Thanks, and yes, I was quite familiar with that quote. I was even more familiar with the Land, as a youth, I managed o get malaria in the Hula swamps (north of the Kineret, or what is known as the sea of Gallile) and participate in the founding of few new settlements in the Negev desert, indeed a desolate land, at least still part of it the period between 1948 to 1958 when I was involved with those activities.
Zeev