Is Israeli Governance Really so Far Right?

 

We hear from articles and network news commentators how the Israeli government is the most right wing government in Israeli history. This interpretation may be quite wrong for all too many reasons. The government initially was presented with sixty-one seat majority with fifty-nine in the opposition. The initial parties were Likud (30 seats), Kulanu (10 seats), HaBayit HaYehudi (8 seats), Shas (7 seats) and Agudat Israel (6 seats) and this coalition was further strengthened ever so slightly with the addition of Yisrael Beiteinu (5 seats) to the coalition. The discussions about this being a far right government often lists HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) as being far right as they represent religious Zionists and Zionism has been placed as part of the far right despite its origins having been closely tied to socialism and the Kibbutz model. In Israeli recent history the Labor Party attempted to reinvigorate its Zionist roots, from which they had drifted quite far, but still named their coalition with Tzipi Livni as the Zionist Union. Nobody presenting news in Israel would ever refer to Zionist Union as being far right, but HaBayit HaYehudi is often criticized for their staunch Zionist principles and then further critiqued for being religious. What is really interesting is when election time comes around, the media then refers to HaBayit HaYehudi as being well to the left of Likud as a means of hindering their position as a presentable choice for religious Zionists hoping to have the religious Zionist vote for the more minor parties who have very similar positions as HaBayit HaYehudi. This is done in the hope that some, or many or all, of the minor parties do not cross the threshold and those votes are not represented in the government and HaBayit HaYehudi will have garnered fewer seats. This might permit a left wing government to take control in Israel, something which came close to being reality in the last elections where had HaBayit HaYehudi not thrown support to Likud sacrificing seats so Likud would have the mandate to form the government, which worked with great efficiency, Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid Party might have had the mandate. Yair Lapid is often described as being a right-centrist to the right of Bibi Netanyahu, more Zionist than Bibi Netanyahu, more humanistic than Bibi Netanyahu, stronger support of military than Bibi Netanyahu and simply more popular than Bibi Netanyahu so additionally if only the Israeli people were more intelligent and informed, Bibi Netanyahu would lose to Yair Lapid and the world would find Shangri-La entering the Age of Aquarius and be perfected. This perfect world includes the formation of the Arab entity of Palestine left to its own devices under the rule of Mahmoud Abbas for as long as he can remain breathing. Shortly after the IDF and the Israeli towns and cities have been evacuated there will be a coup just like in Gaza with one major difference, Mahmoud Abbas and everyone else who Hamas has no need of in their idea of Palestine will be hanged or put before a wall and shot. This will lead to Iran arming Hamas with thousands of rockets and artillery with which to destroy central Israel including Tel Aviv and its surrounding cities and suburbs. This will leave three-quarters of Israeli economic structures, residential housing, energy production and everything else including Israel’s main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, and also striking Jerusalem and cutting it off from the remainder of Israel. Leftists claim that this time it will work as they predict and be nothing like Gaza. Unfortunately, they have not explained how this miracle will come to fruition. Israelis are supposed to take this reality on faith and faith alone. Still, let us look at this presumed overtly right wing government and the arguments as to why this is far from reality.

 

Shangri-La and the World in the Age of Aquarius

 

Let us define what would have occurred if the current government in Israel really were a radical, far right wing government. When President Trump took office there would have been some events which would have occurred already. First is that Area C of Judea and Samaria would have been annexed and any Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership residing within these areas would have been removed as would any families who have any connection with terrorism. Mahmoud Abbas would have been called to Jerusalem for a meeting with the Prime Minister, in the current government that is Bibi Netanyahu, where he would be instructed to present what he would consider an acceptable peace which he believes is acceptable to both his people and to the Israeli government. Abbas would have been given two weeks to present his plan. If his plan was in any means acceptable, then Israel would work with him with a set number of weeks to reach an agreement or the entire leadership of the PA, PLO and Fatah would be deported once and for all. The remainder of the Arabs who have links to terrorism would join the rest of the leadership in being expelled. After this the remainder of the Arabs would be permitted to choose whether they wish to remain or have their properties bought at high value and a relocation bonus while being banned from ever returning even for a visit. Those who choose to remain would take on the identity of alien resident who might be permitted to vote in local elections depending on numerous conditions but would not have the right to vote in national elections. As far as requirements placed upon these Arabs would be if they showed any sign of participating or aiding terrorism, they will be expelled receiving no financial aid or remuneration for their properties. As far as being permitted a path to citizenship, this would be denied for the foreseeable future. The inference would be that such was not something that Israel was about to consider granting such a privilege. This would be followed by the annexation of all the lands west of the Jordan River, the exact lands which the San Remo Conference had denoted to make up the Jewish State in its final rendition. Contrary to European, United Nations, Arab League and much of the world’s opinions, International Law depicts the Jordan River as the eastern border for the Jewish State of Israel.

 

We should expect the United Nations General Assembly along with the European Union and many others jumping onboard to take these actions before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), much as has happened before and should serve as a warning. If one does not need believe us, but one might feel inclined to take the wording of a decision made by the Third Chamber of the Court of Appeal of Versailles in a case brought by the PA against the French companies Alstom and Veolia for building Jerusalem’s light rail system. Their final decision was also a warning to the PA that Israel has the sole claim to all of Judea and Samaria and that they would do best not to take this into any court of law. The fact this came from the friendliest court system the PA was able to find makes this all the more impressively important. Please take our kind invitation to read for yourself a copy of the Court Ruling. Furthermore, in an earlier case brought before Egyptian Judge, Justice El Araby, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), who sat in judgement as part of the panel which heard the case where the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) sought an advisory opinion in 2003 from the ICJ on the legality of the security barrier erected by Israel; the Honorable Justice El Araby warned the UNGA and others, including Mahmoud Abbas and the whole of the PA, that filing further ran some risks, as he stated,

“The international legal status of the Palestinian Territory (paras. 70-71 of the Advisory Opinion), in my view, merits more comprehensive treatment. A historical survey is relevant to the question posed by the General Assembly, for it serves as the background to understanding the legal status of the Palestinian Territory on the one hand and underlines the special and continuing responsibility of the General Assembly on the other. This may appear as academic, without relevance to the present events. The present is however determined by the accumulation of past events and no reasonable and fair concern for the future can possibly disregard a firm grasp of past events. In particular, when on more than one occasion, the rule of law was consistently side-stepped. The point of departure, or one can say in legal jargon, the critical date, is the League of Nations Mandate which was entrusted to Great Britain.”

The warning given by the Egyptian Judge has been the well-known dirty-little secret that everybody has known and done everything in their collective power to ignore or even contravene in order to do whatever is required to destroy the Jewish State. This is the largest part of the new anti-Semitism which has spawned the BDS movement and the entire Palestinian movement. The aim is to force the Jewish State’s destruction and a new Shoah with approaching seven-million Jews being murdered and the remainder placed back in the diaspora. A major part of the world resents the founding of Israel as the Jewish State as the reappearance of the Jewish nation fulfills prophesy. But it is actually worse than that for Catholicism, Islam and most of Christianity who believe in replacement theology. The founding of Christianity during the rule of the Roman Empire and with the Jews being spread to the far corners of their empire and beyond, to all viewers it appeared that the Jewish people were about to disappear from the face of the earth as others facing this same treatment by the Romans had disappeared. Another such people were the Carthaginians, the original Phoenicians, who were dispersed after the three Punic Wars. A simple question, has anybody run into a Carthaginian or a Phoenician of late? We did not think so as they were wiped from history by the Roman Empire. How the Jewish people did not meet a similar fate was due to the central pillar of the Jewish people being different than other civilizations. Most people are identified by their lands and central locations and losing this ends their identity but the Jewish people are centered around the Torah. This is what held the Jews as a people despite the challenges and allowed them to remain separated from other people, something for which the Jews paid a high price. The benefit is it allowed the Jewish people to reestablish their homelands and defined exactly where that homeland was and is to be located. What the Jewish people are soon to be required to accomplish will be the reconstituting of their homelands by bringing the remainder of world Jewry home and making Israel the actual home of the entirety of the Jewish people. This will result in some sad realities when, just as when the Jewish people returned from Egypt or returned from their exile in Babylon, a mere twenty-percent of the Jews returned to Israel and those who made their future outside of Israel were eventually assimilated and lost to their families and from the body of the Jewish people. There was another loss of a great number of Jews, likely a lower percentage than Egypt and Babylon, were lost to the tribes as they found themselves completely detached. The sadness will be those families who will be torn asunder with those who remain in Canada, the United States, Europe and elsewhere around the globe soon becoming assimilated and lost to the Jewish people and to their families who will feel the pain for a number of generations living in the truly Promised Land.

 

Jewish People Returning from Exile

 

Somehow, we doubt that the largest Jewish element in the Diaspora are in the United States, we seriously doubt they will resemble this picture in any way. Those who return from the United States will be flying El Al Airlines while much of their possessions will be traveling DHL or other first-class and efficiently fast delivery as they will not desire being without their personal items. The unfortunate truth is that the vast majority of the Jewish population in the United States who are outside the Traditional Orthodox Community are not going to be returning to Israel unless forced to do so. Far too many will deny their Jewishness in order to avoid having to leave the United States as they perceive the United States as their Promised Lands. What it would take for the majority of the assimilated Jews to return to Israel, the home of their forefathers, would be deportation from the United States where they would be placed on wide-body aircraft with as many seats as possible installed, they would be divorced from their homes, money, furniture, vehicles and other wealth and be deported being driven out, dispossessed and exiled with their passport and citizenship invalidated. They would not be permitted to return even to vacation at Disney World. Eventually, the Jews will be forced to return to their homeland by the very nations who have at times attempted to destroy that very homeland. The one nation we always hear will never expulse their Jews is the United States. Believe it or not, anti-Semitism is growing in the United States and much of the new anti-Semitism emanates from the far left. There are many Jews in these groups and they are in denial that such can be a possibility. The problem is they have blinders on and are refusing to view things even should they happen right before their eyes. These are the Jews who will remain far longer than they are welcome but will be suffered for as long as they serve their purpose. What is that purpose? It is to allow the anti-Semites to claim they love Jews as they have Jews within their group. Talk about useful idiots, but every revolution has them. These unfortunates will learn what happens to useful idiots once they are no longer useful, and if they are fortunate, that future will not include a wall and a line of people with machine-guns but an old steamship which they will be overcrowded and miserable for the six-month cruise to Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

World Anti-Semitism Will Never Die

 

There is an underlying distaste of the Biblical definition of the Israelites as the Chosen People. This has been taken by the non-Jewish world to mean that the Jews find themselves to be better than everyone else. It never occurs to them that what being the Chosen People was that the Israelites were, or at least Abraham, Isaack and Jacob were the first people who followed Hashem and were to live by the laws Hashem would impart to Moses at Mount Sinai during the Exodus. The Jews are not to believe they are any better than anyone else, they are to hold themselves to a higher standard through the six-hundred-thirteen commandments in Torah and the other laws and admonitions which would be imparted through the Oral Law. Jews were expected to try harder to be the best society they could possibly accomplish. The truth be told, the Jews were actually set up for continued failure as the standard set for them was to become beyond their societal ability to reach and maintain. Sustaining the egalitarian love of all and acceptance of equality of humankind all while living a structured life which kept to the strict thin line guided by Torah and the Oral Law was difficult. The rules Hashem had given at Mount Sinai were an addition to the former code which Hashem gave Noah as the basis for civilized society known as the Noahic Code which contained seven rules (see image below). These were the initial laws which predated the Ten Commandments which were in addition to the Noahic Code and even restated some of the Noahic Code. The Ten Commandments were just the initial installment at Mount Sinai and were followed by Torah which is a combination of history book and code for life and the means for governance when the Israelites entered the Promised Land. The one thing which becomes obvious to one reading Torah is that the Israelites, the modern Jews, were expected to live exemplary lives which would allow them to be granted the grace of Hashem which would also lead to their not suffering from want. The successes they would receive for following the laws set forth in the Torah and explained and fleshed out by the Oral Law would make others desire to live similar lives and also be thusly rewarded. The success was not supposed to make the Jews appear better than anyone else, they were supposed to be an example which others would desire to live a similar life and also be rewarded. Unfortunately, this was not how things were interpreted by much of the outside world.

 

Noahic Codes

 

