Late last year Donald Trump declared that the US would recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel.
For many tourists to the Holy Land this seemed fairly uncontroversial. Given that this is the location of the Israeli Parliament, many visitors always assumed Jerusalem was its capital. However, in practice Tel Aviv has been the internationally recognized capital with diplomatic missions located there. Trump’s plan to move the American embassy has created real friction on the ground.
Clouding the view
Sadly, the politics of Jerusalem, and the various evangelical views on the place of the land in the promises of God, have soured or clouded some of the remarkable archaeological work unfolding there. For some critics of the State of Israel anything found in Jerusalem is dismissed as part of an Israeli plot to affirm their right to the land. Some pro-Arab observers are led to affirm a minimalist view of the historicity of the Bible.
Comedy, free speech and warnings from the past
Hannah Arendt was a Jewish philosopher who grew up in Nazi Germany. Eventually she had to flee to France and, …