayan nevo


And an older Maayan Nevo...

 

[Some Bloke]

Inflicting Ayn Rand on an alternate Israel?!
You Evil, evil man.

Just curious what show's the pic from?

 

[Tongera]

Nice long update, that's what I like.

Also, where is the picture from exactly?

 

[krinsbez]

Nice long update, that's what I like.

Also, where is the picture from exactly?

Lena Headey as Ma-Ma from Dredd.

 

[yboxman]

Lena Headey as Ma-Ma from Dredd.

Right. Apply Ma-Ma's detached "I'm talking to you but you're not really there and neither am I" demeanour to most of Maayan Nevo's human interactions with "Mundanes" and you won't be far off the mark.

Also, I liked the concept of an autonomous, arcology like, "Block"- it might be applicable to TTLs overpopulated Canaan. For that matter, given current trends in urban development it might become applicable to OTLs Israel....

 

[Julius Vogel]

Well, clearly AR will become a well known plastic surgeon by day, whereas by night she will take her turn at the communal factory. She will be too busy performing good deeds and filling production quotas to worry about philosophy.

 

[yboxman]

Protelatarian philosophy

Well, clearly AR will become a well known plastic surgeon by day, whereas by night she will take her turn at the communal factory. She will be too busy performing good deeds and filling production quotas to worry about philosophy.

Well, you might bear in mind that OTLs pre-independence Israel, there was not much in the way of a full time political and philosophical leisure class for both ideological and economic reasons.

Ben-Gurion started out as a common (and only moderately successful) orchard laborer and only gradually moved towards part time writing in the party newspaper and eventually getting a party subsidized higher education (In Istanbul of all places). Avraham Shlonsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Shlonsky, one of the most influential poets and writers of the time, also started out as a manual laborer (including in the Labor battalion) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gdud_Ha'avoda then founded a Kibbutz, before forming a collective association of young writers and poets in Tel-Aviv- who almost all became leading national literary figures while subsisting from hand to mouth on part time manual labor jobs.

You also need to realize that the "new protelatariast" being formed in OTL Israel was primarily descended from educated middle and upper class Jewish families. They were a "third wave" forerunner society trying to regress into a still "Second wave" world. So working on the factory floor, at least in the 1920s, is also being a member of a literary circle and a debate team.

The point is that While Maayan Nevo may have less time to devote to her writing and philosophy what she does produce might have a much larger local splash than it did in OTL's U.S- simply because she is not competing for attention with many established native full time writers and philosophers.

Of course, TTL Canaan is a bot different than OTLs Israel. I'll be going into those differences at depth in the next few posts. One of the primary differences is that immigration and integration into the New Society is highly regulated and controlled by a semi-monopolistic body.

There are three standard tracks for young new recruits/immigrants who lack higher education into the New Society in the early 1920s. Broadly speaking they consist of:
a. basic training (1-3 months)> (3-5 years) Territorial army/Labor brigade> (2-4 years) 1st class territorial reserve/collective candidate>2nd class territorial reserve /collective citizen
b. basic training (3 months)> ((Possible Probationary period in labor brigade (3-12 months))> (3 years) Maccabe Corps> reserve officer or NCO/collective citizen
c. basic training (1 month)> ((Possible Probationary period in labor brigade (3-12 months))> New Society subsidized Specialist education (1-5 years)> specialist assignment (3-5 years)> Collective citizen.

I expect Maayan Nevo will probably get onto the prestigious #c track though not necessarily in the profession she chooses. What happens afterwards…

P.S. The collectives can be a specific economic enterprise (Eg; farm, factory), a residential-social unit, a collective childrearing unit, a reserve military formation or all of the above combined. Likewise, an individual can be simultaneously a member or employee of more than one collective. And of course, some individuals live outside the collective system and the New society entirely (out of personal inclination, financial resources which make the New Society framework redundant, or due to rejection).

Collectives gradually assume more varied income and labor distribution mechanisms, and significant differences between the old Sinai collectives and the new Canaan collectives quickly become apparent.

In any event, Unlike OTLs Kibbutzim, only the most extremely egalitarian collectives expect specialists to engage in manual labor beyond a strictly symbolic amount.

 

[Julius Vogel]

I was being silly, but yes, I had the same general thoughts (although with out your command of the detail).

 

[yboxman]

Post #28: On Eagle's wings to heaven soar


First of all a retcon- Al Aqsa is damaged during the siege of Jerusalem but is not demolished. Figured destruction had a less than even probability of occurring ITTL and that a third Temple built to Herzl's specifications would make a more interesting (and certainly less problematic) story anyway.

People:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Isaac_Kook
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Ottoman Jerusalem, Dominant religious authority of the religious Zionist movement in Ottoman and British Palestine, founder of Merkaz Harav and bridge between Haredim and Secular Zionists. And also a Zohar enthusiast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiḥyah_Qafiḥ
Leader of the emerging rationalist, Maimondic school of thought of Yemnite Jewery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosef_Qafih
His grandson, raised by him after the death of his parents. OTL, he became a protégé of Rav Kook and gradually distanced himself and his community from overt anti-Kabbalah positions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Rahman_al-Iryani
President of Yemen following the Egyptian invasion and overthrow of the Imam in 1970. In accordance with the laws passed by Imam Yihya in 1924 all Jewish orphans were forcibly adopted and raised by Muslim families- and there are indications that he is one of those children (That Imam Yihya is still regarded as a "good ruler" by Yemenite Jews is an indication as to how shitty things were before him).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecharia_Glosca
Political leader of Yemenite Jews in OTL Israel. OTL, he immigrated from Ottoman Yemen to Ottoman Palestine in 1909 and later joined the mainstream socialists Poalei Zion before breaking with them and forming a Yemenite oriented party.

Concepts, schools of thought, organizations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dor_Daim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Jews#Dor_Daim_and_Iqshim_dispute

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Association http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/התאחדות_התימנים_בישראל

Yemenite political party formed in 1923. It's importance declined as the Yemenite proportion of interwar Palestine's Jewish population declined but revived following Independence and operation magic carpet.

July 1915, Jerusalem, British protectorate of Canaan

Much of Jerusalem, including it's famous walls, still lay in ruins, demolished by Anglo-Jewish artillery and by Djemal's mad order to blow up the churches and synagogues of the city when the Northern perimeter of the city was breached and the Muslim quarter invaded (1). The Temple mount, the Mosques atop it, and the Western wall at it's feet, had escaped the order for destruction, the British eventually employing massive amounts of tear gas as well as experimental asphyxiating gases to dislodge the fanatical defenders of Haram El-Sharif from their post.

Zacharia spared a moment to visit the narrow alley ajoining the Western wall, ignoring the hostile gazes of the few remaining residents of the Mhugrabi quarter (2). He was grateful to find that the military administration had paved the previously muddy path adjoining it and cleared it of the rubbish which had so often littered under Ottoman rule. Someone had set up benches, shelves for prayer books, also banned under the Ottomans, and the alley was packed with worshippers.

In spite of the improved environment he found it harder to fall into the state of communion which had come to him so naturally in previous visits to the wall. Perhaps it was the lingering stench of the dead, perhaps the fear and hatred he felt emanating from the Mhugrabis behind him. Perhaps it was his memories.

Try as he might, he could not drive away visions of the massacre of the Ashkenazi Charedim of Jerusalem, only five months ago. The terrible rumors of the fate of the men deported by the Ottomans into Syria were now confirmed, as an Indian cavalry patrol had come across the mass graves in the wilderness of Judah.

"I did not know!" he cried out silently, his forehead pressed to the wall. "God forgive me, I did not know!". His own community, Ottoman citizens all, and sufficiently close in dress and language to the Arabs to escape much hostile attention, had been spared the worst of the massacre and had somehow been spared the official deportation which followed. Later, seeing the writing on the wall, he had organized as many amongst the Yeminite Jews as he could to flee towards the Anglo-Zionist landing in Jaffe. Most had survived, as had the few Charedim they had hidden.

Could they have hidden more of the Charedim? Should he have insisted that they remain hidden rather than reporting to the Ottoman authorities for the false evacuation to Syria? If he had, how many could he have saved?

Did his current plans make him a beneficiary of their slaughter, and of the earlier expulsions of the new Yishuv? Was there no other way?

It was only when he felt the sun on his back that he realized he had been praying for over two hours. Hurrying away to his meeting he realized that he had received, if not forgiveness, at least a measure of resolve.

July 1915, Jerusalem, British protectorate of Canaan, Egyptian expeditionary force headquarters.

