Promised Land Book

The past few days I have been in my retirement village library adding the over-sized books to the Library Thing data base. One book that intrigued me was Promised Land with text by Abba Eban and beautiful watercolors by Gordon Wetmore. Eban comes across as an apologist for the existence of modern-day Israel, denouncing the debasement of the land by the Arabs and Turks and lauding the reclamation by the Jewish people. He defends Israel’s actions as survival basics and puts down the Palestinians. You can pretty much skip the text unless you want a lesson in one-sided public relations. The book is available for as little as 99 cents to over a hundred dollars. Corollary to the saying in real estate of “location, location, location”, bibliophiles would say “condition, condition, condition”. The library copy is the 1978 edition without book jacket, but in pretty good condition.

For me, the value is the illustrations. Having recently sorted my photos, many of the sites in the book were of places I had seen two decades ago but fresh in my memory. I had never heard of Mr. Wetmore, but apparently he was a renowned portrait artist. A Christian, he approached the land wanting to capture the “traditional” Israel. He had no political goals. The water colors were done 1976-1978 but purposely exclude items with a modern look, except for the sketches of Jewish soldiers. He truly has portrayed the golden aura of limestone buildings and the variety of people in Jerusalem.

My favorite one is the plant because it reminds me of my stay at the Institute of Holy Land Studies on Mount Zion. Though we were there to do library consultation, I was invited to go on the walking tours and fieldtrips taken by the students. I carried a canteen of water, especially on the walks, as it was still quite warm even though it was September. I rarely finished the water, however, so each time I returned to my living quarters I poured the remaining liquid on a plant near our room. This bedraggled plant sat on the top of a low brick dividing wall between the rooftop rooms and a small clothes line. After one week, it perked up; by the time we left after almost a month, the plant was thriving and its succulent type of leaves were plump and full of color. I often wondered if it made it until the rainy season.


If you have ever been in Israel, these pictures will surely evoke memories. I present them without permission of reproduction to promote the book. Please do not use them for profit without getting permission from the publisher.