Haaretz carries a story similar to that noted here yesterday in Ynetnews, reporting that Israel is “shocked” that Jordan would lie about their agreement with Israel.

They follow up with another in which the police recommend that construction on the bridge be delayed from next week until September, when presumably the eyes of the world will be on the UN’s debate over statehood for the Palestinians. From Haaretz:

Ever since an earthen ramp leading to the gate collapsed in 2005 and was replaced by a temporary wooden bridge, the security establishment has been dragging its feet over building a more permanent structure to link the Temple Mount entrance to the Western Wall plaza.
In recent weeks security officials have been engaged in feverish debate over when to begin work.
[…]
Police officials at the meeting contradicted the municipal officials’ assessment that the current bridge was unsafe, and said it did not need replacing right now.
[…]
However the adviser to the Jerusalem District of the police said that any violation of the status quo on the Temple Mount would rally Arab opposition and lead to riots throughout the capital.
The adviser said that it would be best to postpone construction until September when the attention of the Arab would not be focused on Jerusalem because of the expected vote on Palestinian statehood in the United Nations at that time.
Other officials in the police’s Jerusalem District said they believed quiet will prevail in Jerusalem because the East Jerusalem Arab community rejects what they see as disruptive influences like the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement.

The full story is here.

It’s worth remembering that this debate is not about the Temple Mount itself but an external access route to the Temple Mount. Sensitivities in Jerusalem are high. See yesterday’s post for links to the history of this issue.

HT: Joseph Lauer

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From Ynet News:

A diplomatic crisis is brewing between Israel and Jordan over the planned renovations of the Mughrabi Gate Bridge, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.
Plans for razing the old Mughrabi Gate bridge, which leads from the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem to the to the al-Aqsa Mosque and Temple Mount, in favor of a new one have been in the works for a while.
According to the report, the bridge was to be torn down next week, but upon signing the final agreement, Israel was stunned to learn that Jordan, along with Egypt, Iraq and Bahrain, filed a complaint against Israel with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over the planned renovations.
The motion asks for a UNESCO censure of Israel. Jordan is also demanding that UNESCO order Israel to stop the archeological excavations in the Old City.
In the petition, Amman said it was “concerned over a decision by the Jerusalem Planning and Construction Committee concerning the Mughrabi Gate.”
Jerusalem was reportedly enraged by the move and immediately began trying to thwart it.
Jordan initially denied ever signing any agreement with Israel pertaining to the bridge. It admitted doing so only following US pressure.

The story continues here.
Previous stories (with photos) of the bridge date back to Feb 2010, Dec 2007, Feb 2007, Dec 2006, and earlier.

HT: Joseph Lauer

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The archaeologists all agree, according to a leading Muslim authority in Jerusalem. There is no evidence of ancient Jewish presence in the city. From ABNA.co:

Chairman of the Suprerme [sic] Islamic Council in Jerusalem Dr. Ekrima Sabri has declared that after twenty-five years of digging, archaeologists are unanimous that not a single stone has been found related to Jerusalem’s alleged Jewish history.
Sheikh Sabri said Israel’s opening of a Biblical park south of Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem was only a further attempt to erase the Arab-Islamic identity of the region, Sabri said.
Israeli authorities have been building the Biblical park atop the Umayyad palaces in Jerusalem. But Sabri said that archaeologists agree that the stones along the southern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque are remains of the Umayyad palaces, proving that the entire area is an Islamic endowment.

All archaeologists also agree that there were no native Americans when English colonists arrived.

Stories to the contrary are just lies by Indian propagandists.

Where are the Muslims who will tell the truth? Will any declare that Sabri is a bald-faced liar? If not, why not? The answer to that question is important.

The full story is here. HT: Paleojudaica.

Siloam inscription, tb041705450

The Siloam Inscription, found in Hezekiah’s Tunnel, written in Hebrew and dated to 700 BC.
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Concerning yesterday’s ceremony inaugurating the “Water Gate” in Jerusalem, Leen Ritmeyer responds to my question of whether any archaeologist believes Eilat Mazar with a careful, well-illustrated presentation of his conclusions. Ritmeyer was actually the one to suggest to Mazar in the 1980s that the structure may be a gate, but instead of investigating the possibility, she called a press conference to announce the discovery!

Arutz-7 has a two-minute video tour of the newly opened Ophel City Wall site. Ferrell Jenkins posts more photographs.

In his latest Asia Minor Report (posted online by Leen Ritmeyer), Mark Wilson provides a link of free online books of early explorers in Turkey. The archive has lists of similar works for Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Greece, and Italy.

Wilson also points to a website with panoramic photos of sites in north central Turkey.

FRIGKÜM’s website features three-dimensional panoramic photos of the various Phrygian sites (n.b. the labels are in Turkish). The pictures were taken in 160 locations throughout the three provinces as part of the Phrygian Valley 360 Degree Virtual Tour Photography Project. The photography is breathtaking so check it out. The apostle Paul probably saw some of these amazing monuments when he traveled through Phrygia on his second journey (Acts 16:6).

In regular features at the Jerusalem Post, Danny Herman takes viewers on a four-minute video tour of the Western Wall Tunnels, Yehoshua Halevi explains how he takes nature photographs in Israel, and Wayne Stiles considers whether archaeologists are really excavating New Testament Bethsaida.

Newly excavated parts of the underground Crusader city of Acco (Acre) are now being opened to the public.

Acco Templars Tunnel, tb100905697

Templars Tunnel in Acco
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From a press release from the Israel Antiquities Authority:

In a festive ceremony to be held Today – Tuesday, June 21, 2011, the Ophel City Wall site, a complex of buildings uncovered along the route of the fortifications from the First Temple period (tenth-sixth centuries BCE), and the display of the earliest written document ever uncovered in Jerusalem will be inaugurated. The opening of the site, located in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, and the exhibit in the Davidson Center are made possible through the generous donation by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman.
[…]
Upon completion of the excavation and conservation work at the Ophel City Wall site, visitors will now be able to touch the stones and walls whose construction tells the history of Jerusalem throughout the ages. It is now possible to walk comfortably through the built remains, in places that were previously closed to the public, to sense their splendor and learn about the history of the region by the signage and the different means of presentation and illustration.
[…]IAA-IMG_1588
The highlight of the excavations is the complete exposure of the gate house. The plan of this impressive building includes four rooms of identical size, arranged on both sides of a broad corridor paved with crushed limestone. The plan of the gate house is characteristic of the First Temple period (tenth-sixth centuries BCE) and is similar to contemporaneous gates that were revealed at Megiddo, Be‘er Sheva’ and Ashdod. The excavator, Eilat Mazar, suggests identifying the gate house here with the ‘water gate’ mentioned in the Bible: “…and the temple servants living on Ophel repaired to a point opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower” (Nehemiah 3:26). The ground floor of a large building that was destroyed in a fierce conflagration can be seen east of the gate. Mazar suggests that this structure was destroyed by the Babylonian conquest of the city in 586 BCE. Twelve very large, clay store jars (pithoi), which probably contained wine or oil, were discovered on the floor of the building. Engraved on the shoulder of one of these pithoi is the Hebrew inscription “לשר האו…”. The inscription indicates that this pithos belonged to one of the kingdom’s ministers, perhaps the overseer of the bakers.
During the course of the excavation the earliest written document to be exposed to date in Jerusalem was discovered. This unique find, which is of extraordinary importance to the history of the city, will now be on permanent display to the public in the Davidson Center. This is a very small fragment of a clay tablet engraved in Akkadian cuneiform script, which was the lingua franca of the time. Among the very skillfully written words that can be read are the words: “you were”, “later”, “to do” and “they”. The tablet and the writing are typical of the tablets that were used in antiquity throughout Mesopotamia for international correspondence.

The full press release, along with 19 photographs (including the one above), is available at the IAA site (temporary link). I’d be curious to know if there are any other archaeologists who agree with Mazar’s identification of the structure she excavated as a gate. Some years ago it seemed that even those most sympathetic to her views did not follow her on this, but perhaps that has changed. I note that the press release does not state that this is a gate but that “Mazar suggests” that it is a gate.

Southern-Temple-Mount-Excavations-aerial-from-sw,-tb010703227sr

Temple Mount of Jerusalem from the southwest

UPDATE: Joseph Lauer sends along links to the story in the Jerusalem Post, Bloomberg, and Arutz-7.

UPDATE (6/22): Leen Ritmeyer provides his response to my question about the identification of the building.

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