PHOTO-MEMORIES OF ISRAEL

IMAGES FROM TODAY'S ISRAEL 

.....from a vibrant and thriving nation, now 70+ years old.... encompassing ancient archaeological sites, cutting edge technology, Mid-Eastern cuisine, extensive history at the crossroads of civilization, people from all parts of the world.... all contributing to the mosaic of the State of Israel reborn in 1948, yet based on ancient foundations.

Mailbox in use from days of the British Mandate

Stamp for card to US. Recalls Cyrus the Great's declaration to allow Jews to return to Jeruslaem and rebuild the Temple

Lobby of the Inbal Hotel

Machane Yehuda Marketplace (Shuk) 

Kippahs we purchased

Jerusalem Stone Mezzuzahs

Restaurant in ancient cistern below the Old City

Synagogue in excavation below the Western Wall

Pastry at Inbal's Cafe

Appetizer. Israel now has Food Tours.

Roadside Recycling

Israeli Salads

Flowers for Shabbat

David's Shoppe in  Machane Yehuda

City Center Shopping served by Light Rail

Jerusalem: Old and New

Citadel of David

Challah for Shabbat

Tourists in Holy Sepulchre Church Courtyard

Citaldel of David with Chihuly Glass Grass

In the Shuk

Mosaic on wall of Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Inside the Jaffa Gate

Praying at the Western Wall

Tel Aviv Building Boom

ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS, PART II

ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS  PART II

Our good friends Max and Suzanne Singer found us a wonderful apartment in the Baka area of Jerusalem where we stayed our first week in Israel.  The apartment was on the bottom of their street and easy walking distance to restaurants, markets and some tourist sites. We have known Max and Suzanne since the 1970’s when we both lived in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase suburbs of Washington and also had common ties in the Adirondacks. Some of our children went to school together. We have kept closely connected over the years even after they made aliyah (immigrated to Israel, from the Hebrew word "to ascend"), now live in Jerusalem joining their sons and their families who were already Israelis.

Max, an optimistic futurist, is a founder and past president of the Hudson Institute, a major Washington based think tank, providing a home to scholars around the country but especially in Washington, DC and Palo Alto, CA. He is now also a senior fellow of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University located in Beersheva, Israel.  Suzanne, a scholar in her own right, has been the editor of Biblical Archeological Review, Moment Magazine and Bible Review.  Their collective knowledge of Israel past and present is most impressive.

Owners' Garden

On our walk to Emek Refriam Street, Commercial Area in Baka Neighborhood

Garden Path

Singer Apartment Building

On Friday, December 7, 2018 coincident with the 6^thnight of Chanukah, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Max that reflects much of what we saw and heard in our travels in Israel. While we have included the full text below, we’ve also including link if you wish to pass it on. https://www.wsj.com/articles/refute-palestinian-lies-to-promote-mideast-peace-1544139570  

Refute Palestinian Lies to Promote Mideast Peace

Wall Street Journal print edition, December 7, 2018

 

There’s no ‘occupied’ territory, and the Jews have been in Israel for thousands of years.

‘Our demand for fairness for Israel is actually a demand for peace,” declared Nikki Haley in July. It’s important for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to stress fairness, and above all truth, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because Palestinian rejection of peace frequently hides behind falsehoods. Ending the acceptance of these falsehoods is critical to putting Middle East diplomacy on a path toward peace. 

The U.S. has already acted to gain recognition of three key truths that had long been diplomatically ignored: Jerusalem is the capital of Israel; very few of the Palestinians that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency supports are actually refugees; and the U.N. has been unacceptably biased against Israel.

Now the U.S. can tip the political balance toward peace and stability by insisting on two other truths. First, despite widespread use of the term in diplomatic documents and debate, there is no such thing as “occupied Palestinian territory” because there has never been a Palestinian territory to occupy. As some Palestinians point out, they have never had a state of their own. This is far more than a game of semantics. If the land was Palestinian, then Israel could have stolen it. If the land isn’t Palestinian, then Israel couldn’t have stolen it. It’s critical that the U.S. actively combat the falsehood that Israel exists on stolen Palestinian land. 

The second falsehood is married to the first. The Palestinians not only claim that all the land is theirs, they also deny any Jewish connection to it. During the failed Camp David talks in 2000, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat stunned President Clinton by asserting the Jews had no connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the place where the first and second Jewish temples stood.

Mr. Clinton may have been surprised, but the Palestinian denial of any historic Jewish connection to the land is nothing new, and it continues. Since the Palestinians know that hardly anyone outside the Arab world who would agree with them, they rarely say it in English.

But there is no such restraint on official Arabic-language Palestinian television. On March 15, 2017, a presenter said there is “no evidence” that Jews prayed at the Western Wall—where Jews have faced to pray for 2,000 years—before 1917. On Nov. 15, 2017, a Palestine Liberation Organization official went on the air and said, “It is a Zionist invention that this is the land of the Patriarchs. . . . The Jews were expelled from Europe to get rid of them so that the West would have a permanent base in the Middle East.” The Palestinian narrative, drummed in through the schools and media, is that Israel is a “crusader state” that will eventually be eliminated. Everyone has a right to his opinion, as Sen. Daniel Moynihan observed, but not his own facts. Ancient Israel is a historical fact, founded by King David in 10th century B.C., interrupted by the Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C. and ending with the Roman sacking of the Second Temple in A.D. 70. Even during the exile there was a continuous small Jewish presence in the land of Israel. In Jerusalem Jews became a plurality of the population by the middle of the 19th century. 

Palestinian denial of this history has consequences. If the Jews had no connection to the land, recognizing Israel would be a capitulation and a humiliation. But because the Jews, like the Palestinians, have legitimate claims, peace with Israel can be based on an honorable compromise.

The U.S. should demand that Palestinian leaders recognize the Jewish connection to the land, no less than Israelis recognize the Palestinian presence and demand for statehood. The denial of Jewish history leads to the denial of Israel’s right to exist. So long as this continues, it is the Palestinians, not the Israelis, who are refusing to accept a two-state solution—and the U.S. should say so. 

The truth is important, but it may not be enough. The U.S. should launch a diplomatic campaign to persuade other nations and international bodies to set the record straight. It’s important to explain that parroting Palestinian falsehoods harms the cause of peace.

Within the community of nations, the U.S. truth campaign might seem quixotic, but U.S. persistence could embolden suppressed moderates in the Arab world. By speaking the truth, the U.S. could help give these brave people a voice. 

Mr. Singer is a founder and former president of the Hudson Institute, a senior fellow of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies of Bar Ilan University, and author of “History of the Future.”

      

ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS, PART I

ISRAEL and the PALESTINIANS, PART I

PHOTOS FROM GUSH ETZION - see write-up below  

View from Tower

Nearby Arab Village

Gush Etzion Neighborhood Playground

Check-point entering the West Bank

Israeli Surveillance Tower with Long Range View to Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea

Israeli Townhomes

Israeli Vineyards

Israeli Winery (seen in a mirror)

Our Honest Reporting mission helped us to see and to understand Israel – its history, archaeology, diverse peoples, science and technology, political and military concerns – from complex and varying viewpoints. One day was dedicated to “The Struggle for the Land” in which Col. (Res.) Grisha Yakubovitch, a Russian immigrant to Israel, took us to the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank to view and discuss controversial questions regarding Israel’s presence there. This area is also referred to as Judea and Samaria, the geographical names of Biblical Israel and now the Israeli government's term for this administrative division.  

The mountain top of Gush Etzion and the long ridge going north to Jerusalem was a militarily strategic area for access to Jerusalem. In the early 1920’s, a small Zionist group that recognized its importance purchased the area from local Arabs but had only limited success in establishing a viable settlement on the dry rocky soil. In 1929, and again in 1937 the village was razed by Arab rioters in protest against the settler’s presence. In 1943, probably in anticipation of a new partition plan for Palestine, a stronger, better supported effort was made and several villages were located in this unpromising area and collectively known as Gush Etzion.  In 1948, Gush Etzion was attacked by the Arabs since it was a key to accessing Jerusalem. While the settlers evacuated their children, the adults stayed to fight…and fight they did until the very end.  Those who surrendered were murdered—the cellar where some of this killing took place is preserved as a memorial to these pre-State settlers. Finally, the village was destroyed and the land was occupied by the Jordanian Army.  

But the story did not end there. In 1967, after being convinced by Egypt’s dictator Nassar, the Jordanians attacked Israel. Israel defeated the Jordanians in the Six Day War who evacuated the West Bank and retreated to the line of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.  

Gush Etzion remains important geographically and now emotionally to the Israelis, especially to the children, now grown adults, of those who lost their lives there. This group of young survivors have resettled this land by building several villages which are now known as the Gush Etzion bloc. In doing so, they secured an essential water supply, uncovered sites of archeological interest, developed a nature preserve, planted vineyards --  in essence they built a new economy for this ancient site. Though well defended, its location is still perilous as numerous Arab villages surround both it and the roads leading to Jerusalem. In fact, it was the site of a recent terror attack with a car. Nonetheless, it thrives.

Here, in the West Bank, Palestinians and Israelis live in close proximity and in tension. The region was divided into three sections in the Oslo Accords of 1994 -  Areas A, B and C.  Without being too technical: one area was fully under the civil and security control of Israel and most likely to become Israel in the final agreement;  the second area had Palestinian civil and Israeli police and military control; the third area was under full Palestinian civil and police control;. The mind spins with these distinctions, but that’s the way they live.   

Colonel Yakubovitch was pessimistic that any peace process could succeed at this time due to major obstacles which one can see everyday.

1.   Palestinian education that teaches school children to demonize Jews and to deny Israel the right to exist. The system of propaganda in the schools poisons the minds of the young leading to subsequent radicalization of the people against Israel. This message of hatred is also conveyed through the mosques and in the Arab press.

2.   Governmental subsidies are given to families of suicide attackers who kill Israeli citizens. And if the suicide attacker survives, his family receives lifetime support and he receives a lifetime pension.  “7% of PA budget was given to terrorists.” December 10, 2018, HonestReporting.

3.   Right now there is no Palestinian leadership to work towards an agreement or compromise. In fact, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has little to no authority and is generally viewed as corrupt by the Palestinian people. 

4.   The allegiance of the Palestinian people is divided between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas (Gaza) with no one able to speak for the collective whole. Col. Yakubovitch suggested we might have to think in terms of a Three State Solution.

5.   And most significantly, neither the PA nor Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist as Jewish state, or for that matter, any kind of state. A genuine peace process can only begin when  Abbas acknowledges Israel's right to exist to his own people in Arabic, not just saying it in English to the western world.

After a day’s visit to this section of the West Bank, taken or retaken (depending on your point of view) by the Israelis in the 1967, Six-Day War, we came back to Jerusalem pondering the inherent difficulties in reaching any solution. Col. Y. felt that this conflict could take a generation or more to resolve.

One month later, we gained a new perspective and somewhat increased hope when reading our friend Max Singer’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed entitled REFUTE PALESTINIAN LIES TO PROMOTE MIDEAST PEACE. Max’s piece, and some further observations, are in our next blog entry: ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS PART II  

KETEF HINNOM TOMBS - 2,700+ YEARS OLD

KETEF HINNOM TOMBS – 2,700+ YEARS OLD

When construction began in 1980 in the western part of Jerusalem for the Menachem Begin Center, an area of special archeological interest was uncovered. 

Inscription found on silver mezzuzah

Tombs with headrests

View from Scottish Church towards the Old City

This narrow piece of steeply sloped land with a long-range view of the Old City of Jerusalem lay between the 19th century Scottish Church and the future Begin Center. In fact, the footprint of the new Begin Center had to be shifted about 50 feet to avoid disturbing this ancient ruin. What did trained archaeologists led by Gabriel Barkay discover as they meticulously sifted through the layers? An amazing find -- underground tombs that had not seen the light of day since the 7^thcentury BCE when Jews worshipped at the First Temple during the days of King Solomon. No grave robbers had despoiled the site. 

The site included a series of rock-hewn burial chambers. According to custom, the deceased were laid out next to one other with stone headrests. After one year, when the flesh had decayed, the bones were collected and placed deeper in the cave along with the bones of those who predeceased him. When speaking of Abraham’s death, Genesis 25:8 states ”Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.” As scholars have concluded, this practice of reburying bones is the basis of the concept of being gathered to one’s ancestors. The Ketef Hinnom tombs show that indeed this was the burial practice in ancient Israel.

Even more extraordinary were two 2.5 cm wide silver amulets found in the fourth of the burial chambers.  Each amulet contained a tiny rolled-up silver scroll that later was unrolled (after much hesitation and fear of harming the fragile silver) to a length of 10 cm. Each scroll was inscribed in proto-Hebrew script with a sharp, delicate tool with what is known in the Torah as the Priestly Benediction (Numbers 6:24-26) 

         May the Lord bless you and keep you;

         May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious                            to you 

        May the Lord lift up his countenance to you and grant you peace.

Since today’s photographic and computer imaging technology is much more precise than that of the 1980’s, archaeologists are able to date this writing with great precision to the late 7^thcentury BCE.

These amulets preserve the earliest record of a Biblical text in an extra-Biblical document. They pre-date the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the Qumram Caves. The Ketef Hinnom amulets date back to the 7^thcentury BCE before the Jews suffered their first exile from Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, laid siege and destroyed the First Temple in 587 BCE.

These Ketef Hinnom amulets may be found on display today in the Israel Museum.