New Evidence Found of Life-Sized Canaanite Idols

As the Bible mentions repeatedly, the pre-Israelite inhabitants of the promised land were enthusiastic worshippers of graven images. While archaeologists have discovered countless small idols, they have not found any that are life-sized. But a recent discovery by Yosef Finkelstein at the Bronze Age Canaanite city of Lachish suggests that such statues once existed. Rossella Tercatin writes:

After recently uncovering a spatula-like object, [Finkelstein] noticed some parallels with a similar item previously unearthed in Hazor in the Upper Galilee, a different Canaanite site. “The two scepters from Lachish and Hazor date to the end of Canaanite occupation at these sites (the 12th and 13th centuries BCE, respectively). Both come from cult-like contexts, are of similar size, and are made of bronze coated with silver,” he wrote in the paper.

In addition, the two findings—each of them a few centimeters long—present a striking resemblance with a third artifact: the scepter held by a 27-centimeter-high figurine found at Megiddo almost a century ago. The figurine, made of bronze but completely coated in gold, depicts a seated god holding a spatula-like scepter.

“The form of this scepter is a miniature version of the objects discovered at Lachish and Hazor,” he pointed out, highlighting that the figure has been identified as the Canaanite god El. By comparing the three items, Garfinkel was able to suggest that the bigger artifacts were likely part of sculptures proportionate to their size.

“The archaeological context of the object from Lachish and its iconography strongly suggest that it belonged to a life-sized statue of the Canaanite god El,” . . . he concluded.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Canaanites, Idolatry

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF