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In Search of the Physical Traces of the Two Destructions of Jerusalem

July 31 2020

Not only have archaeologists uncovered ample evidence of the sacking of the ancient Jewish capital by the Romans in 70 CE, which led to the razing of the Second Temple, they have also found signs of a catastrophe that struck the city some 600 years earlier—when the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple along with the rest of Jerusalem. Joel Uziel, who was involved in many of the relevant excavations, explains these discoveries and others in an overview of the archaeology of ancient Jerusalem. (Interview by Amanda Borschel-Dan. Video, 51 minutes. A text summary and pictures can be found at the link below.)

Read more at Times of Israel

More about: Archaeology, First Temple, Jerusalem, Second Temple

 

The Summary: 10/7/20

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.

Read more at Mosaic