Israel Matzav

Haaretz's Yoel Marcus: 'Don't know much about history'

That song is back again. Let's go to the videotape.



Haaretz's Yoel Marcus proved on Tuesday that he doesn't know much about history.

The price tag is clear. It's the Golan Heights. But unlike the places to be discussed in proximity talks and direct negotiations with the Palestinians, the Golan is not a holy site. Neither Abraham our patriarch nor Sarah our matriarch are buried there, and returning it for peace would not involve all those messianic emotions with which the Greater Land of Israel people are imbued. It's simply a lovely area.

Um... not quite....

Simply a lovely area, and not for example, an area that Moses allotted to half the tribe of Menashe in the earlier biblical period. Also before 953 BCE, the city of Golan was set aside as a city of refuge for alleged murderers awaiting trial and served as a Levitical city for the family of Gershon. In the first Temple Period, the city was seized from Jewish control by the Aramean king, but reconquered by King Joash in 784 BCE. The region was then conquered by the Assyrian emperor, who exiles the Jews, who returned again to the Golan during the Second Temple Period.

In 30 BCE 30-20 King Herod gradually acquires all of Bashan from Emperor Augustus. Jews from Palestine and Babylonia settle in Bashan and again declare the area a part of the Land of Israel. In 67 CE, Josephus commands the Jewish army in the region during the Great Jewish Revolt. Gamla, the chief city in the Golan, is the last stronghold against the Roman Legions. Jewish settlement, however, continues and even thrives following the failed revolt.

Modern archeological finds dating from the Talmudic period include remnants of 25 synagogues and Jewish artifacts from more than 100 sites in the region. Jewish settlements are completely wiped out following the Islamic conquest until Jewish resettlement takes hold in the 1880s.

But Marcus probably isn't really quite so ignorant of Jewish history. It's more likely he's doing some revisionism to minimize the connection that Jews feel to this land. The Left used to do the same thing with Gaza before Israel abandoned it. And they have made the same kinds of claims regarding some sites in Judea and Samaria as well (particularly Joseph's tomb and Rachel's tomb). When the history doesn't fit their narrative, they change it.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:37 AM