During the week covered by this review, we received 4 articles on the following subjects:
Political Issues
Archaeology
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians/Christianity
Political Issues
Haderech, May 29, 2022
Hizballah’s political defeat in the Lebanese parliamentary elections heralded the beginning of a new chapter in Lebanese history. Voices of peace, and a call to normalize the relations with Israel are being heard, even amongst the Shi’ites. Iran is disappointed, having lost an important stronghold, and Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces party, a Christian faith-based party and Nasrallah’s biggest opposition, is the true winner of the elections. Eyad, a Lebanese businessman and vital activist in the campaign against Hizballah, who strongly supports Geagea, said: “We should have signed a peace treaty with Israel 40 years ago… The Iranians and Syrians want the war with Israel to continue, to maintain their control in Lebanon. We want peace with Israel, just like we want peace with any other country. The Lebanese people are good, open-minded people, who want good relations with all.”
Archaeology
Maariv, May 30, 2022; Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2022
For 2000 years, Jerusalem received its water by means of an aqueduct that wound its way from Solomon’s Pool, south of Bethlehem, all the way up to the Temple Mount. A new segment of this aqueduct has recently been exposed in an excavation by the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) under Alkachi Street in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, in Jerusalem, in a joint project with the Jerusalem Municipality and the Moriah Jerusalem Development Corporation. “It amazes us to think how they managed in antiquity to make accurate measurements of elevation along such a long distance, choosing the route along the mountainous terrain and calculating the necessary gradient, all without the modern sophisticated instruments we have today,” said Ya’akov Billig of the IAA. “It was really a magnificent and fascinating engineering feat that they managed with the old-fashioned instruments they had then – to accurately measure and calculate and execute this project – and it worked, and since it was planned and constructed so well, it was used on and off for 2,000 years.”
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians/Christianity
Haaretz, June 1, 2022
“Some texts need to be read over and over, just to digest the fact that they are real,” stated the article. “One example is the School Feedback sent by a teacher from the southern district of Israel to the coordinators of a children’s play named ‘My Hugo’.” This sensitive, fascinating, three-time awarded play is based on the life of Jacques Kano, the father of Ronit Kano who wrote the play, dedicating it to the memory of the Righteous among the nations Francois and Maria Knops and Rev. Jan Brujan, who saved her father’s life during WWII. However, three teachers from a religious school in Mitzpe Ramon thought otherwise. After they came with their students to watch the play, they sent feedback stating that “The play presents Christians in a positive light, and this is not a message we wish to convey to our students… The message that Christians are good and human is a problematic message”. The school principal apologized for the incident, saying that the feedback was sent without his approval, and praised the superb play.