Joseph Trumpeldor is on the newly installed phone when Zacharya walks in, using extremely profane Russian to describe to the person on the other end, apparently in Tel-Aviv(3) to describe where Walther Rotshild could stick his reservations about the cost of sending new farm machinery while the submarine warfare in the Mediterranean still continued.

“Tell him we need to get the harvest the Arabs planted in and I simply don’t have the manpower to do it! Just because the Ottomans have surrendered doesn’t mean the Fedayeen have. The hills are lousy with Diehards who reject the armistice and the population exchange and I need the men holding rifles, not scythes!”

“Egyptian laborers? Over my dead body! We have too many of them in the Sinai as it is. Bring them here and half of them will start slipping food and weapons to the Fedayeen and the other half will raise a revolution when they get back to Egypt. Tell him the threshers and harvesters will pay back their cost- and I might just get Patterson to write them off as a military expense.”

Slamming the phone down Trumpeldor looked the short, gaunt Yemenite Jew up and down and pointed his stump at him.

“You’re late.”

Zecharia swallowed. It was not every day one met a legend in the making. Especially not with the kind of demand he was going to raise.

“I… Stopped by the wall. It’s paved now, I see.”.

Trumpeldor’s expression softened.

“No thanks to the Board of directors and their mixed signals! Some of them want to ignore the wall completely, to start building a new temple East of the City like Herzl wanted. Others are wondering why I didn’t have the artillery batteries send a shell “by accident” onto the mosques. I ignored them all. Paving the approach to the wall was one of the first things we did. And the Mhugrabis, those who refuse the offer, are going to be leaving for Syria next week. After that, we’re going to make the Western Wall a fit place to worship at.”

“The Offer?”

Trumpeldor Shrugged. “The British have pulled their own forces out and I don’t have the men to chase every Fedayun out of the hills, or to lay siege to every village. So we will be giving those Muslims who don’t trust Djemal or the Sultan to resettle them a choice. They can become wards of the New Society- if they turn themselves in, they will be sent to the Sinai Collectives, or be resettled with the new recruits in coastal collectives. None will be permitted to stay in their current village or receive citizenship and the men will have to serve a year long term in the labor brigades. Their children will undergo the same training and education as ours and the younger ones will be eligible for citizenship.”

Zecharia frowns. “I don’t think many will take the offer”

“No, but enough will to make the job of dislodging the Fedayin easier- and relieve the labor shortage”

Zachariya nods grimly. “It is precisely the matter of labor that I wished to discuss with you.”

Trumpeldor spreads his hands, or rather hand and stump “So? Let’s talk”

“My people have been tending the Pardesim of Petach Tikva and the Sharon in the absence of their former owners”

Trumpeldor’s eyebrow rises. “Former? Surely you do not view the Ottoman confiscations as being legal?”

Zecharia continues doggedly with his speech “Before they left… before the Ottomans drove them out… My people were given the deeds to the land. To keep it safe and productive”

“And you have done so, and now those expelled by the Ottomans have returned. I take it you seek remuneration for the labor done? Beyond the harvest you have no doubt gathered? I might be able to arrange something…”

“No.”

Realizing Trumpeldor is beginning to lose his patience he continues swiftly. “We want land of our own. I’ve heard you are going to be distributing grants to the veterans of the campaign. We may not have fought but we tended to the land, kept it from being despoiled by goats and charcoal makers. I want land for my own people”

Trumpeldor’s face loses expression as he replies firmly “The Jewish people are one.”

“Are they? Or are some dwellers in mansions, and others hewers of wood and drawers of water?”

Trumpeldor, fingers tapping impatiently on his table leans forward “However the baron’s clients may have run things In Ottoman Syria that kind of exploitation will have no place in Canaan. The new settlements will be collectives where all will share in labor and in profits.”

Zecharia’s voice is bitter. “But the settlements will have commanders and supervisors and specialists, “educated” European men, will they not? And you no doubt intend to scatter us among them, just as you do the Arabs who accept your offer. How long before some receive more shares than others? How long before some are shareholders and others are employees? And how likely is it that we will not somehow find ourselves on the bottom of the heap? No. We want our own settlements where we a re the majority. And not just for us, for all of our Brethern still in Yemen. The Brusa agreement means that they are going to lose their land and receive nothing in return. The road is farthest for them and by the time they arrive the Nahala will be given to everyone but them- unless you designate settlements for them now (4)”

Trumpeldor grimaced. “And if I agree to this, what is to stop the Syrians and the Turks, The Iraqis and the Persians, The Egyptians and the Rumanians from each demanding their own settlements?”

