Israeli leaders have increasingly drawn on the lessons from Jewish history, noting that the Jews enjoyed two previous periods of sovereignty in the land in ancient times, but both lasted only about 70 or 80 years — a poignant reminder for the modern state that, founded in 1948, has passed the 70-year mark.
This quote was considered so important that it was tweeted by the New York Times as well.
Israel's leaders have increasingly drawn on the lessons from Jewish history, noting that the Jews enjoyed two previous periods of sovereignty in the land in ancient times — but both lasted only about 70 or 80 years. https://t.co/BXAGMVbNxJ
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) September 12, 2021
What?
Jews had partial sovereignty over the land from the time of Joshua through the timeframe of the Judges which lasted about 410 years. The era of the kings (Saul, David and Solomon) ruling the united Jewish monarchy lasted about 117 years, and the Kingdom of Judah succeeded that for another 340 years. After the first exile, Jews returned with various levels of autonomous rule - for example the Persian province of Yehud lasted 200 years during which the Second Temple was built.
Israel was mentioned as an independent political entity in the Merneptah Stele (1208 BCE) which clearly existed before then, and the Mesha Stele (830 BCE) celebrates another supposed victory over a Jewish king.
Only the Hashmonean rule of unqualified Jewish control of the area lasted about 80 years, but Jews maintained autonomy until the Revolt in 68 CE.
The only place I have seen such an attempt to minimize Jewish historical rule over the Land of Israel was by Arab pseudo-scholars - and even many of them admit longer Jewish rule than the NYT does. The New York Times seems to have gone way beyond even the most radical archaeologists who minimize Jewish rule over the land, claiming that the Biblical kings were really only nomads with few followers.
CAMERA says that they contacted the New York Times and the newspaper refused to correct the article.
The only reason one can imagine that the NYT wants to lie about Jewish history is to say that the Jewish claim on the land has no real historical basis. Yet the most important work of literature ever created, the Hebrew Bible, describes the connection of the Jewish people to the land since the days of Abraham. Even if one accepts the most extreme arguments against complete Jewish sovereignty, the historic, emotional and religious ties of Jews to the Land have lasted millennia.
The people who ignore that fact are generally antisemites.
