Alcibiades engages in unlayering history.

Y'varekh'kha Adonai v'yishm'rekha. Words from the blessing of the cohanim, chanted during every repetition of the amidah, the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, which is recited aloud or to oneself three times a day. These same words are inscribed on silver amulets from the 7th century BCE., unearthed just outside Jerusalem.

Edward Cook evaluates an ostracon from Arad and concludes:

the temple of the national deity was not an optional institution in the ancient Near East; it was an absolute religious and political necessity for any state. Those who deny the existence of a "First Temple" in ancient Judah, standing in the national capital Jerusalem, find themselves in defiance, not only of the biblical record, but of all historical analogy, and must be suspected of having something on their agenda other than an interest in history.

Todd's Thoughts has numerous posts about Biblical archeology:
The Pool of Siloam,
Hezekiah's Tunnel.
City of David and Area G.

More on the City of David.
Hebron.
Hazor Palace.

One of the artifacts turned up in the Kidron Valley rubbish dump is a lintel, probably from the Temple gate itself, but the Israeli Antiquities Authority is taking its sweet time to issue a report which would allow scholars to use it as reference material.

The day after Tisha B'Av begins the disengagement from Gaza, a situation which promises both destruction and renewal, how much of each remains to be seen. Out of Step Jew says:

Israel is life – it is not a toy or a game that you play with when you feel like it. It is not a vacation spot, not a place to find yourself, not a place to work out your life's problems and not a place to build your own utopia. Living in Israel is living reality. And reality demands compromise and ugliness.

Living in Israel requires strong and brave army. If our army were to take one hour off, thousands of Jews would loose their lives. . . . These soldiers are not some abstractions but our neighbors and sons and daughters. We can criticize their actions and we can point out their sins. We cannot de-legitimize them or their tasks.

Only people who believe that Israel is a toy, or who can pack up and go home to wherever that is in the Diaspora (or an Israeli yeshiva or university), can approach the next week or two in messianic terms – and I mean this from the left and the right.

If you believe that our right to Israel is based only on utopian/messianic moral grounds then you believe either that we must leave Gaza at all costs, or stay at all costs.

If on the other hand you believe that we cannot under any circumstances let Israel fall, then you will respect what the army needs to do at this point because the alternative is to treat the State of Israel as your own personal toy that you can put on the shelf when you are tired of it.

Lynn also links the sinat chinam which is thought to be what precipitated the destruction of the Second Temple, to similar turbulence preceding the Gaza disengagement.

UPDATE: Solomonia has some Fun Facts about the Filistines. The real ones.