A new article in which Louise Hitchcock and yours truly discuss our recent, somewhat revolutionary perspectives on the development of the Philistine culture is about to appear in the Archaeological Review Cambridge (ARC) is about to appear. The article will appear in a special issue which will deal with the fascinating topic of cultural mixing, and there are several very interesting studies,  including by two people connected to the Safi project, Philipp Stockhammer (Heidelberg) and Yigal Levin (BIU).

See below the cover of the soon-to-appear issue (courtesy of Louise):

Aren

Team instructions and activities schedule for 2012 season.

Start excavating at an early age – and find more throughout your life!.

See here for a very well-informed discussion, and myth busting, of the “blame” for the ongoing Palestinian refugee problem, and the myth of the so-called “Nakba”.

This Thursday (14th of April, 2011) the 37th Annual Archaeological Congress in Israel will be held at Bar-Ilan University. The conference, as always, will be a combination of short lectures presenting new finds and excavations, as well as topical studies (note that the afternoon sessions will be running in parallel halls).

This year, there were be sessions on the following topics:
1) Prehistory (9 to 11 am)
2) Archaeological Science (11:30 to 13:30)
3) New Directions in the Study of the Persian Period (14:30-16:30)
4) Feasting in the archaeological record (14:30-16:30)
5) New excavations and studies – early periods (17:00-19:00)
6) New excavations and studies – later periods (17:00-19:00).

Here is the detailed schedule in Hebrew.
The 37 Israel Archaeological Congress

Should be a very interesting day. Hope to see you there!

Aren

José Maria Aznar, former PM of Spain, has written an excellent op-ed in the London Times, on Israel and the west’s relationship to it.

It is nice, once in awhile, to hear a sane voice regarding Israel, and not one of the many hateful vitriols, so clouded by assorted Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic, post-Modern, or generally anti-Western viewpoints.

Bravo José Maria!

Aren

See here for an excellent article by the French Philosopher, Bernard Henri Levy, on how Israel’s tactical mishandling of the Mavi Marmara ship is being utilized world over for disinformation, deligitimization, and other attacks on Israel.

Very will put – a sane perspective!

Aren

Today, the Turkish paper Hurriyet, published fotos taken by some of the Turkish participants in the Marmara “peace ride”. These photos, taken by Turks, and published by a Turkish newspaper, without any involvement of the Israeli government, clearly show how the participants had brutally attacked the soldiers and were in fact, taking them hostage. Flip through these rather vivid (and bloody!) images. They speak for themself.

This simply adds on to the now insurmountable evidence that many of the people on board the Marmara were not interested in humanitarian aid – but rather in creating a violent provocation (which unfortunately, Israel fell into this trap).

Clear examples of this are:
1) The clips and recordings in which the participants state that they are the boat to be “Shahids” (although in Arabic this means “witness”, the main use of this world, particularly in conflict context is simply “martyr” – other explanations are playing dictionary word games).
2) The flat refusal of the boat to land at Ashdod or El Arish and pass the materials on to Gaza.
3) The clear statements of the participants of this travesty, AFTER they returned to Turkey, how they had prepared for a violent reaction to any attempted Israeli landing on the ship.
4) The clear videos – both from the IDF, from the Al Jazeerah TV crews, and from the ships CCTV shots.
5) Etc.

Aren

The IDF has released a new video/audio clip in which you can hear the radio communcation between the Israeli navy and the Marmara, in which a solution to the delivery of supplies is suggested – unloading at Ashdod and then sending the material to Gaza. The answer is clear – the Marmara did not want a simple, quiet solution to delivering the supplied (which, by the way, were delivered to the Gaza border crossing, and as of Thursday, the Hamas would not let in…).

Aren

Check out the song that they sang before they were stopped.

Aren