"Israel Facts Not Fables"

Video Of The Week - Jared Kushner On Trump's Peace Plan - https://tinyurl.com/thunep4

 From J.Post 31-01-2020 - By STEWART WEISS

This past week in Israel, leaders from around the globe – from Pence to Putin to Prince Charles – gathered dramatically in Jerusalem to commemorate the Shoah and to spotlight both the victims and the villains of the Holocaust.

The Nazis were masters of deception, ingeniously creating a pervasive false reality that masked their crimes and their central cause – the murder of every Jew on the planet. Concentration camps were “labor farms,” roundups of Jews and mass murder were “Aktions,” and death camps were “resettlement centers.” Show camps like Theresienstadt put a false face on the horror, while signs of “Arbeit Macht Frei” on the outside gates masked the terror within. Much of the world was fooled, with disastrous consequences for our loved ones.

And even today, the Palestinians create a parallel universe made up of smoke and mirrors, forging a phony history of their own while using every means to erase, expunge and obliterate our truth: the truth of King David and King Solomon, of the Temple in Jerusalem and the 3,000-year presence of Jews in our homeland. Our holy texts affirm without a shred of doubt our legitimate claim to this land, while they are the authors of the shortest book in history: Ancient Palestinian Culture and Custom.

YET I wonder: Will the true events of Jewish history remain fact in the years to come, or will they be turned into fiction? The question is worth considering, for indeed our accomplishments in the last century boggle the mind and invite disbelief.

Will generations to come believe that we could survive the devastating Shoah and emerge to revive and recreate our ancient land and language?

Could we have really won a War of Independence against all odds and predictions, and then, soon after, vanquish seven Arab armies in just six short days?

Could we have actually taken in millions of immigrants – many of them elderly and impoverished – and could we have increased our population by 1,000% in just two generations?!

Could we possibly have made our tiny nation the hi-tech capital of the world, dramatically bestowing innovations of all types upon humanity, increasing its quality and longevity of life?

Will all this be acknowledged by future generations as fact, or will it be dismissed as fanciful fairy tales concocted by creative Jewish minds?

There are two conflicting narratives fiercely competing in the world today. One suggests that the Jews are an oppressive, malevolent force, robbing the world of its resources, stealing the property of others and espousing a doctrine of supremacy and world domination.

The other affirms that the Jewish people are benevolent, decent, industrious citizens who hold the moral high ground and bring abundant blessing to every nation in which they live.

It is our sacred task, I suggest, to fight passionately for the truth we know to be real, to dispel the clouds of doubt and defamation that too often swirl around us.

It is an uphill battle, to be sure, because ignorance is a societal cancer that spreads exponentially, perverting and polluting even the best and brightest of minds.

We have the obligation to devote ourselves to separating the facts from the fables and declare, with unabashed pride: Israel is real.

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JERUSALEM'S 2,000-YEAR-OLD PILGRIMAGE ROAD

Video Of The Week - Jerusalem's - 2,000-year-old pilgrimage road - https://tinyurl.com/y4dz5enc

  

The City of David has already changed Jerusalem. A new discovery there opening soon will change the way Jews connect with their past in a way never seen before.

From J.Post - BY YAAKOV KATZ   JUNE 30, 2019 12:58 - https://tinyurl.com/y3pr4btm 

In 2004, a sewage pipe burst in the middle of the neighborhood of Silwan in southeast Jerusalem. The municipality sent in a crew of construction workers to fix the leak, and as is the case in Jerusalem and especially in neighborhoods adjacent to the Old City, they were accompanied by a team of archeologists.

As the repairs progressed, the construction workers stumbled upon some long and wide stairs a few dozen meters from where the Shiloah – the ancient pool Jewish pilgrims would dip in before beginning the religious ascent to the Temple, until its destruction in 70 CE – was believed to have once stood. The steps were just like the ones that lead to the Hulda Gates, a set of now blocked entrances along the Temple Mount’s Southern Wall.

Discovery of the Shiloah Pool led to another monumental find – the central water drainage channel that had served ancient Jerusalem. This channel is the tunnel that visitors to the City of David – known as Ir David – get to walk through today, starting at the bottom of the Shiloah and emerging about 45 minutes later next to the Western Wall.

The ancient street is referred to as “Pilgrimage Road,” since archeologists are convinced that this is the path millions of Jews took three times a year when performing the commandment of aliyah l’regel – going up to the holy city of Jerusalem to bring sacrifices to God during Judaism’s three key holidays, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.

The Pilgrimage Road goes all the way from the Shiloah Pool to the area adjacent to the Western Wall known as Robinson’s Arch, where today you can still see remnants of the ancient stairway that led into the Jewish Temple.

Walking the road – as of now Ir David has excavated about 250 meters of it – you can imagine the throngs of people parading on it 2,000 years ago. Young boys walking next to their parents. Girls on their fathers’ shoulders. So far, only some of the stores that once lined the road have been partially uncovered, but with imagination you can hear the bartering that took place here – people trading leather for fur, seeds for honey, coins for wine.

For example, archaeologists found a set of stairs in the middle of the road alongside one of the ancient shops. But the staircase doesn’t go anywhere. It ends in a platform. When Ir David checked, though, it found just one other similar set of stairs – in Rome.

IR DAVID has changed our understanding of history. It is one thing to read the Mishna and imagine or visualize what life for Jews was once like. It is quite another to walk on the exact same road as they did.

Ir David hopes that when the road officially opens in a few months, it will draw approximately one million visitors a year.

Considering the anti-Israel resolutions coming out of United Nations organizations such as UNESCO that deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, the Pilgrimage Road has far greater significance for Israel than just the opening of a new impressive tourist site, said Ze’ev Orenstein, director of international affairs for Ir David.

It proves the long and historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem, Orenstein stressed, not just the parts where Jews live today but across the city, even if it takes you under homes and streets in Arab neighborhoods like Silwan.

US Ambassador David Friedman agrees. “The City of David brings truth and science to a debate that has been marred for too long by myths and deceptions,” he told the Magazine. “Its findings, in most cases by secular archeologists, bring an end to the baseless efforts to deny the historical fact of Jerusalem’s ancient connection to the Jewish people.”

I asked Friedman why the discovery of Pilgrimage Road was important for the US government.

“There has been enormous support for the City of David by the American public,” he said. “This is yet another example – and a great one – of the recognition of the Judeo-Christian values upon which both nations were founded.”

I asked Friedman what would happen if a peace deal were to be concluded one day between Israel and the Palestinians. Is it possible that the Jewish state would be asked to give up Ir David or Silwan?

“I do not believe that Israel would ever consider such a thought,” he said. “The City of David is an essential component of the national heritage of the State of Israel. It would be akin to America returning the Statue of Liberty.”

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