Acre is developing an honest-to-god Tzabar culture, it seems. Is the pronunciation of this version of Hebrew different than OTL's modern Hebrew? I would guess that the larger influence of Sephardis and Yemenis here might make vernacular Hebrew more phonetically similar to Arabic, for example conserving the pronunciation of צ as similar to Arabic ص.
Definitely. One of the differences between the Galilee Haskalah ITTL and its European counterpart is that the Hebrew revival is taking place in a setting where another Semitic language is not only widely spoken but the everyday language of many Jews. This will mean a more Arabic-influenced pronunciation as well as more colloquial Arabic borrowings - the 18th century is too early for Galilean Jews to go around saying Yalla but there will be plenty of other usages drawn from the slang of the time. There might also be more divergence between literary standard Hebrew and vernacular Hebrew, especially among the young discontented Jews who are gathering in places like Acre.
BTW, there is still a European Haskalah ITTL, and there might be some disagreement over whose Hebrew is "purer," but the Galilee Haskalah will probably win out simply because of the prestige of where it's taking place.
If you already have a flow of Jews to the Holy Land there is less leverage for ther Zionists to demand a homeland. In addition, a large Jewish community under the auspices of the Ottomam Empire could be seen by the WW1 British as pro Central Powers. Thus the the Balfour Declaration is not declared.
OTOH with such a vibrant Old Yishuv do you even need Balfour. I mean it definitely will kill Hessian Herzlian and especially Jabotinskyan Zionism but it simultaneously strenghtens and weakens Haamian Pinskerian strands. Strengthens by showing feasibility but weakens by showing the Haamian Hessian and Pinskerian theories of Antisemitism to be wrong. The Galilean Renaissance since 1538 shows how it isnt a lack of a national ouvre or political autonomy that drives European bigotry. Furthermore unless something big happens in the mid 19th century, the Ottomans really only have nominal control of Palestine ITTL
I don't see Zionism arising ITTL, and definitely not in it's OTL form. Less because it doesn't have "leverage" (what does that mean? If anything, Jews from all corners of the diaspora forming a significant part of the population would be a much better basis for a global home for Jews), and more because the original goal of Zionism is already fulfilled - there is a Jewish national home in the land of Israel, and it is at least nominally open for any Jew fleeing persecution.
At this point before Romantic Nationalism even is developed Haamian Zionism(without Haam obviously) is already realized. and a refutation of Der Judenstaat if even published or conceived is met like the Gotha program with you mean like in the Galilee under the Banu Zaydan
There will always be some ideological element to Jews settling in the Holy Land - "next year in Jerusalem" is inherent to Jewish religion - but I tend to agree, for two main reasons, that TTL won't see anything like OTL's Zionist movement.
The first is, as Jacob and Space Rome mention, that the Old Yishuv is in much better shape. IOTL, the Galilee had a growing and thriving Jewish community in the 16th century, but that community was decimated over and over again during the 17th through early 19th, and only after 1840 did it have a sustained recovery. ITTL, the community had the numbers, resources and military strength to hold on - it had to give fealty to a succession of overlords, but it retained autonomy and the ability to accept immigrants. So there's no need to
establish a Jewish home in the Holy Land - it's already there.
The second is that Zionism IOTL was conceived and implemented as a solution to a specific set of problems - antisemitism and persecution of Jews in the diaspora; the growth of romantic nationalism in Europe and later in the MENA region that excluded Jews; and ultimately, the Holocaust. Some of those problems will still exist ITTL - obviously there will still be antisemitism. But romantic nationalism might not develop in the Islamic world in a way that would require counter-nationalism on the Jews' part, and given how established the Jewish communities are and how they might participate in the region's 19th-century conflicts, whatever version of Arab nationalism develops ITTL might even
include Jews. And a catastrophe equal to the Holocaust is very contingent.
It may be that Zionism ITTL will be less a political project than a practical one. Rather than establishing a Jewish state in the Holy Land, it will focus on the logistics of bringing Jews who need shelter to the quasi-state that already exists - providing the ships to bring immigrants and the money to absorb them. This also might mean a less ideologically fraught relationship between the Galilee Jews and the diaspora. But all of this is for the future.
I wonder if the end result of this TL would be a Jewish-Palestinian state under a Banu Zaydan Bedouin monarchy, like a combination of Jordan and Bahrain.
Agree if the kingdom includes other parts of the vilayet of Syria. You would end up with a kingdom covering much of Syria plus Lebanon along with the Holy Land.
I'm not gonna commit just yet, but yeah, that's one of the possibilities, obviously with a loose definition of statehood all around. A great deal is going to depend on what happens at the end of the 18th century and again in the mid-19th. I won't say much beyond that, though, because as I've mentioned, the butterfly net will be withdrawn after Napoleon, meaning that there won't be a WW1 as we know it much less Balfour. There's definitely going to be an evolving relationship between the Yishuv, the regional feudalists, the Porte and the European powers, but again, exactly how that plays out is for later.