Zecharia Shrugged. “They aren’t here. They don’t have experienced farmers (5), And most importantly, they don’t have the deeds to Petach Tikva and Zichron. Do you really want us to raise a fuss and to submit the matter to the British?”

Trumpeldor suppressed a groan. Truthfully, he had no Idea how Patterson would react to this scrawny half-African Jew. But he is certain the ruckus would do no good to the New Society’s efforts to win an exclusive deed to Canaan and extend it's borders to Sidon.

"Well, why don't we have a look at a map and see what we can come up with. I'm still going to have to run this by Tel-Aviv, mind you…"

Encyclopedia Judaica, 1933 edition:
Emek Hatemanim, or valley of the Yemenites is a wide swath of land extending along the Ahuzat Bayit(6)-Jerusalem road to Ein Karem and Har Eitan. Primarily distributed amongst Rural cooperatives of which nearly 70% are Yemenites who arrived in the Queen Sheba operation of 1916.

In recent years, the cities of Ahuzat Bayit-Jaffe-Petach Tikva have been almanagated into the Dan complex and expanded eastwards and the Urban-industrial complex of Hasmonaim has been formed, leading to pressure on some rural cooperatives to sell their land. The size of the proposed compensation has become a subject of controversy in the New Society inter-cooperative arbitration court. Ben-Gurion's labor federation faction has demanded that property be assessed on the basis of agricultural production, rather than the current speculative value.

August 1916, Al-Hudayda, Immamate of Yemen
Yihya Qafi felt trepidation as he entered the harbor and saw the gigantic vessal awaiting to carry them to the promised land. Unlike his flock he had been in contact with Frankish Jews and even Christians and had maintained a correspondence with those of his kin who had taken the long road to the North over the past two decades. He trusted them when they assured him that the ship would get them to their destination in far better speed and condition- but they had never described the belching smokestacks, or the sheer size of the vessel!

Putting on a brave face he serenely accepted the greetings of the New Society representative and helped chivvy a significant portion of Saana's jewish community onto the "Queen Elizabeth. He was rather less serene, two hours later, as the choppy seas led him to join the rush to the gunwales.


Mevaseret Zion (7) , Commonwealth of Canaan, November 1916

"It has been a long time since we last spoke. I had thought we would have much to discuss… in private"

"I believe Rabbi Yihya would benefit from hearing your suggestions. And I think you too would benefit from hearing his"

Trumpeldor glaced uneasily at the Older Yemenite. Unlike Zecharya, who was dressed in a serviceable western outfit, the Rabbi looked as if he had stepped out of the southern deserts, two thousand years ago. He was precisely the type of relic the New Society was designed to quietly exclude. Nonetheless, Zechaya's message was clear. If he wanted the Yemenite support in the constitutional convention, this relic was clearly a power broker.

"I would appreciate you support, and that of Rabbi Yihya of course, in the constitutional convention. If we are to hold our own versus the board of directors in London, we must speak with a single voice."

"So we must. Yet if we are to speak with a single voice outside the tent, we must listen to all voices within it".

"And what would those voices say, if an open ear were presented?"

Zechariya leaned back in his chair. "Racheli, could you pour the general more coffee?"

The pretty young woman filled Trumpeldor's cup before he could reply, then retired to the antechamber.

Trumpeldor sipped at his cup. It was prepared in the Turkish style, thick, hot and incredibly sweet. "Your sister?"

"No. My wife"

Trumpeldor frowned. "I thought you were married last year. To Atara. That is not the same woman, is it?"

Zecharya shook his head. "No. She is nearing labor and with her parents. This is my second wife. Her clan was from mount Hebron before the resettlement. Her name was Aziza before the marriage"

Trympeldor took a few seconds to process the information then carefully set his cup down.

"Is this sort of thing… very common?"

"It is more common now. There are many widows and few young men, from the war, and from the Ottoman persecutions in Safed, Hebron and Jerusalem. Rab Yihya has encouraged Jewish men to do their duty and leave not the widow and the spinster in her bereavement nor the Gera in her soltitude"

Rabbi Yihya softly broke in, speaking halting hebrew. "As the Arabs living here are clearly descendants of those who were not expelled by the Romans, it is not neseccary to burden those who wish to marry with a full Giyur machmir. And as we have recovered sovereignty Din Isha Shvuya (8) applies."

