Forsaking the Material Legacy of our Forebears

 Video Of The Week - Nikki Haley blasts Biden and Democrats on Israel - https://tinyurl.com/tb5k4ttk 

The threat to the archaeological record in the heartland of Israel, Judea and Samaria, the cradle of our civilization, is untenable, and cannot be subject to political persuasions.

By ILAN POMERANC, from the JPost -  https://tinyurl.com/2s4xf4pv

A muted but persistent cultural cleansing and destruction of immense proportion is occurring throughout Judea and Samaria. 

Historic sites, antiquities, and artifacts are being plundered, damaged, pilfered, or simply erased.  

In certain instances, illicit development work by Arabs in the area, such as the paving of pirate roadways or illegal mining operations, causes the unintentional destruction of rare and indescribably important antiquities. In other cases, it is the desire for looting and profit that causes intentional and irrevocable damage to archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria. 

Further still, and perhaps most egregiously, is the willingness of Arab leadership figures in Judea and Samaria to erase or culturally appropriate the history and archaeology of the Nation and Land of Israel fuel and intensify this cultural cleansing. After all, a rich archaeological record and abundant historical texts are the most conspicuous and potent testaments to the falsehood of Arab narratives concerning Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. 

These attempts at cultural appropriation and expunction are also a critical aspect of the global campaign waged by many against Israel’s legitimacy and its very right to exist. The farcical proclamations made by UNESCO, the ethically bankrupt international body with a contempt for historical fact regarding anything to do with Israel, is one illustration of this campaign.

There is a troubling lack of awareness among the general Israeli public of the size and scope of the wanton destruction of antiquities in Judea and Samaria and its repercussions. 

Outside of Israel, awareness is almost non-existent except in archaeological and academic circles, and even then, it is limited. In recent years, a number of Israeli NGOs have been working hard to identify and publicize the ISIS-style damage and destruction. 

Addressing the problem properly will only come about with a sea change in the policies of the State of Israel toward archaeology as a whole in Judea and Samaria. A public outcry and the political pressure it can create are necessary to have the required policy changes enacted.

Currently, the Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the leading, if not the leading organization of its type in the world, is severely limited both in resources and in freedom of action in Judea and Samaria.

Given the Arab authorities’ facilitation as well as subtle and not so subtle support for the destruction and cultural appropriation of historic sites, diplomatic agreements on the subject have been contravened and so should be null and void. As such, the IAA should be empowered and have its mandate expanded in Judea and Samaria.

The threat to the archaeological record in the heartland of Israel, Judea and Samaria, the cradle of our civilization, is untenable. It cannot be subject to political persuasions. When the Taliban blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan, outrage and condemnations were not based on whether one subscribed to leftist or rightist political ideologies. 

So too, politics are absent when we oppose the construction of a new parking lot or shopping mall over a two or three-century-old exilic cemetery on foreign soil in Europe or elsewhere.

It should then go without saying that there be no politicking when it comes to stopping the looting and destruction of the ancient tombs of our nation’s vaunted freedom fighters, the Hasmoneans, on our native soil at Jericho or at any other site in Judea and Samaria. 

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Inscription bearing Persian King Darius

 Video Of The Week - Persian King Darius the Great -https://tinyurl.com/2upz776e

 By JERUSALEM POST 1-3-2023

 An inscription bearing the name of the Persian king Darius the Great was discovered in the Tel Lachish National Park in the first discovery of an inscription bearing the king's name anywhere in Israel.

The discovery was made by Eylon Levy, the international media advisor to Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Levy reportedly chanced on a 2,500-year-old potsherd with the inscribed letters of the ancient king and reported it to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

 The king's name on the inscription, Darius the Great, is supposedly the father of King Ahasuerus, also known as the biblical Achashverosh from the story of Purim and the Book of Esther.

“When I picked up the ostracon and saw the inscription, my hands shook. I looked left and right for the cameras because I was sure someone was playing an elaborate prank on me," said Levy.

  "When I was walking around here with a friend just exploring the history, I was turning over pieces of pottery and stones in my hand and suddenly, I found something that had letters on it and I thought this was too good to be true," Levy added.

 When Levy found the potsherd, he reported it to the Israel Antiquities Authority, where he said that three people at the organization were skeptical that it was real but intrigued by what Levy had found.

 A few weeks later, Levy received a phone call from Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority and said that he was "on his way from the Dead Sea Scrolls labs. We've put it through three scanners. This is authentic. No modern had could do it and it's from two and a half thousand years ago from before the story of Purim."

 "When I was walking around here with a friend just exploring the history, I was turning over pieces of pottery and stones in my hand and suddenly, I found something that had letters on it and I thought this was too good to be true."

 Ganor analyzed Levy's discovery with Dr. Haggai Misgav of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and they both confirmed that the artifact dated to the Persian royal administration at Lachish in the Achaemenid period, at the turn of the fifth century BCE.

The inscription reads “Year 24 of Darius,” which dates back to 498 BCE. The king's reign began in 522 BCE and ended in 486 BCE.

 Eli Escuzido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, stated that "It's amazing that visitors to the site come across such a rare inscription 'reviving' the Persian King Darius known to us from the sources! His son King Ahasuerus could never have imagined that we would find evidence of his father in Israel 2,500 years after the dramatic events in his royal court!”

 Who was King Darius, King Ahasuerus?

Darius the Great, also known as Darius I, was one of the most famous rulers of the Achaemenid Empire, also known as the first incarnation of the Persian Empire. His rule saw him take over in a time of chaos, though he managed to reorganize what was then the largest empire of the ancient world into coherent satrapies, centralized authority with major construction projects, and monetary measures and promoted the Aramaic language.

 Darius was also mentioned repeatedly throughout the Bible, having made appearances in the Book of Haggai, the Book of Zechariah and the Book of Ezra-Nehemiah. He is also believed by some scholars to either be the same person as or one of the inspirations of Darius the Mede, a central figure within the Book of Daniel.

 Darius also had several sons, and while none of them were named Ahasuerus in Persian or Aramaic, his most famous son and successor, Xerxes I, also known as Xerxes the Great (named Khshayarsha in Persian), has been linked to the Persian ruler of the Purim story, though the exact level of historical accuracy in the Purim story has been heavily questioned by scholars for years.

 Xerxes's portrayal in the Book of Esther as Ahasuerus has led some to believe he was an incompetent and always drunk monarch, while in fact, Xerxes was a very active ruler, though he is most famous for his ultimately failed war against the Greek city-states. But the fact that he was a very real monarch who indeed ruled over the region at the time of the Book of Esther is widely accepted.

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