July 23, 2007

The Orwellian rewriting of Jewish history, again

How dim the gold has become, [how] changed is the fine gold jewelry! The holy stones are scattered at the head of every street. -- Eicha 4:1

Two years ago I collected a lot of blogposts about the history of the Temple Mount, and posted them on Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem (and a lot of other things). (Tisha B'Av began this evening and continues tomorrow until evening.)

Every year I take the opportunity to connect the historical destruction of the temple to the ongoing destruction of its remnants, artifacts of Jewish history turned into rubble before our eyes while not only Israeli officialdom, but the rest of the world stands by and lets it happen. (At the same time the usual outrage - aided and abetted by CAIR, by the way - is whipped up over repair of a ramp which is nowhere near any sensitive archeological or sacred site.)

Islam has a long history of erasing sacred artifacts of subject religions (like the Bamiyan Buddhas), or transforming them into Muslim ones (for example, the Hagia Sophia). (The current violence against holy sites is a component of a larger effort to overwrite Jewish history with a Palestinian "narrative" (the Palestinians being the stalking horse for Islamist supremacy), being played out in the halls of academe as well as archeological sites, the most recent example being the tenure controversy over Nadia Abu El Haj.)

I understand why Muslim religious authorities would treat Judaism as a subject religion, but why do Jews respond as dhimmis in their own homeland? It's not like we aren't going to be vilified anyway.

Below is a good summary of the Temple Mount situation described more fully here.

Continue reading "The Orwellian rewriting of Jewish history, again"

Judith | 07/23/07 at 11:30 PM | 6 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

February 19, 2007

Podcast about delegitimizing Jewish history

I just did my first podcast interview as a guest of Fausta Wertz. Allyson Taylor from Stand With Us was also a guest. Allyson spoke about the recent "End Israel Apartheid" events and I spoke about the systematic campaign to delegitimize Jewish history, of which the "Israel is an apartheid state" canard is a part.

Fausta's podcast page.

it was fun and I hope we educated a lot of people about this propaganda. Thank you, Fausta, for inviting me onto your program!

Judith | 02/19/07 at 01:38 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

February 16, 2007

Orwellian erasure of Jewish history - the day after

More posts related to mine yesterday on the continuing battle over inconvenient shards of history.

Soccer Dad examines previous incidents of carefully-timed Arab outrage over the Temple Mount - what was their purpose?

If an Arab or Muslim leader has a goal, he will use the conflict over the Temple Mount divert international attention from his ambitions and rally the Muslim world around him. Ahmadinejad is using the cover of the phony charges now to increase his saber rattling and divert attention from his nuclear program and his foreign adventures in Lebanon and Iraq. As it did before, the world just tut tuts at the chutzpah of the Jews.

Add the fake massacres at Qana and the Mohammed cartoon riots. In fact, every time any Muslim riots anywhere about anything, the first question should be "Cui bono?"

Soccer Dad also links to Richard Cohen's column defending his record as a friend of Israel, and then fisks him thoroughly. (Cohen also defends Carter and Walt and Mearsheimer.)

The Baptist pastor who has been defending Nadia Abu El Haj (I'm not sure what his connection is) has taken issue with my post, but not with anything resembling a consideration of the real concerns about her scholarship. Don't bother going over there and arguing with him, he's not worth the trouble.

Judith | 02/16/07 at 01:05 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

February 15, 2007

The Orwellian erasing of Jewish history continues

The orchestrated violent reaction to the ramp renovations at the Temple Mount raises again the persistent attempt by the Palestinians to conceal or eradicate evidence of the Jewish history of the site, throughout Islamist history a common enough policy toward the holy sites of other peoples.

[ UPDATE: Video at the end of this post explaining the purpose and construction process of the ramp. ]

Here is Dore Gold on the topic of historical revisionism, talking about his new book The Fight for Jerusalem.

This attempt at wholesale rewriting of history has so permeated global discourse that a Jewish columnist for a well-respected newspaper can write with a straight face:

. . . . Israel itself is a mistake. . . . the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.

I dissected the many historical inaccuracies in this paragraph and the subsequent ones, here. Stung by being characterized as anti-Israel by the AJC paper, he claims to be "a defender of Israel," yet has swallowed whole the myths about Israel's provenance, which he passes on to students.

"I think that his lecture was very honest and fair," said Basel Hamdan, a first-year politics student [at NYU]. . . .Hamdan said he felt Cohen's columns about Israel were brave, especially when he called it a "mistake." "I thought that that was a very courageous thing for him to write, and I respect him for that," he said.

It wasn't courageous, it was inexcusably ignorant insofar as it was based on historical falsehoods, and as damaging to Jews as Holocaust revisionism, which most people are rightfully appalled at.

Rewriting Jewish history for political purposes may get a sanction from academia with a tenure appointment in the anthropology department at Barnard, still under review. (If you are an alumnus, you may want to express concerns to the College. A caveat and list of contacts are at the end of this post.)

The applicant, Nadia Abu El Haj, is an assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard, and a member of the controversial MEALAC faculty. She has written a book which purports to be an examination of how Israeli archeologists "construct a narrative" which supports "the Zionist myth" by destroying evidence to the contrary.

Continue reading "The Orwellian erasing of Jewish history continues"

Judith | 02/15/07 at 08:34 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

February 09, 2007

Day of Rage, #426

Intifada v.3.0, here we come. Snapped Shot points out:

it seems that this is a Palestinian day of RAGE, considering we haven't seen any action on the wires from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, or any of the other usual hot spots. I'll keep an eye on the wires, of course, but I find it interesting that nothing's come across yet.

It would be very interesting if their sponsors will let the Palestinians twist in the wind this time. . . .

Since the pretext for this riot is Israeli archeological work at the site, it is appropriate to remind everyone about the extensive damage done to the site over the past several decades by the Muslim WAQF, about which Israelis have much more reason to riot, but mainly made muted protests. Olmert was the mayor of Jerusalem during part of that time, and participated in some official statements condemning the destruction.

Judith | 02/09/07 at 04:31 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

September 25, 2006

Tishrei 3: Blowing the shofar at the Western Wall

All Yamim Noraim posts here, including one post a day from Rosh Chodesh Ellul 5766 through Yom Kippur 5767. All chagim posts here, including one post a day from the first day of Sukkot through Simchat Torah 5767. (Each of these include a mp3 of Jewish music from a wide variety of sources and genres.)

Photo at left is Rabbi Shlomo Goren blowing a shofar at the Western Wall as the Israeli army liberates it during the 1967 war. (Here is a transcript in English of the moment as reported on radio, and a sound file of the recording.)

When Jews lived under Muslim rule, often rules applied to dhimmis included prohibitions against conducting their prayer services in such a way that Muslims could hear them, and prohibitions against building their houses of worship higher than a mosque.

Dhimmitude makes a comeback at the Western Wall this week, as a Jew is arrested for blowing a shofar at the Wall:

Continue reading "Tishrei 3: Blowing the shofar at the Western Wall"

Judith | 09/25/06 at 04:32 PM | 0 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

July 18, 2006

Holocaust revisionism at the WaPo

[ UPDATE: Ben has a unique take on Cohen's argument. ]

Great, now we have Richard Cohen in the WaPo questioning Israel's legitimacy, using the threadbare revisionist history of 30 years of Islamist-funded university Middle East Studies Departments. How many errors can you count in the first paragraph?

Continue reading "Holocaust revisionism at the WaPo"

Judith | 07/18/06 at 01:58 AM | 26 Comments | 15 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

November 10, 2005

Archaeologists decry Wakf 'renovation'

So the Wakf wants to perpetrate more renovation on the Temple Mount, apparently in order to make the entire thing into a huge mosque complex so that any rights that Jews have, even to tread upon, will eventually cease to exist entirely.

Continue reading "Archaeologists decry Wakf 'renovation'"

Alcibiades | 11/10/05 at 07:51 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

September 05, 2005

Blogiversary

I joined Kesher Talk on Rosh Chodesh Ellul 2002. Which was during the first week of August that year. I missed my secular blogiversary this year, because I was preparing the Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst. So today is my third blogiversary on the Jewish calendar.

Judith | 09/05/05 at 09:39 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

August 15, 2005

Disengagement and Tisha B'Av

Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst main page.

Of course the juxtaposition can't be ignored. Lynn says:

The story [of Kamtsa and Bar Kamtsa, which is said to precipitate the Roman destruction of the 2nd Temple] is like a puzzle in which close examination will bring to light many human failings. Pride, deception, lack of compassion, apathy, excessive zealousness, revenge, and others not so simple to name. The Talmud paints an ugly picture of strife and contention between and among friends, families and colleagues.

When the fast of Tisha B'av ends, the expulsion from Gaza is scheduled to begin. Surely the irony isn't lost on Ariel Sharon. Will the Ninth of Av, 5765, mark yet another in the series of tragedies mourned by the Jews in the years to come? Or not, whether by aversion of the decree or aversion of disaster following its implementation? In the meantime, I hope that we all, disengagement opponents and supporters alike, can recognize a bit of ourselves in the Sages' portrait of first century C.E. Jerusalem, and try to turn away from senseless hatred, baseless accusations and ugly stereotypes, so that future generations won't have to say that Israel was destroyed a second time by sinat chinam.

Lynn also links to this rueful piece which plays off the sinat chinam story.

Out of Step Jew is also thinking about sinat chinam.

Continue reading "Disengagement and Tisha B'Av"

Judith | 08/15/05 at 07:33 AM | 0 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

August 12, 2005

Temple Mount blogburst: Introduction and Index

Tisha B'Av - which begins tomorrow evening - commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnetzar (which led to the founding of the influential Jewish community of Babylonia), and again in 70 CE, by the Romans. It also serves as a catch-all day of mourning for other major Jewish historical calamities (such as the massacres of the Crusades), but its central text - Jeremiah's Eicha, or Lamentations - is an unflinching description of the horrors inflicted upon Jerusalem by Nebuchadnetzar's seige and massacre.

So now is also an appropriate time to revisit the condition of the Temple Mount, site of the holiest places in Jewish ritual, a topic I wrote on in my first weeks at Kesher Talk, and several times since.

This blogburst has several sections:

Temple Mount blogburst: Introduction (this page)
Temple Mount blogburst: Tisha B'Av
Temple Mount blogburst: Israel past present and future
Temple Mount blogburst: Jihadism and reality
Temple Mount blogburst: The Mount since 1967
Temple Mount blogburst: Poetry pierces the iron curtain

Judith | 08/12/05 at 04:49 PM | 2 Comments | 15 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

Temple Mount blogburst: Tisha B'Av

Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst main page.

Tisha B'Av is the 9th day of Av, the 11th month. This is the original 9-11 of the Jewish people.

. . . 1.1 million Jews were murdered by the Romans during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and another 97,000 were taken captive, many of whom were either sold into slavery or fed to the lions. It was the ancient equivalent of a Holocaust, one that devastated world Jewry both demographically and spiritually, shattering the Jewish commonwealth and sending its sons and daughters into an exile from which they have yet to fully return.

Continue reading "Temple Mount blogburst: Tisha B'Av"

Judith | 08/12/05 at 04:00 PM | 2 Comments | 10 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

Temple Mount blogburst: Jihadism and reality

Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst main page.

Shrinkwrapped writes about Memory and History, and propaganda wars. In passing he notes that

Destroying and burying the past of one's enemies is an old tradition for Jihadist Islam. Many Mosques were once Catholic Churches (Hagia Sophia); the Giant Buddhas at Bamayin were destroyed by the fundamentalist Taliban.

(The first comment is an elegant continuation of the same theme.)

Daniel Pipes notes a parallel situation in India.

Solomonia has been tracking this issue for some time, and his contribution includes examples academic complicity (both Western and Palestinian), and more pictures of politically-motivated archeological vandalism. He begins:

I am not a particularly conventionally religious person, but this year Tisha B'Av takes on a bit more significance. They are burning the history books. No, they are tearing out the pages and inserting new ones made from whole cloth. . . . At least the Bamiyan Buddhas were granted the dignity of being blown up in the open air, where their destruction could be filmed and the Taliban condemned. They stared out from their rock wall and looked us all in the eye as if to say, "Aren't you ashamed that you're allowing this to happen?" That image, and theirs, is left with us.

The progeny of Arafat do their dirty work below ground. Out of sight of humanity, they murder history in the dark. Their victims are unseen and unknown by anyone but the killers. The story they could speak forever silenced, crushed to rubble and thrown in a garbage dump. At least we had a chance to meet the Buddhas. Humanity's Jewish history is being slaughtered in the womb.

Continue reading "Temple Mount blogburst: Jihadism and reality"

Judith | 08/12/05 at 03:33 PM | 1 Comments | 4 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

Temple Mount blogburst: Israel past present and future

Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst main page.

Jim Davila of Paleojudaica is an Biblical archeologist and the go-to guy on scholarly assessments of historical claims. He has written more about the Temple Mount destruction than anyone else in the blogosphere, and links to his posts are scattered throughout this project. If you want a handy summary of archeological substantiation of Jewish life in ancient Israel, bookmark these two links:
Evidence for the first Temple.
Evidence for the second Temple.
Jim also linked to this description of a Greek inscription warning gentiles who come to the (second) Temple to refrain from proceeding beyond a certain point.

Continue reading "Temple Mount blogburst: Israel past present and future"

Judith | 08/12/05 at 03:31 PM | 0 Comments | 3 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

Temple Mount blogburst: The Mount since 1967

Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst main page.

If you want to contribute to the rescue of artifacts from the rubble dumped in the Kidron Valley, this comment at Solomonia has information on how to donate. (If you don't know what that's about, keep reading.)

A historical overview describes how the Temple Mount came to be a pawn in extremist propaganda wars after Israel recaptured Jerusalem in 1967:

[The Knesset] passed the Safeguarding of the Holy Places Law . . . freedom of access of the various religious denominations to their holy places is anchored in the laws of the state and in decisions of the High Court of Justice.

Soon after its capture, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan handed the keys to the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf authorities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in a gesture of respect for the rights of Muslims at the site.

Continue reading "Temple Mount blogburst: The Mount since 1967"

Judith | 08/12/05 at 03:30 PM | 0 Comments | 4 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

August 12, 2005

Unlayering History

A series of fascinating archaeological digs are currently going on in Israel, each one of them, as it turns out, central to the religious history of Jews. For one, remains of 10th century monumental architecture have been located in the . . . more »

Alcibiades | 08/12/05 at 03:00 PM | 0 Comments | 2 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

Temple Mount blogburst: Poetry pierces the iron curtain

Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst main page. Jews confront the historical reality of our calamities, but we also transform the potent metaphors of our prophetic tradition into moral lessons. The Three Weeks begins the season of repentence which culminates in . . . more »

Judith | 08/12/05 at 02:53 PM | 1 Comments | 4 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

August 11, 2005

Contributions requested for a blogburst

This entry will remain at the top of the page till the blogburst appears. Sunday July 24th was the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz, beginning the Three Weeks of somber reflection that lead to Tisha B'Av, the Jewish . . . more »

Judith | 08/11/05 at 02:49 PM | 16 Comments | 12 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

July 30, 2005

Imaginary temples

My blogburst announcement is already causing controversy (scroll down). Biblical scholar Jim Davila links to someone too busy to actually read the request, but not too busy to denounce all the things it doesn't say. Jim also sets him straight. . . . more »

Judith | 07/30/05 at 12:51 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst

February 16, 2004

Who is breaking the Wailing Wall

"Just as we predicted, the collapse of part of a stone embankment adjacent to the Western Wall during yesterday's rare snowstorm and last week's earthquake has prompted a "dispute" between Jewish and Muslim clerics. Not surprisingly, the Muslim "authority", . . . more »

Judith | 02/16/04 at 08:14 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst