In three years, 1882-84, eight permanent Jewish settlements
were founded in Palestine, including the rebuilt villages of Rosh Pina and Petah
Tikvah. Then the movement came to a temporary halt under the pressure of
Turkish opposition to the influx of Jews.

It was not immediately clear how decisive was the policy adopted by the
Turkish government; nor was it evident from the start that Jewish immigrants
would face a focused hostility from the Arabs. Anti-Western hostility in the
nineteenth century had led primarily to attacks against Christians; Jews suffered
in such upheavals mostly as an effect of violence directed against others. As for
the government, some officials showed an appreciation of the argument that
Jews, as well as Muslim immigrants, could prove to be a safe and useful resource
for economic development that would expand the imperial tax base.

Thus, Laurence Oliphant was encouraged in his 1879 project by Midhat
Pasha, then governor of Syria, and by the incumbent grand vizier in Istanbul.
Under their guidance, he argued that his plan for settling Jews in Gilead, east
of the Jordan River, would provide employment for Muslim immigrants and
would help the Porte free itself from foreign influence, as the Jews would be-
come loyal Ottoman citizens and not claim exemption from Turkish jurisdiction
under one or another treaty of capitulations. He attributed the rejection of his
scheme to, among other fortuitous circumstances, the sultan's dismissal of his
liberal ministers and the turn to centralized, autocratic rule.

Abdul Hamid's hard line was certainly evident in the persistent opposition
the Porte thereafter adopted against Jewish settlement in Palestine. Yet the sultan
occasionally showed himself well disposed to Jews, both as a people oppressed
by those who also menaced Turkey and as potentially loyal and useful subjects--
but only if they settled elsewhere than in Palestine. What tipped the scales after
the Congress of Berlin was the clear evidence from the press and from reports
of Turkish agents abroad that the impending surge of Jewish immigrants was
probably driven by nationalist aspirations that could further disrupt the integrity
of the empire.

Thus, the Cazalet proposals presented to the Porte in the fall of 1881 evoked
a statement, published in November, excluding Jewish "immigrants" from Pal-

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