What occurred instead was that some decided that they would simply conquer the Israelite lands and take their wealth. Most of the civilizations who attempted this met with destruction while the Israelites were observant of the Commandments given them by Hashem. But eventually the Israelites turned from the narrow path and this led to their being conquered by foreign powers. The first time this happened was when the Babylonians under Nebakanezzer conquered the Israelites. This still left two tribes from the Twelve Tribes unconquered, the Tribes of Judah and the far smaller tribe of Benjamin. These former Israelites were referred to as Judeans and they would also fall to the Babylonians some years later. The first ten tribes of the Israelites had assimilated by the time the Judeans fell and were considered lost and dispersed becoming the Ten Lost Tribes. When Judah finally fell, the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the First Temple. The Judeans went into captivity and this was referred to as the first exile which was described to Abraham by Hashem. The Prophet Ezekiel prophesized the Jews were to be punished for 430 years because they had turned away from Hashem. The Persians under Cyrus the Great defeated the Babylonians and freed their Jewish captives about 70 years after Judah lost independence to Babylon. This left 360 years which the Jews would require a second exile to fulfill as one must pay Hashem when one strays. We will have more about this when it becomes pertinent. Meanwhile, the Jews, some of them, not all as Hashem had commanded, returned and began rebuilding the Temple. Cyrus the Great was aware of the history of the Israelites and did not desire enslaving them as doing so could bring the wrath of Hashem onto the Persians, something which did eventually happen when the Persians attempted to kill the Jews within their kingdom many years later (the story of Queen Esther and the story around Purim in the Megillah of Esther). The real problem was that the Jews who remained residing in the Persian Empire rather than returning to the Promised Land and live as Hashem commands became assimilated and began worshiping the Persian idols and gods. This and the eventual straying by the Jews eventually spread also to the Judeans who had returned to the Promised Land who were again conquered this time by the Hellenist Greeks. This was followed by the Romans, which was when the name Judean proved too burdensome for the lazy Romans who simplified it shortening the name simply to Jew.

 

Do you remember the 360 years which the Jews still would be required to serve in exile we talked of earlier? Well, now we will explain their importance along with some very unbelievable truths from history. In Leviticus 26:18, Leviticus 26:21, Leviticus 26:24 and Leviticus 26:28 the Torah spells things out quite clearly, should the Jews not fully repent their sins they would be punished increased by a factor of seven. As we have already established, the Israelites, by then having become Judeans and who would soon become Jews, strayed leading to their being conquered and sent again into exile. Their required time left to serve was 360 years but was prophesized in Leviticus to be increased seven fold, meant that their exile would last 2,520 years. Yes, this was going to be a very long and unprecedented exile and if the Judean, Jews, were to actually survive and ever return to the Promised Land, it would be an undeniable miracle. On the original lunar Jewish calendar, this actually translates to 2,484 years. The exile, according to historical records, began in 536 BCE. If one takes 536 BCE and moves forward 2,484 years it required taking the 2,484 years of exile and subtract the 536 years before the start of the modern calendar and you get a result of 1948 AD, the exact year of the founding of the modern Jewish State of Israel. Another prophesy comes from Isaiah 66:7-8 where it states, “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.” Israel did come into being in a single day declared a nation holding her Biblical borders from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, some parts of which were lost in her initial war against six invading Arab armies on the day she was founded on May 15, 1948, yet she has survived every attempt to dislodge the Jewish People to this day. The modern state of Israel has been a miracle in every sense of the word and the founding exactly as numerous prophecies had predicted to her survival despite all the efforts to destroy her. The continued survival of the Jews through all the challenges of history is another source of anti-Semitism. There are those who believe that the Jews were an ancient people whose existence today has to be an aberration against nature and as such, they believe the Jews are an affront before all they worship and believe.

 

Some anti-Semitism has religious basis in that they believe that the Jews and Judaism have been replaced by their faith. This is the basis of replacement theology which was prevalent throughout Catholicism, all of Christianity and throughout Islam. There have been some attempts at moderating the resultant hatreds spawned by replacement theology and the belief that because these religions which have presumed to have replaced the Jews as the chosen of Hashem, the Jews became under the control of the devil and now worship and do the bidding of the devil. The Jews have thus been relegated to hell and because of their being an aberration of Hashem and damned by Hashem are thus less than human and as such to be spurned. Further, as they have become damned, they are the first to be suspected of being responsible for any calamity which befalls a community. This has led to many historic pogroms where the Jews were blamed for crop failures, diseases, financial failings and untold other calamities and even simple restlessness leading to violence such as resulting from uncommon heatwaves or prolonged frigid times or any uncommon or distressed natural event. These are easily explained events just as when during the Crusades when the leaders of the forces would know that waiting until battle in the Middle East to have their men take life for the first time would lead to many hesitating resulting in their death at the hands of their enemies. Instead, often the commanders would find a Jewish town and have their men turn on the Jews killing many in the town until the rest fled into the surrounding forests becoming too dispersed and thus would take too long to hunt down. Some commanders would repeat these drills in successive Jewish towns which eventually led to the Jews in the path of Crusaders to flee their villages until they had long passed. These types of anti-Semitism have mostly ended in modern life but anti-Semitism continues leading some to ask why and seek explanations.

