Pittsburgh Post-Gazette · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · 18 November 1917
CP-1917-009
Gaza and Beersheba, Ancient Places, Taken By Modern New Armies
By MARION H. DAMPMAN
Transcribed from the clipping
IN war no place is holy ground. Even Palestine, that has seemed to the modern traveler a place only for pilgrimages and a country to be held in reverence, now resounds to the armed warriors’ feet. The Australian and New Zealand troops have taken Gaza and Beersheba in their offensive against the Turks.
The contrast of the ancient and the modern in those names “Gaza and Beersheba” in juxtaposition with “Australians and New Zealanders” is unusual and striking.
So new to civilization are the latter peoples that their armies springing up mushroom-like in this ancient land is as wonderful as some of the miracles that were performed on this same soil ages ago.
It was at Gaza, nearly [number illegible] years ago, that Joshua smote the Amorites; and that he might do it effectually the sun stood still a whole day; “and he smote them from Kadesh-Barnea even unto Gaza.”
In the charge made November [day illegible] the movement was accomplished by moonlight and was a complete surprise to the Turks, who were “caught napping” and overwhelmed. In modern warfare the sun’s light is not so necessary as it was in Joshua’s day.
How this transcription was made
Read from the scan by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by optical character recognition and not by a person. The clipping carries no masthead or date line, so its date and newspaper rest on the record it arrived with, not on anything visible in the scan.
Context added by this archive
Date check: No masthead and no date line appear on this scan — the clipping begins at the article’s own headline. The slide date of 1917-11-18 cannot be confirmed or contradicted from the image. The article refers to a charge "made November [day illegible]", consistent with a mid-November 1917 publication.
Cite this clipping
"Gaza and Beersheba, Ancient Places, Taken By Modern New Armies," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 18 November 1917. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1917-009. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1917-009
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More from the 1910s
- Palestine Not a Solution of Jewish ProblemThe New York Times · 10 June 1917
- PLANS IDEAL PALESTINEThe Baltimore Sun · 27 June 1917
- WAR TANKS WHERE SAMSON LIFTED GATES OF GAZASan Antonio Express News · 22 July 1917
- JEWISH SOCIALISTS FOR FREE PALESTINEThe New York Times · 23 July 1917
- Turkish Jews Opposed to Zionism.The American Jewish World · 7 September 1917
- IN PALESTINE.Evening Capital News · 23 November 1917
- All 77 clippings from the 1910s →
Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1917-009.
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