Leen Ritmeyer has posted the schedule for the 16th Annual Conference of the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies on “New Studies on Jerusalem.”  There are a number of lecture titles that sound very interesting.  Aren Maeir has a link to the official announcement.  All lectures are in Hebrew.

The Israel National Library website has an extensive collection of maps of Palestine, dating from 1462 to 1927.  Thanks to Yissachar Fried for the notice.

I certainly agree with this suggestion of two books ideal for Christmas gifts.

The Al-Jazeera movie entitled “Looting the Holy Land” is “a worthless film, ridden with manipulations, political propaganda, incorrect facts and even lies,” according to Israel Finkelstein. 
Large parts of Mount Carmel are off limits to visitors following the forest fire.  Rain expected this weekend may result in flooding.  A new report says that one-third, and not one-half, of the forest was affected by the wildfire.  One editorialist is calling it “Netanyahu’s Katrina.”  The fire was the worst in Israel’s 62-year history.

Hydrologists are already predicting that Israel’s water supply will reach record lows next summer, with the Sea of Galilee reaching the black line.  The Bible maintains that God sends rain in response to the nation’s faithfulness, but Israel is working now to get around that problematic relationship.  As the JPost reports:

By 2013, the large desalination plants will be producing a total of 600 m.cu.m. of fresh water a year. With that man-made addition, Israel will no longer be at the mercy of however much rain falls from the sky.

The ancient cry, “Give us a king,” has become in modern days, “Build us a desalination plant.” 

Somehow I suspect that no matter what they do, they’ll never be able to escape dependence on God.