Saturday, November 18, 2006

Rubble of Recent Vintage



So, this is an interesting story from an archeological perspective:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061118/ap_on_sc/israel_temple_trove_2

But what also struck me was this:

“In November 1999, the Waqf, the Muslim organization that administers the site's Islamic holy places, opened an emergency exit to an ancient underground chamber of stone pillars and arches known to Jews as Solomon's Stables and to Muslims as the Marwani mosque.

Ignoring fierce protest from Israeli archaeologists who said priceless artifacts were being destroyed to erase traces of Jewish history, the Waqf dug a large pit, removed tons of earth and rubble that had been used as landfill and dumped much of it in the nearby Kidron Valley.

The Waqf's position was, and remains, that the rubble was of recent vintage and without archaeological value.”


“I have seen no evidence of a temple," said the Waqf's director, Adnan Husseini.”

So, where’s the outrage from the cultural sensitivity crowd on this?

I don’t think this is comparable to the scope of what the Taliban did to Buddhist statues in Afghanistan. But the principle and the intent is possibly the same. Some sense of deceit was involved: obviously, the rubble was not of recent vintage from the dating of ancient artifacts recovered. And why would a Waqf representative try to convince Zweig that these were not the droids he was looking for?

Can one imagine the reaction if these were Islamic artifacts being destroyed? Should we expect Jewish rioting in the streets now because their religion has been insulted? How long before the offended Jews start issuing threats of beheading the infidel? Will a foreign consulate burn as a price for this injustice?

2 comments:

Lips Mahoney said...

And that, DizyD, brings up a wonderful question about an assumption that sometimes rears its ugly head in the Israel and Arab relations debate. In and of itself, why is it accepted as wicked for Jews to live among Arabs in either of the territories?

There are hundreds of thousands of Arabs that live in Israel (17% of the population) with more rights as citizens than anywhere else in
the Middle East and they do so while living next to actual Jews in relative peace and prosperity. But somehow the idea of Jews –as Jews-- living among Arabs on Arab land is to be taken as criminal.

How is this acceptable by any liberal standard?

Lips Mahoney said...

Aha! "Makingcash" my zionist ass. It's another cyber attack on this blog from the Mossad!