Bible and Soil: Walter Clay Lowdermilk, the Jordan Valley Project and the Palestine debate

In the decade before the birth of Israel in 1948, Walter Clay Lowdermilk was a senior member of the United States Department of Agriculture and a world expert on irrigation and soil conservation. He was also a leading Gentile anti-Zionist who was committed to the Zionist idea on the grounds of his scientific and religious convictions. His proposal for a Jordan Valley irrigation project became a central strand of the Zionist case over the economic viability of any future Jewish state. This article examines Lowdermilk's Zionism and the impact that his proposals had on the propaganda and political battle over Palestine in Britain and the United States in these crucial years.