Aaronsohn, A: With the Turks in Palestine

With the Turks in Palestine is a classic World War One memoir and provides a good background to what eventually became the Middle East conflict in Palestine.
This venerable historical biography contains the following exerpt:
While Belgium is bleeding and hoping, while Poland suffers and dreams of liberation, while Serbia is waiting for redemption, there is a little country the soul of which is torn to pieces-a little country that is so remote, so remote that her ardent sighs cannot be heard.
It is the country of perpetual sacrifice, the country that saw Abraham build the altar upon which he was ready to immolate his only son, the country that Moses saw from a distance, stretching in beauty and loveliness,-a land of promise never to be attained,-the country that gave the world its symbols of soul and spirit. Palestine!