ear East as the great international storm center in the final conflict.

The Political Storm Center

In vision, nearly two thousand years ago, the prophet saw the forces of
the last days gathering around this pivotal region. Today observers
recognize the eastern Mediterranean as indeed the pivotal point around
which international interests involving East and West naturally revolve.

Some years ago, in discussing railway development in Asia and Africa,
and the great highways of sea transportation, the London _Fortnightly
Review_ said:

"Palestine is the great center, the meeting of the roads.
Whoever holds Palestine, commands the great lines of
communication, not only by land, but also by sea."

Again, the Manchester _Guardian_, emphasizing the importance attaching
to this strategic center, said during the great war:

"Egypt, as things are,--and the fact cannot be too often
emphasized,--is the weak spot in our system of imperial defense
by sea power. Not until Palestine is in our possession can
Egypt be regarded as safe."--_Quoted in Literary Digest, Feb.
12, 1916, p. 369._

Other nations have recognized the strategic value of a territory so
situated. Thus political considerations make this region pointed out by
the prophecy a center of conflicting interests. Hogarth, in his book,
"The Near East," calls it "the time-honored storm center of the eastern
Mediterranean."

The Religious Storm Center

To the conflict of political interests is added the rivalry of religious
sentiment. Commenting on the religious associations of Palestine in
relation to the international political situation, the London
_Spectator_ some years ago stated the matter thus:

"People often ask how it is that the future of Palestine
presents such difficulties. The reason is simply that
Jerusalem--you cannot separate Jerusalem from Palestine--is
the sacred city of so many creeds and warring faiths. Not only
is it the holy place of all the Christian churches,--and two of
them quarrel bitterly over it, the Greeks and the Latins,--but
it is also one of the most sacred places in the Mohammedan
world. Mecca and Medina are hardly more sacred than the Mosque
of Omar. That is a fact which is often ignored by Europeans,
who forget that to turn the Mohammedans out of the temple
inclosure would disturb the whole Moslem world, from the
Straits Settle