War and Peace: Israel and Its Neighbors in Ancient Times – Part I

Date: October 2, 2010

Location: The Castle, Manhattanville College, Purchase
Time: 9:00-5:30
Contact Hours: 7.5 each day; 15 in total
Cost: $45 each day
Cutoff Date: September 27, 2010
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The political entity Israel first emerged in the archaeological record thousands of years of ago and has a long history of relationships with its neighbors. While there is no direct correlation between the events in the past and the actions today, there are continuities and surprising twists in the experiences of Israel with what is today Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Politicians today are not above misusing the past to an ignorant public to support agendas in the present… This program will explore what we know about ancient Israel and its neighbors, what actually happened regardless of what we want to have happened. Handouts will be distributed at each session of primary source documents mainly from Egypt and Mesopotamia.

October 2
Israel and Egypt – Genocide or Intifada?: What did Pharaoh mean when he claimed to have destroyed the seed of Israel as revealed in a discovery in 1896? Did Israel originate as part of a rebellion against Egyptian rule in the land of Canaan?

Israel and Canaan – Occupation or Settlement?: What was the relationship between the new political entity Israel and the other people in the land of Canaan? What did Cecil B. deMille leave out?

Israel and Assyria (I) – The First Summer Olympics: How did the peoples of the Levant react to the display of power by a Mesopotamian king renowned for his violence and brutal killing of enemies?

Israel and the Arabs – Cain and Abel or Isaac and Ishmael?: When the Arabs first emerged in the archaeological record was it as a friend or foe of Israel? Why?

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org