(Washington Post) Jennifer Rubin - Today I learned that the "Old City of Jerusalem" is not what really is old. Below a parking lot outside the walls of the "Old City" (contained within a wall that is a mere 450 years old) is the most magnificent excavation site in Israel. We see the homes from which the Jews were expelled to Babylon, and then we traverse back to 1000 BCE, to the city King David captured. Our guide from the Ir David Foundation has a Bible in hand. Here the Bible is the archaeologists' guide. Within the same site they found two seals identifying two figures described in the Book of Jeremiah. You are standing in the palace of David, verifiable with Phoenician designs. And then you descend further through the underground water system that supplied the City of David with water and through which David and his army, in a commando-style raid, seized the city from the Jebusites. And there, on the spot covering the spring, as described precisely beginning in Kings 1:1, is the spot where Solomon was anointed king. And down you go to the spring, the existence of which fixed Jerusalem's location. The Bible is a sort of message in the bottle to the future to tell us that yes, the Jews were here in this spot, at that time. And mind you all of the City of David is in what the Palestinians would claim as their capital. It's more than a religious and historical site of immense meaning. It is the answer to those who would have us believe Jews lack a verifiable claim to land dating back 3000 years and beyond. In contrast to what Obama lectured us from Cairo at the beginning of his term, Israel is not merely recompense for the Holocaust. It is the ancestral home of the Jewish people. And if you doubt it, spend a morning in the City of David.
2011-02-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive