Archeology and Why History Matters to Politics

 Nosing around the Haaretz site, and ran across this piece:

Jerusalem in King David's Time Was Much Larger Than Previously Thought, Researchers Say 

On the other hand, the new radiocarbon data contradict the biblical text on who exactly built what and when in Jerusalem during the First Temple Period.

The study, published Monday in PNAS, is the first large-scale project to reconstruct the city's distant past through radiocarbon dating. It is being hailed as a breakthrough in the field because scientists managed to extract reliable data for a period in which radiocarbon dating is notoriously unreliable. Despite this, it is unlikely that the study will put an end to the complex debates on how much history the Bible contains, particularly when it comes to the stories about the fabulous kingdom of David and Solomon.

Which led me to Is the Bible a True Story?, and in light of the war in Gaza and our own student protests and the political maneuvers of the Republicans here and of Likud there, this paragraph should explain why history matters:

At an event marking 50 years of settlement a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not dwell on the nuances of the archaeological debate. “What has enchanted me more than anything was the simple, clear and distinct fact that we are walking in the paths of the Bible,” Netanyahu stated. “Here, right here, the fathers of our nation trod the paths from Hebron to Jerusalem. Near here, in Bethlehem, King David was born. There he was anointed king, and not far from here David fought Goliath, the Hasmoneans fought the Greeks and Bar Kochba – the Romans." Maybe he did. Maybe not.

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