Trumpeldor stared at the Yemenite Rabbi. He was dressed like a relic from Milennia past and the form of his words was even worse. But the content… if accepted, it would certainly speed up integration.

Zecharia leaned forward, speaking briskly. "Let's talk tachlas You want our votes (9)? We want our traditions to be respected and receive legal sanction."

Trumpeldor calculated quickly. "I can't officially recognize this… custom. But I can make sure it isn’t made illegal either. Any civil contract which is in accordance to certain criteria and is entered between legally consenting adults will be recognized as a binding contract by the state. If a couple wants to throw in a religious ceremony as well- that is their affair, not that of the New Society"

Yihya gave a small nod. Zacharya continued.

"We want some a minimum quota for our young men in the university Weizmann is building. And in all State or New Society jobs"

Trumpeldor empathetically shook his head.

"You have practically no one who has completed secondary education or is otherwise qualified! Most of your children are only now entering a modern education system. And most of what they have learned up to now is of no relevance to the university or government work. Enterance has to be based on merit."

"Maybe. But what it is all too often based on is the impression of interviewers who are looking for people like them and who are used to look at people like us as beneath them. Until they get used to seeing us as their equals we will not get a chance to be their equals."

Trumpeldor searched for a compromise.

"Ten years. For Ten years, starting in five years time, quotas will be awarded on the basis of origin for all those who enter standardized education at age 12 or below. After that, it will be based on Merit alone."

"Thirty years"

"Fifteen"

"Twenty"

"Done. Anything else? My liver maybe?"

"The New Society is subsidizing the Weizmann University. And the Weizmann university is going to hold classes in the culture of Europe (9). Let it also give rabbinical degrees- and let those who receive them be recognized and paid for by the state as civil servants instead of being forced to haggle with each collective over the price of performing a wedding or a funeral."

Trumpeldor shook his head. "Out of the question. I won’t see shareholders pay money for services most do not desire."

"Don’t they? Do you know how many of your New Jews end up sending for a Rabbi when they want to marry or bury? And how many other immigrants are being held back because they are told that there is no religion in Eretz Israel? Like it or not the children of Israel thirst for God, the poor no less than the rich. If they will be denied him by the New Society they will get him from the Kabbalists and the Charedim."

For all of his socialist credentials Trumpeldor knew how many of the Jews of Eastern Europe, even the young, were still attached to tradition. Perhaps an oblique approach…

"Very well- but Rabbinical studies will only be recognized by those who have performed credible social service and have either completed another degree leading to the professions, the arts, or the sciences or performed their social service as Maccabees. Also, rabbinical salaries will never be for full time employment- Rabbis must earn their primary living otherwise."

Yihya smiled. "Of course- Rabbis should be, like Maimonides, men who know the world and are of the world. But since no such qualified individuals currently exist and someone must, after all, teach the future Rabbis, I trust you will allow me to nominate a dozen or so promising young lights as students and eventual rabinnical instructers in the New university?"

Befuddled, Trumpledor shook his head. "You realize we haven't even built it yet?"

"If you build it they will come. They will come"

Mt Scopus/Third temple/Weizmann university, Commonwealth of Canaan, April 1917

If deep in the mountain you quarried, searching for the ancient rock of yore
It is not in vain that you have labored, for all that has fallen will yet rise as before

It will rise, it will rise, it will rise as before

The workers, some Yemenite, Some European Jews, and not a few Egyptians and Indians, were chanting as they labored. Teams of mules and oxen, interspersed with modern machinery, were dragging great slabs of Granite and Obsidian from the Golan, Jerusalem stone, Cedars (11) and other materials to the stockpiles near the building site. Progress was startling.

Trumpeldor shook his head. "How long did it take Solomon to build it the first time?"

Zhabotinsky shrugged "No one knows for sure. Midrash has it as twenty two years. It was much smaller than this, of course, even if you ignore the University Campus".




If on the slopes of the mountain you have planted tall Cedars, Cedars instead of thorn
It is not in vain that you have labored- for now the Mountain is reborn

Once again, once Again, the mountain is reborn

The two most powerful men in Canaan ambled over to a pile of rubble left over from the siege. Trumpeldor, with a dexterity learnt over a dozen years of being handicapped, opened the battle of Red Zichron wine one handed while Zabotinski spread a generous helping of pitted olives, tomatos and labane over a taboon fried Pitah. They took a short moment to enjoy the good wine and attempt to rekindle the comarderie they had shared until recently before trumpeldor resumed the conversation.

