City of David excavations cause problems: They prove the City belongs to Jews
Haaretz has a lengthy article complaining about the exposure of a sewage tunnel from the Temple Mount to the City of David (Silwan). Haaretz complains about the 'political' manner in which the archaeological excavations are being carried out, but what really concerns them is that the tunnel proves Josephus' narrative that Jews controlled Jerusalem, and that Jews tried to flee from the Roman armies who destroyed the Second Temple. Read the whole thing.
If you check back here later, I hope to have a video tour of the City of David excavations (the one that's mentioned in the Haaretz article). Unfortunately, it's Hebrew only.
In my previous post, I blogged Jonah Goldberg's exposure of the 'realists' as being fantasizers. Jonah is not the only one visiting us this week. Jennifer Rubin is here as well. A trip to Jerusalem inspired Jennifer to write that the true realists are... the people of faith.
With regard to the Torah and Jerusalem, it turns out that, as with so many self-described realists, the realists turn out to reality deniers. Legions of "scholars" told us for decades that the Bible, don't you see, is allegory. Oh, David? Yes, a lovely tale but you must think of him as a King Arthur-type figure. No, that's all wrong. The realists turned out to be the people of faith. Now the Torah provides the guide for modern scientists to confirm that the Torah, at least in this regard, is history, written with precision -- a sort of message in the bottle to the future to tell us that yes, the Jews, were here in this spot, at this time.
And mind you all of the City of David is in what the Palestinians would claim as their capital. And at the time of the First Intifada this was a war zone. Recall also that the track record of preservation of sites is not a good one. The Mount of Olives, the original Mount of Olives (not the "new" replacement in operations a scant 500 years) is now built over by slums, the opening to family tombs barely visible around the garbage and beneath the decrepit buildings. The original headstones were sold off during the Jordanian occupation.
Why do I relate all of this? It's more than a religious and historical site of immense meaning. It is the answer to the non-realists who would have us believe Jews lack a verifiable claim to land dating back 3000 years and beyond. At some point, the naysayers become the equivalent of flat-earthers. You see, in contrast to what Obama lectured us from Cairo at the beginning of his term (when the fantasy of "Muslim Outreach" assumed that Hosni Mubarak was an island of stability), Israel is not merely recompense for the Holocaust. It is the ancestral home of the Jewish people. And if you doubt it, spend a morning in the City of David.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