 

Modern anti-Semitism has a number of reasons, some remaining from ancient periods such as the remaining remnants existing from replacement theology. Some anti-Semitism comes from preexisting anti-Semitism where parents share their feelings so frequently within the home and between friends who share their bigotries among which include anti-Semitism. But there exists one heinous source for modern anti-Semitism which is all but impossible to stamp out because the sources itself are some Jews. There are those who watch the Jews in their lives closely seeking to find them failing to act honorably and being irreligious. They revel in finding Jews who fall short morally and that leads them to believe that all Jews are failed people. This eventually leads to suspicions that Jews are operating nefariously while using false religious observance to hide behind. They begin to claim that all Jews fake their faith and are really using their faith as a cover allowing them to gain wealth or power or success at the cost of others. Those who hold these feelings will blame their failures on these cheating Jews and this drives their anti-Semitism. They then spread their belief that the Jews are cheating everybody in order to gain their wealth, power and take over the society, steal and bankrupt their nations or other acts of bad faith spread to cover all Jews. They find one bad apple and damn the entire barrel. This form of anti-Semitism has proven to be very contagious, easily spreading throughout a civilization like a wildfire. The reality is that all it takes is one bad actor who was born a Jew to start the suspicions. Soon such suspicion begins to become the object to blame any Jew who has more success, more fame, more anything and the claim will fall back to that Jew they know gained through illicit acts and his guilt is passed on to every Jew who has success which a jealous person cannot explain. They will ignore the Jew working longer hours or having a better education or whatever might be a more accurate explanation and instead simply go to the more comforting idea that their gains were ill gotten. It is easier to explain away one’s lack of success and another’s faster rise to their cheating rather than their hard work. Thus, any Jew who succeeds gives cause for feelings of anti-Semitism. All because one Jew fell short in honesty or righteousness or whatever shortcoming they were caught committing. This should be sufficient for every Jew to exercise greater care in their actions and the way they live their lives.

 

The sources of anti-Semitism are numerous, some ancient, some contemporary. Many are impossible for the Jews to prevent. Some are religious in their origins. Some are pure jealousy. The reasons are impossible to quantify and all too many have so many various origins that they defy definition. The main means of fighting anti-Semitism would be for all Jews to live a Torah observant life and be an exemplary individual in their community and in all areas where they meet others. Jews need be above reproach in all acts and treat every person fairly and with great love of all humanity. But even if every Jew were to live up to the expectations of Torah, follow even all of the Oral Law and treat everyone as they desire to be treated, there would still be those who would find some reason to blame the Jews with cheating everyone to get ahead. Anti-Semitism will never be stamped out until the coming of the Messiah and the Messianic Age. Until then the Jews will be singled out for special hatreds and suffer for unmet expectations. So, we await the Messiah and must assist every Jew to live a more proper Torah observant life and incorporating the teachings of the Oral Law within their lives treating all people with respect and fairness. It will not end anti-Semitism, but it might lessen the number of people suffering this societal disgrace.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Of Papers and Glass Paperweights and Prices in Stone

 

Often the proof is in ancient writings found imbedded in the clay pottery shards which are on display currently in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem starting Tuesday, April 12, 2016. These are a collection of military orders written in ancient Hebrew dated to the end of the First Temple period which were unearthed in an excavation of a fort in Arad, Israel, and dated to about 600 B.C. shortly before Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem, and were uncovered in the Negev Desert (see image below). The fact that military orders found were written by multiple individuals has been used, along with biblical writings from the same period, in order to be effective implied that literacy was rather common amongst the area known as Judea. These writings, published Monday in the US Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, make it possible for the earliest books of the bible to have been written before the exile and during the First Temple period. According to Tel Aviv University archaeology professor Israel Finkelstein, “There’s a heated discussion regarding the timing of the composition of a critical mass of biblical texts.” Finkelstein, who led the team of researchers together with physics professor Eliezer Piasetzky reported, “But to answer this, one must ask a broader question: What were the literacy rates in Judah at the end of the First Temple period? And what were the literacy rates later on, under Persian rule?” The writings were discovered in the ruin of an ancient Judahite military fortress near the Negev city. Such evidence of higher rates of literacy existing throughout the military infers similarly high rates amongst the peoples themselves. Finkelstein, however, said he has long believed those texts were written in the late 7th century BC in Jerusalem, before the siege. He said the study offers support for that theory. “It’s the first time we have something empirical in our hands,” said Finkelstein. It was the fact that these orders were of a nature to have been disseminated through the entire chain of command which can be used to infer high rates of literacy.

 

 

Inscriptions in ancient Hebrew dating
back 2,500 years discovered near Arad.
(Tel Aviv University/Michael Kordonsky,
Israel Antiquities Authority)

 

 

Shmuel Ahituv, an Israeli bible scholar who did not participate in the study, also believes literacy in ancient Judah was widespread before 586 BC and that the biblical texts in question were written before the siege of Jerusalem. He said he believes this is apparent through a literary analysis of the biblical texts alone. “I don’t need algorithms,” Ahituv chuckled referring to the algorithms used to reconstruct the missives other than those he had studied.

 

There was an additional discovery this week of the oldest glass manufactory found thusfar in the holy lands. This glass foundry dates back to approximately 400 A.D. The remains of the kiln used to produce large scale glass was discovered as construction of a road being built at the initiative of the Netivei Israel Company as part of the Jezreel Valley Railway Project between Ha-‘Emeril Junction and Yagur Junction. The oldest glass kilns ever discovered in Israel were unearthed at the foot of Mount Carmel near Haifa – exposing an ancient, global glass-production center which serviced the entire Roman Empire (see video below). These kilns are roughly 1,600 years old (dating to the Late Roman period), and indicate that the Land of Israel was one of the foremost centers for glass production in the ancient world. The other main glass producer was near Alexandria, Egypt. Glassworks and glass manufacturing sites had been found previously which dated to the eighth and ninth century which made this find all the more exciting and important as it predates the others by almost five centuries. This validates another find from Rome where a price edict was circulated by the Roman emperor Diocletian in the early fourth century describing and setting the prices for two kinds of glass. The first was known as Judean glass which presumably was manufactured in the Land of Israel while the second was Alexandrian glass from Egypt. Judean glass was a light green color and less expensive than Egyptian glass. What makes this edict so important is that it had been written in stone, well, chiseled in stone and was displayed at glassware shops making for fair trade standardized throughout the Empire.

 

 

 

 

This discovery has attracted glass experts who specialize in ancient glass manufacturing from around the globe who have all come to inspect the find and test the glass which was found amongst the ashes and stones from the hearths. This solves the question as to what glass much glassware was made from as this site was a serious large manufacturing industrial site. It was in these kilns where it was estimated that large glass blocks were produced using sand cleaned and transported from the beaches and salt which would have been melted together at a temperature of approximately 1,200oC in order to make the glass. The glass manufactured here would have had a soft green tint and blocks weighing as much as ten tons per casting. After the kiln had been permitted to cool and the glass removed it would have been broken into more manageable size pieces and carted off to be sold to glassware and other manufacturers where the pieces would be smelted again to form glassware products. Glassware was found throughout the Roman Empire as glassblowing had been discovered as a method for producing glassware on an industrial scale which is what made the need for production facilities such as the one found here and others which have been located dating years later. It is the earlier dating of this site which has sparked so much interest. Below is a picture of samples of the glass embedded in rocks found at the base of the hearth.

 

 

Fragments of glass discovered at the site Photo:
Assaf Peretz, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority.

 

 

This glass is another example of what we discussed in yesterday’s article titled Thoughts on the World on This Day where we pointed out that “Israel is still being accused of colonialism by the conquerors of their homeland from in the early seventh century. The Arabs were simply the last of a whole host of colonial enterprises all attempting to dislodge the Jewish People (the Israelites) from their native ground and capital city of Jerusalem.” This glass production site in conjunction with the Roman edict written in stone setting the price of “Judean glass” proves that the area even after the change of the region name still referred to the products as Judean. They did not call it Arab glass or Palestinian glass or any other peoples’ name in the reference; it was Judean glass from Judean manufacturing and proved that the Jews (Israelites) remained and ran a thriving industrial glass production. There have been wine and oil presses found dating to the same time frame and through the years preceding and afterwards all making Judean products. The Roman edict setting the price for Judean glass alongside Alexandrian glass displayed the two main centers for glassmaking which provided the raw glass used throughout the Roman Empire where the first known use of price controls is evidenced in stone and refers to Judea as a glass manufacturing area and the Jews residing in Judea as the makers. Sometimes the proof just pops up and settles things so simply. One might say the answer is as clear as glass, slightly tinted green as was the Judean glass.

 

Beyond the Cusp