A Trove of 3,600-Year-Old Artifacts Found in Israel

Nov. 16 2016

An Israeli and American team of archaeologists recently discovered a collection of gold and silver items at the ruins of the Gezer, a Canaanite city located in the Judean foothills that flourished at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Dan Lavie writes:

The find includes . . . a gold-framed Egyptian seal from the Hyksos period [in the mid-second millennium BCE] and a silver medallion. The medallion consists of a silver disk on which an eight-pointed star is engraved. The disk is flanked by two thin “horns,” from which it would have connected to a rope or a chain. The archaeologist Irit Tziper said that the symbols on the disk are known to represent Canaanite gods similar to the Mesopotamian gods Ishtar and Sin. . . .

Analysis of the artifacts indicates that the trove was placed as an offering in a structure likely [meant] to synthesize Mesopotamian-Canaanite gods and Egyptian culture. The structure complex itself is part of a Middle Canaanite-period city that includes an impressive gate, a wall, and the largest Canaanite water tower known to date.

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Canaanites, History & Ideas, Paganism

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula