Are Criticisms of Israel Anti-Semitic?

[JStone]

Eminent Historian Bernard Lewis...

The adjective Palestinian is comparatively new. This, I need hardly remind you, is a region of ancient civilization and of deep-rooted and often complex identitites. But, Palestine was not one of them. People might identify themselves for various purposes, by religion, by descent, or by allegiance to a particular state or ruler, or, sometimes, locality. But, when they did it locally it was generally either the city and the immediate district or the larger province, so they would have been Jerusalemites or Jaffaites or Syrians, identifying province of Syria

The constitution or the formation of a political entity called Palestine which eventually gave rise to a nationality called Palestinian were lasting innovations of the British Mandate [1948]

The Palestine entity, formally established and defined by Britain, was formally abolished in 1948 with the termination of the British Mandate and Israeli statehood

Can you find Palestine on this UN map? http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/israel.pdf


American Library Association

For more than four decades, Bernard Lewis has been one of the most respected scholars and prolific writers on the history and politics of the Middle East. In this compilation of more than 50 journal articles and essays, he displays the full range of his eloquence, knowledge, and insight regarding this pivotal and volatile region."
Oxford University Press: Faith and Power:

Guy Milliere, Eminent Professor of History and Political Science, Sorbonne, Paris

No one had heard of a Palestinian people before the mid-1960s. They did not exist. Israel under the British Mandate until Israel' s Independence in 1948 was called Palestine. All Jews who were born there until i948 had the word « Palestine » stamped on their passports. The current Palestinians are those Arabs who, for a variety of reasons, decided to leave the land during the 1947 War of Independence, when five countries – Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked the 600,000 people in the fledgling state of Israel the day after its birth, hoping to kill it in the crib.
The War Against Israel Goes On- by Guy Millière | DRZZ.fr

Former PLO Leader Zuheir Mohsen...

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.
Zuheir Mohsen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJjm5K07V0]Who are the Palestinians? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

Decisions of international and national tribunals

The U.S. State Department Digest of International Law says that the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne provided for the application of the principles of state succession to the "A" Mandates. The Treaty of Versailles (1920) provisionally recognized the former Ottoman communities as independent nations. It also required Germany to recognize the disposition of the former Ottoman territories and to recognize the new states laid down within their boundaries. The Treaty of Lausanne required the newly created states that acquired the territory to pay annuities on the Ottoman public debt, and to assume responsibility for the administration of concessions that had been granted by the Ottomans. A dispute regarding the status of the territories was settled by an Arbitrator appointed by the Council of the League of Nations. It was decided that Palestine and Transjordan were newly created states according to the terms of the applicable post-war treaties. In its Judgment No. 5, The Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions, the Permanent Court of International Justice also decided that Palestine was responsible as the successor state for concessions granted by Ottoman authorities. The Courts of Palestine and Great Britain decided that title to the properties shown on the Ottoman Civil list had been ceded to the government of Palestine as an allied successor state.[16]

Opinions of officials and legal scholars

For John Quigley Palestine's existence as a state predates the 1988 declaration. Tracing Palestine's status as an international entity back to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, he recalls that the Palestine Mandate (1918–1948), an arrangement made under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, held as its "ultimate objective", the "self-determination and independence of the people concerned." He says that in explicitly referring to the Covenant, the 1988 declaration was reaffirming an existing Palestinian statehood.[126] Noting that Palestine under the Mandate entered into bilateral treaties, including one with Great Britain, the Mandatory power, he cites this as an example of its "sovereignty" at that time. He also notes the corollary of the Stimson Doctrine and the customary prohibition on the use of force contained in the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States, "[a]n entity does not necessarily cease to be a state even if all of its territory has been occupied by a foreign power".[86]

States recognising the State of Palestine

The exact number of countries recognizing the State of Palestine is unknown, due to the equivocal nature of many official statements of acknowledgment.[155] Many countries have a standing policy against making formal declarations that recognize new governments instead indicating their recognition of a state by doing business with its government.[105] Francis Boyle, legal advisor to the PLO, assisted the organization in drafting the 1988 Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Palestine. At that time, the United States was using its Foreign Assistance Act and other measures to discourage other countries and international organizations from extending recognition.[156] According to one author, by 1988, more than 100 countries had recognized Palestine.[157] Boyle reported in 1990 that the number was 114 states.[95] In 2005, Anat Kurz reported that 117 United Nations member states had formally recognised the state of Palestine as a sovereign state.[158] In 2010, Boyle reported that the number was 127.[159]

State of Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

s

 

[JStone]

Eminent Historian Bernard Lewis...

The adjective Palestinian is comparatively new. This, I need hardly remind you, is a region of ancient civilization and of deep-rooted and often complex identitites. But, Palestine was not one of them. People might identify themselves for various purposes, by religion, by descent, or by allegiance to a particular state or ruler, or, sometimes, locality. But, when they did it locally it was generally either the city and the immediate district or the larger province, so they would have been Jerusalemites or Jaffaites or Syrians, identifying province of Syria

The constitution or the formation of a political entity called Palestine which eventually gave rise to a nationality called Palestinian were lasting innovations of the British Mandate [1948]

The Palestine entity, formally established and defined by Britain, was formally abolished in 1948 with the termination of the British Mandate and Israeli statehood

American Library Association

For more than four decades, Bernard Lewis has been one of the most respected scholars and prolific writers on the history and politics of the Middle East. In this compilation of more than 50 journal articles and essays, he displays the full range of his eloquence, knowledge, and insight regarding this pivotal and volatile region."
Oxford University Press: Faith and Power:

Can you find Palestine on this UN map? http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/israel.pdf


Guy Milliere, Eminent Professor of History and Political Science, Sorbonne, Paris

No one had heard of a Palestinian people before the mid-1960s. They did not exist. Israel under the British Mandate until Israel' s Independence in 1948 was called Palestine. All Jews who were born there until i948 had the word « Palestine » stamped on their passports. The current Palestinians are those Arabs who, for a variety of reasons, decided to leave the land during the 1947 War of Independence, when five countries – Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked the 600,000 people in the fledgling state of Israel the day after its birth, hoping to kill it in the crib.
The War Against Israel Goes On- by Guy Millière | DRZZ.fr

Former PLO Leader Zuheir Mohsen...

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.
Zuheir Mohsen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJjm5K07V0]Who are the Palestinians? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

Decisions of international and national tribunals

The U.S. State Department Digest of International Law says that the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne provided for the application of the principles of state succession to the "A" Mandates. The Treaty of Versailles (1920) provisionally recognized the former Ottoman communities as independent nations. It also required Germany to recognize the disposition of the former Ottoman territories and to recognize the new states laid down within their boundaries. The Treaty of Lausanne required the newly created states that acquired the territory to pay annuities on the Ottoman public debt, and to assume responsibility for the administration of concessions that had been granted by the Ottomans. A dispute regarding the status of the territories was settled by an Arbitrator appointed by the Council of the League of Nations. It was decided that Palestine and Transjordan were newly created states according to the terms of the applicable post-war treaties. In its Judgment No. 5, The Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions, the Permanent Court of International Justice also decided that Palestine was responsible as the successor state for concessions granted by Ottoman authorities. The Courts of Palestine and Great Britain decided that title to the properties shown on the Ottoman Civil list had been ceded to the government of Palestine as an allied successor state.[16]

Opinions of officials and legal scholars

For John Quigley Palestine's existence as a state predates the 1988 declaration. Tracing Palestine's status as an international entity back to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, he recalls that the Palestine Mandate (1918–1948), an arrangement made under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, held as its "ultimate objective", the "self-determination and independence of the people concerned." He says that in explicitly referring to the Covenant, the 1988 declaration was reaffirming an existing Palestinian statehood.[126] Noting that Palestine under the Mandate entered into bilateral treaties, including one with Great Britain, the Mandatory power, he cites this as an example of its "sovereignty" at that time. He also notes the corollary of the Stimson Doctrine and the customary prohibition on the use of force contained in the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States, "[a]n entity does not necessarily cease to be a state even if all of its territory has been occupied by a foreign power".[86]

States recognising the State of Palestine

The exact number of countries recognizing the State of Palestine is unknown, due to the equivocal nature of many official statements of acknowledgment.[155] Many countries have a standing policy against making formal declarations that recognize new governments instead indicating their recognition of a state by doing business with its government.[105] Francis Boyle, legal advisor to the PLO, assisted the organization in drafting the 1988 Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Palestine. At that time, the United States was using its Foreign Assistance Act and other measures to discourage other countries and international organizations from extending recognition.[156] According to one author, by 1988, more than 100 countries had recognized Palestine.[157] Boyle reported in 1990 that the number was 114 states.[95] In 2005, Anat Kurz reported that 117 United Nations member states had formally recognised the state of Palestine as a sovereign state.[158] In 2010, Boyle reported that the number was 127.[159]

State of Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

s

 

[JStone]

Eminent Historian Bernard Lewis...

The adjective Palestinian is comparatively new. This, I need hardly remind you, is a region of ancient civilization and of deep-rooted and often complex identitites. But, Palestine was not one of them. People might identify themselves for various purposes, by religion, by descent, or by allegiance to a particular state or ruler, or, sometimes, locality. But, when they did it locally it was generally either the city and the immediate district or the larger province, so they would have been Jerusalemites or Jaffaites or Syrians, identifying province of Syria

The constitution or the formation of a political entity called Palestine which eventually gave rise to a nationality called Palestinian were lasting innovations of the British Mandate [1948]

The Palestine entity, formally established and defined by Britain, was formally abolished in 1948 with the termination of the British Mandate and Israeli statehood

American Library Association

For more than four decades, Bernard Lewis has been one of the most respected scholars and prolific writers on the history and politics of the Middle East. In this compilation of more than 50 journal articles and essays, he displays the full range of his eloquence, knowledge, and insight regarding this pivotal and volatile region."
Oxford University Press: Faith and Power:

Can you find Palestine on this UN map? http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/israel.pdf


Guy Milliere, Eminent Professor of History and Political Science, Sorbonne, Paris

No one had heard of a Palestinian people before the mid-1960s. They did not exist. Israel under the British Mandate until Israel' s Independence in 1948 was called Palestine. All Jews who were born there until i948 had the word « Palestine » stamped on their passports. The current Palestinians are those Arabs who, for a variety of reasons, decided to leave the land during the 1947 War of Independence, when five countries – Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked the 600,000 people in the fledgling state of Israel the day after its birth, hoping to kill it in the crib.
The War Against Israel Goes On- by Guy Millière | DRZZ.fr

Former PLO Leader Zuheir Mohsen...

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.
Zuheir Mohsen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJjm5K07V0]Who are the Palestinians? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[High_Gravity]

Are Ku Klux Klan members racist? what kind of question is this Tinmore?

 

[P F Tinmore]

Are Ku Klux Klan members racist? what kind of question is this Tinmore?

I would say so.

 

[JStone]

Are Ku Klux Klan members racist? what kind of question is this Tinmore?

I would say so.

Dr. Wafa Sultan, Among Time magazine's 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world:

When I examined the Koran, the hadiths and the Islamic books under my microscope, I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible--IMPOSSIBLE-- for any human being to read the biography of Muhammad and believe in it and yet emerge psychologically and mentally healthy person.

Do you remember the way that Muhammad killed Asma bint Marwan? His followers tore her body apart limb from limb while she was breastfeeding her child. When they returned to him shouting, "Allah Akbar," he said: "Two goats would lock horns over her." As you know, goats lock horns over the most inconsequential thing. For Muhammad, however, the killing of a woman while breastfeeding was too trivial an incident for goats to lock horns over. Is this a prophet of God?

The language of Islam is a negative, dead language, replete with violence, anger, hatred and racism. Man is a product of his language, the outcome of the negative and positive language to which he is exposed in his lifetime. If his life is dominated by negative language, he will emerge as a negative, reckless and non-productive person who rejects everything. This is why the negative language of Islam has failed. It has failed to produce people with a positive outlook. It has produced negative people. If we take a look at Islamic societies, we see what that negative man [Muhammad] did.

Islam is a political doctrine which imposes itself by force. Any doctrine whatsoever that calls to kill those who do not believe in it is not a religion. It is a totalitarian doctrine that imposes itself by force.

Read about the life of Muhammad. What do you find there? Nothing but his raids and and his wives. I shudder when I hear the hadith: A woman's paradise is under her husband's foot. The Islamc teachings have become dreadful in the skulls of the Muslims. I see no alternative butr to open these skulls and to clean the life-threatening cancerous cells in these brains.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUp7QLyjWLk]Wafa Sultan about the "Prophet" Muhammad! - YouTube[/ame]

Shahad, 9 year old Palestinian...

The Prophet Muhammad said the hour of resurrection will not take place until you fight the Jews The rock and the tree will say, "Oh, Muslim, servant of allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and fight him!"

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSwpAX1xvrc]Palestinian children are taught: Genocide is God's will - YouTube[/ame]

My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but allah, we will chase you everywhere We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no better blood than the blood of the Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children's thirst with your blood, we will not rest until you leave the Muslim countries.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rleFpY402vM]Palestinian - Terrorism - YouTube[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

It isn't about religion. It is about occupation.

 

[JStone]

It isn't about religion. It is about occupation.

Dr. Wafa Sultan, Among Time magazine's 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world:

When I examined the Koran, the hadiths and the Islamic books under my microscope, I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible--IMPOSSIBLE-- for any human being to read the biography of Muhammad and believe in it and yet emerge psychologically and mentally healthy person.

Do you remember the way that Muhammad killed Asma bint Marwan? His followers tore her body apart limb from limb while she was breastfeeding her child. When they returned to him shouting, "Allah Akbar," he said: "Two goats would lock horns over her." As you know, goats lock horns over the most inconsequential thing. For Muhammad, however, the killing of a woman while breastfeeding was too trivial an incident for goats to lock horns over. Is this a prophet of God?

The language of Islam is a negative, dead language, replete with violence, anger, hatred and racism. Man is a product of his language, the outcome of the negative and positive language to which he is exposed in his lifetime. If his life is dominated by negative language, he will emerge as a negative, reckless and non-productive person who rejects everything. This is why the negative language of Islam has failed. It has failed to produce people with a positive outlook. It has produced negative people. If we take a look at Islamic societies, we see what that negative man [Muhammad] did.

Islam is a political doctrine which imposes itself by force. Any doctrine whatsoever that calls to kill those who do not believe in it is not a religion. It is a totalitarian doctrine that imposes itself by force.

Read about the life of Muhammad. What do you find there? Nothing but his raids and and his wives. I shudder when I hear the hadith: A woman's paradise is under her husband's foot. The Islamc teachings have become dreadful in the skulls of the Muslims. I see no alternative butr to open these skulls and to clean the life-threatening cancerous cells in these brains.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUp7QLyjWLk]Wafa Sultan about the "Prophet" Muhammad! - YouTube[/ame]

Shahad, 9 year old Palestinian...

The Prophet Muhammad said the hour of resurrection will not take place until you fight the Jews The rock and the tree will say, "Oh, Muslim, servant of allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and fight him!"

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSwpAX1xvrc]Palestinian children are taught: Genocide is God's will - YouTube[/ame]

My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but allah, we will chase you everywhere We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no better blood than the blood of the Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children's thirst with your blood, we will not rest until you leave the Muslim countries.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rleFpY402vM]Palestinian - Terrorism - YouTube[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

Israel occupies Palestine. the religion is irrelevant.

Israel is not a person nor is it a religion. It is open for criticism.

 

[JStone]

Israel occupies Palestine. the religion is irrelevant.

Israel is not a person nor is it a religion. It is open for criticism.

Cambridge University Press

In Ottoman times, no political entity called Palestine existed. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, European boundary makers began to take greater interest in defining territorial limits for Palestine. Only since the 1920s has Palestine had formally delimited boundaries, though these have remained subject to repeated change and a source of bitter dispute.
Palestine Boundaries 1833–1947 - Cambridge Archive Editions

Eminent Middle East Historian Bernard Lewis...

The Palestine entity, formally established and defined by Britain, was formally abolished in 1948 with the termination of the British Mandate.and Israeli statehood in 1948

Can you find "Palestine" on this UN map? http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/israel.pdf


Bernard Lewis...

The adjective Palestinian is comparatively new. This, I need hardly remind you, is a region of ancient civilization and of deep-rooted and often complex identitites. But, Palestine was not one of them. People might identify themselves for various purposes, by religion, by descent, or by allegiance to a particular state or ruler, or, sometimes, locality. But, when they did it locally it was generally either the city and the immediate district or the larger province, so they would have been Jerusalemites or Jaffaites or Syrians, identifying province of Syria

The constitution or the formation of a political entity called Palestine which eventually gave rise to a nationality called Palestinian were lasting innovations of the British Mandate [1948]

American Library Association

For more than four decades, Bernard Lewis has been one of the most respected scholars and prolific writers on the history and politics of the Middle East. In this compilation of more than 50 journal articles and essays, he displays the full range of his eloquence, knowledge, and insight regarding this pivotal and volatile region."
Oxford University Press: Faith and Power:

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer Charles Krauthammer...

Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.

PBS: Civilization and the Jews

The interaction of Jewish history and Western civilization successively assumed different forms. In the Biblical and Ancient periods, Israel was an integral part of the Near Eastern and classical world, which gave birth to Western civilization. It shared the traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and the rest of that world with regard to it’s own beginning; it benefited from the decline of Egypt and the other great Near Eastern empires to emerge as a nation in it’s own right; it asserted it’s claim to the divinely promised Land of Israel...
PBS - Heritage

University of Chicago Oriental Institute---Empires in the Fertile Crescent: : Israel, Ancient Assyria, and Anatolia

Visitors will get a rare look at one of the most important geographic regions in the ancient Near East beginning January 29 with the opening of "Empires in the Fertile Crescent: Ancient Assyria, Anatolia and Israel," the newest galleries at the Museum of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

The galleries showcase artifacts that illustrate the power of these ancient civilizations, including sculptural representations of tributes demanded by kings of ancient Assyria, and some sources of continual fascination, such as a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls--one of the few examples in the United States.

"Visitors begin in Assyria, move across Anatolia and down the Mediterranean coast to the land of ancient Israel. The galleries also trace the conquests of the Assyrian empire across the Middle East and follow their trail to Israel."

The Israelites, who emerged as the dominant people of that region in about 975 B.C. are documented by many objects of daily life, a large stamp engraved with a biblical text and an ossuary (box for bones) inscribed in Hebrew.
Probably the most spectacular portion of the Megiddo gallery, however, is the Megiddo ivories. These exquisitely carved pieces of elephant tusks were inlays in furniture, and a particularly large piece was made into a game board.

Oriental Institute | Museum

Harvard Semitic Museum: The Houses of Ancient Israel

In archaeological terms The Houses of Ancient Israel: Domestic, Royal, Divine focuses on the Iron Age (1200-586 B.C.E.). Iron I (1200-1000 B.C.E.) represents the premonarchical period. Iron II (1000-586 B.C.E.) was the time of kings. Uniting the tribal coalitions of Israel and Judah in the tenth century B.C.E., David and Solomon ruled over an expanding realm. After Solomon's death (c. 930 B.C.E.) Israel and Judah separated into two kingdoms.
Israel was led at times by strong kings, Omri and Ahab in the ninth century B.C.E. and Jereboam II in the eighth. In the end, however, Israel was no match for expansionist Assyria. Samaria, the Israelite capital, fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E.

The Houses of Ancient Israel § Semitic Museum

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: Canaan and Ancient Israel

The first major North American exhibition dedicated to the archaeology of ancient Israel and neighboring lands, "Canaan and Ancient Israel" features more than 350 rare artifacts from about 3,000 to 586 B.C.E., excavated by University of Pennsylvania Museum archaeologists in Israel,
Artcom Museums Tour: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia PA

Yale Law School Faculty Scholarship Series: Ancient Land Law in Israel, Mesopotamia, Egypt

This Article provides an overview of the land regimes that the peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Israel created by law and custom between 3000 B.C. and 500 B.C

A look at land regimes in the earliest periods of human history can illuminate debate over the extent to which human institutions can be expected to vary from time to time and place to place.
"Ancient Land Law: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel" by Robert C. Ellickson and Charles DiA. Thorland

Yale University Press: Education in Ancient Israel

In this groundbreaking new book, distinguished biblical scholar James L. Crenshaw investigates both the pragmatic hows and the philosophical whys of education in ancient Israel and its surroundings. Asking questions as basic as "Who were the teachers and students and from what segment of Israelite society did they come?" and "How did instructors interest young people in the things they had to say?" Crenshaw explores the institutions and practices of education in ancient Israel. The results are often surprising and more complicated than one would expect.

Education in Ancient Israel - Crenshaw, James L - Yale University Press

Yale University Press: The Archaeology of Ancient Israel

In this lavishly illustrated book some of Israel's foremost archaeologists present a thorough, up-to-date, and readily accessible survey of early life in the land of the Bible, from the Neolithic era (eighth millennium B.C.E.) to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. It will be a delightful and informative resource for anyone who has ever wanted to know more about the religious, scientific, or historical background of the region.
The Archaeology of Ancient Israel - Ben-Tor, Amnon; Greenberg, R. - Yale University Press

Cambridge University Press: The World of Ancient Israel
The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press: Wisdom in Ancient Israel
Wisdom in Ancient Israel - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press

PBS Nova...

In the banks of the Nile in southern Egypt in 1896, British archaeologisit Flinders Petrie unearthed one of the most important discoveries in biblical archaeology known as the Merneptah Stele. Merneptah's stele announces the entrance on the world stage of a People named Israel.

The Merneptah Stele is powerful evidence that a People called the Israelites are living in Canaan over 3000 years ago

Dr. Donald Redford, Egyptologist and archaeologist: The Merneptah Stele is priceless evidence for the presence of an ethnical group called Israel in Canaan.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvg2EZAEw5c]1/13 The Bible's Buried Secrets (NOVA PBS) - YouTube[/ame]