Ancient parchments with biblical verses, including from the prophets Zechariah and Nachum, were recently found near the Dead Sea in the Judean Desert.
This is the same area where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were found. However, these scrolls date back to the time of the Bar Kochba revolt, only about 1,900 years ago.
This is the first find of this nature in over 60 years. Makes you wonder what else is out there to find. Of course the area where the ancient writings were found is on land liberated by Israel from Jordan during the Six-Day War, so I guess the Reform movement and other misguided folks will want us to give these “occupied” Jewish artifacts to random Arabs who would certainly treasure them. I mean, it would obviously be a war crime to keep them.
Only a matter of time before the International Criminal Court needs to get involved to ensure that “justice” prevails. In the meantime, like the Western Wall, we’ll probably just keep them.
Coronavirus in Israel
The positive trends continue. Soon the entire economy will be open and there is talk of foreign tourism possibly being allowed in April. As of now, masks are still required, but enforcement has slackened.
No additional restrictions are expected to be in place for the upcoming Pesach holiday. And after Pesach this year, it’s time to start getting ready for the always peaceful month of Ramadan – every cultured person’s favorite time of the year.
Elections in Israel
One week to go! With one week to go until Election Day, the race is still very much up in the air. One of the key factors will be the 4-6 parties currently polling near the electoral threshold. If any or all of the small parties fail to receive enough support for a total of four Knesset seats, the support they did receive will be redistributed to all the other parties. The left has certainly more to fear from this scenario than the right.
Gantz is still running, Bennett is still claiming he will be prime minister, Lapid still has nothing to say, and Netanyahu continues to poll significantly higher than everyone else. Pretty consistent election period.
Trump Administration Diplomacy Success Continues
Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed this week that Israel in on the verge of diplomatic agreements with at least four additional Muslim countries. Earlier in the week, Netanyahu was scheduled to fly to the UAE for high-level meetings and to possibly meet with Saudi Arabian officials there as well.
The trip was postponed at the last second because Jordan refused Israeli air passage through its airspace… or because Netanyahu’s wife was in the hospital getting her appendix taken out and couldn’t accompany (chaperone) him on the trip. Whichever reason works best for you.
Two Embassy Openings in Jerusalem in One Week!
Both the Czech Republic and Kosovo opened diplomatic offices in Jerusalem this week. Of course, both are European countries and Kosovo is majority Muslim (mostly off the derech).
Needless to say, the Palestinian Authority is not too thrilled with these openings in western Jerusalem. Why? Because this whole “peace process” thing is a sham and its only real goal is the destruction of all Israel, G-d forbid.
Anyway, that’s not going very well this week or any other week. If we just give the Arabs the Dead Sea Scrolls, then we’ll have peace. It makes sense to the misguided.