In addition, my brother was seriously handicapped
by lack of petroleum, galvanized iron, and other articles which could
not be obtained because of the Allies' blockade.
In spite of these drawbacks, however, he attempted to work up a
scientific campaign. Djemal Pasha put some thousands of Arab soldiers at
his disposition, and these were set to work digging trenches into which
the hatching locusts were driven and destroyed. This is the only means
of coping with the situation: once the locusts get their wings, nothing
can be done with them. It was a hopeless fight. Nothing short of the
cooeperation of every farmer in the country could have won the day; and
while the people of the progressive Jewish villages struggled on to the
end,--men, women, and children working in the fields until they were
exhausted,--the Arab farmers sat by with folded hands. The threats of
the military authorities only stirred them to half-hearted efforts.
Finally, after two months of toil, the campaign was given up and the
locusts broke in waves over the countryside, destroying everything. As
the prophet Joel said, "The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the
corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.... The
land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate
wilderness.
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