Ha’am pointed to the fact that most cultivable land was already being worked by the local population. For the moment, he said, landowners were content to sell to Jews for tidy sums, for the population was sparse. But should there come a time when that Jewish presence was substantial and seemed threatening, no Zionist should be under any illusion that they would not be fiercely resisted. Ahad Ha’am thought that Herzl, in his fancy suits and with his deracinated German attitude to everything, had no answer to this near insuperable problem.