"And we will finish building it in two years?"

"That's the plan. And remember, It took Pericles much longer to construct the Parthenon than it is taking their modern descendants to rebuild it (12)."

"They didn't have any trouble deciding on the location though. Or any trouble blowing up the Mosque the Turks built on top of it and using it as building blocks."

"Was that criticism?"

"Criticism? During the siege the thought didn’t occur to me. Afterwards I almost had a heart attack when I realized I left you in a position to blow up the Mosque, and our relations with the British and any chance we might have with our Muslim neighbors along with it. What stopped you?"

"Mount Moriah is the past. Build there and we would have chained ourselves to a hollowed out shell. And, as you say, ruptured relations with the British while we still needed them."

"We still need them"

"Not as much as you think. And not for as long as you think. I could have taken Damascus. And Homs. And to hell with the French and the British both."

"And what would we have done with them? How would we have held down so many non-Jews? There are only Six hundred thousand of us in Canaan and the Sinai now, even counting the Yemenites and the other Ottoman refugees. Syria has, what? Three times that number? More?"

"Joshua conquered the land with no more. And he didn’t have machine guns. Haven't you heard the news from Russia? What do you think is going to happen to our kin there now? We need land to settle them on and we need it now. "

"We are not having this argument again. It is done. And do not dismiss what we can accomplish in Canaan if we put our minds to it. After all, three million Jews were supposed to live here before the Romans destroyed the second temple"

Zhabotinsky took a breath to reply and then, looking again at the progressing construction paused and leaned back.


If in your life you had not yet raised your voice in a new melody
Then open your heart to this old-new song, rich as old wine and sweeter than honey
Heavy as the heart of the mountain and light as the Cedar's dew
A two thousand year old song that each day is born anew


"The congress will be held next month."

"yes. Do I have your support?"

A long silence.

"You do. We need to stand together if we don’t want the London fat cats to have us dancing to their strings. Will I have your support the next time?"

"My word on it."

It will be built, will be built, will be built the house of sacred lore

(1) From the North, evil will come forth. The saying may have originally referred to the topography of Jerusalem which favored breaching it's walls from the North- which is where the Muslim quarter is.
(2) Until 1967 the Plaza in front of the Western wall did not exist. 25 buildings originally inhabited by refugees from the Mahgreb abutted it, making prayer at the wall a risky and conflict ridden activity. Numerous attempts to purchase the buildings were torpedoed by Ottoman authorities and the Waqf.
(3) TTL’s Tel-Aviv that is, which is on the Eastern Suez Canal, roughly at the site of OTLs Kantara.
(4) One of the bones of contention between Mizrachim and the old Ashkenazi elites. The rural lands vacated by the Palestinians in 1948 were generally awarded to the existing Kibbutzim and Moshavim rather than to the arriving Middle Eastern refugees. Meaning that while the veteran immigrants (who suffered 1% casualties during the war) became landed aristorcrats and the newly come Holocaust refugees from Europe received a modicum of compensation from Germany, the Middle Eastern refugees became dependent on the state for a generation.
(5) Which is the main argument against having awarded the land to the Middle Eastern immigrants- most lacked the skills to use it productively.
(6) Where OTL Tel-Aviv is.
(7) Western Suburb of Jerusalem OTL.
(8) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+21:10-14&version=ESV. Like most archaic laws it is ignored/interpreted around OTL. It has still been used as a political axe to grind against the former chief Rabbi of the IDF.
(9) Which at this early point amount to over 10% of the total and can effect another 25% among the less organized Syrian, Turkish-Kurdish and Bagdadi Jews. The Yemenite electoral power will disappear eventually, of course, and even more quickly than OTL. But at this particular moment in time they are king-makers.
(10) Though it's definitely going to be hard science and vocational training oriented.
(11) From Vaspurakan and Scandinavia. The Lebanese Cedars really aren't all they are cracked up to be.
(12) Yes, they only did it in 1975 OTL. But they aren't distracted by a fighting a civil war and then losing a war and then taking in a million refugees TTL. Plus Venizelos wants to show he has the biggest… err... cultural heritage.

 

[Some Bloke]

is it just me or is Lena Headley getting typecast?

 

[thekingsguard]

Now THIS is an interesting development - the Temple rebuilt! Canaan certainly looks to be coming into its own already as well.