Biblical Archaeology and the Holy Land

An Interview with Dr. Kenneth L. Hanson

by Jerry Gordon and Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant (August 2020)

 

Hezekiah’s Tunnel – Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem

 

On July 22, 2020, a stunning announcement was reported by the Jerusalem Post about a new archaeological discovery by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in Arnona near the US Embassy in Jerusalem. It was the uncovering of a vast administrative center in Judea built during the reign of King Hezekiah with seals attesting to the ancient Jewish presence during the First Temple period between the eighth and the middle of the seventh century B.C.E.  IAA archaeologist Benyamin Storchan in a Jerusalem Post report noted:

We found about 120 stamped seal impressions on jar handles written in ancient Hebrew script, which translate as ‘belonging to the king.’ These stamped jars were usually related to tax collection. Up to this day, 1,000 similar items have been found in over a century of excavations in Israel, which gives us an idea of the importance of this area.

       In 2019, the City of David Foundation announced discovery of seals of legendary King David’s son. Lawrence Franklin noted in a Gatestone Institute article:

On September 9, 2019 , the foundation’s leading archaeologist, Eli Shukron, announced the discovery of a 2,600-year-old royal seal, found near the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, which bears the name (in Hebrew) of Adenyahu, a son of King David mentioned in the biblical book of Kings.

       As has been true with previous archaeological discoveries in Israel, however, this one is unlikely to put a dent in the long-term international campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state by rewriting and distorting its history, even by renaming the Jewish sites Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem to “Bilal ibn Rabah mosque” (it was never a mosque) and Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs the Ibrahimi Mosque.

       The delegitimizations of the ancient Jewish presence in Jerusalem began in the Seventh Century C.E. by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan—the fifth caliph of the Umayyad dynasty of Syria— who built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. That was placed over the legendary site where Jews believe Abraham was poised to sacrifice his son Isaac. Fast forward to July 2000 and the Camp David Peace Talks under the auspices of former President Clinton between then Israeli PM Ehud Barak and the late PA President Yasser Arafat. Arafat disputed the Jews building the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, instead suggesting they may have been in Nablus.

       These important Israeli archaeological discoveries make the case for ancient Jewish rights to the Land of Israel. It is the major theme of a new book published by NER Press and written by University of Central Florida Professor Dr. Kenneth L. Hanson: Whose Holy Land? Archaeology Meets Geopolitics in Today’s Middle East, which was the subject of a wide-ranging Israel News Talk Radio—Beyond the Matrix interview with Jerry Gordon and Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant.

       Dr. Ken Hanson is the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Program and Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida. He has taught the history, literature, and cultural legacy of the Jewish people from antiquity to the modern rise of the State of Israel. He has lived in Jerusalem and the Northern Galilee. He earned a master’s degree in International Intercultural Communications and went on to earn a doctorate in Hebrew and Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published multiple books on these topics. He has been on national television and syndicated radio, History Channel, Travel Channel, and the Gaia Network. He holds unique insights on the question of why Israeli Jewish heritage is proven by archaeology.

       Dr. Ken Hanson’s new book uniquely covers two “Holy Lands,” two Israels, two Jerusalems. The one above ground, that pilgrims see on tour, boasts historic buildings and majestic architecture. Another is below ground and is much more mysterious. This is where we find evidence of who lived in this land thousands of years ago and a “narrative in stone,” supporting the Jewish people who lay claim to it today. As the Middle East continues to be the flashpoint of global conflict, the “facts underground” could hardly be more relevant.

       When asked how significant the archaeological evidence of the three Millennia Jewish presence in Israel is, Dr. Hanson replied:

It is everywhere. Somebody said, “You want to learn about America, take a book. You want to learn about the land of Israel, take a shovel.” You dig down and from Jericho to Shechem to Nablus, which is currently a Palestinian city, that is sitting on top of an area that was Jewish. Joseph’s Tomb, Rachel’s tomb, Bethlehem, it is everywhere. All you must do is look. There are ongoing archaeological digs, that are controversial. Beyond that, there are Jews who desire to live in these places where you have an historical Jewish presence for thousands of years. Settlements have gone up, some of which have been deemed illegal by the international community. What? It is illegal for Jews to live in their own land. If you are Jewish, you cannot live in Hebron.

       It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the goal of the Palestinian Authority. When a Palestinian state should ever arise in this land, all Jews must leave. The Jewish settlers and settlements must be dismantled. They must leave. Palestine must be judenrein. If they do not leave, what would be the fate of the settlers who have the audacity simply to want to live near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Abraham, at least in tradition, is buried, the other patriarchs and the matriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob? Not a pleasant one. It would not be possible.

       Hanson notes the extent of denial by the Palestinians and their allies in the international communities of the ancient Jewish archaeological evidence supporting claims by the State of Israel.

That is what is so terribly controversial because there are many on the Palestinian side who do not acknowledge that Jews ever lived in the land of Israel. This is the extent of the propaganda that goes forth, even to school children who grow up in the Palestinian Authority. They argue: “The Jews came here as colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries C.E., there were no Jews in this land prior to that”.

What follows is the Israel News Talk Radio—Beyond the Matrix interview with Dr. Kenneth L. Hanson.

Rod Bryant:  Jerry, we have a guest that we have never had on who is deeply knowledgeable of archeology and history of Israel, Dr. Ken Hanson who can be found on his website, drkenhanson.com. Jerry, why don’t you introduce our guest?

Jerry Gordon: Dr. Ken Hanson is the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Program and Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida. He has taught the history, literature, and cultural legacy of the Jewish people from antiquity to the modern rise of the state of Israel. He has lived in Jerusalem and the Northern Galilee. He earned a master’s degree in International Intercultural Communications and went on to earn a doctorate in Hebrew and Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published multiple books on these topics. He has been on national television and syndicated radio, History Channel, Travel Channel, and the Gaia Network. He holds unique insights on the question of why Israeli Jewish heritage is proven by archaeology.

Rod Bryant: Dr. Hanson is saying is that Israel archaeology destroys the myths of the Arabs in this fantastic book, we are going to discuss, Whose Holy Land? It is a great book that you need to get your hands on and read. You can find it at drkenhanson.com and on Amazon.com. I was able to read the book in such a short amount of time. I would encourage people to read it as it presents a different perspective on what is going on in our world. Dr. Hanson why were you motivated to write Whose Holy Land?

Dr Ken Hanson: I lived in the state of Israel when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago quite a few years ago, finishing up my degree in History. I enrolled in a little institute nestled among the trees on Mount Zion. What a place to live! And during my residence in Israel, I started studying the Hebrew language. They do not mess around in Israel. They make you fluent in a matter of months. Part of my studies, part of my education in those days was to accompany my fellow students out into the field. We were not just sitting in libraries studying books. We did that, but we went out regularly across the length and breadth of the land of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, the so-called West Bank, rummaging through the archeological sites from Jericho to Sichem or Shechem, as it’s often called. It was amazing.

I noticed that we had free access. It was easy to go anywhere we wanted to go in those days. We did notice the presence of Israeli troops, soldiers who were perched on rooftops, just looking over things, because it was obviously a tense situation. I wondered to myself, “Well, why are they there? Are they there because they want to oppress the people somehow, that they are colonialists who were trying to Judaize Arab territory or are they there simply because there are elements of the Palestinian population who want to murder Jews, who want to incite violence, who would like literally to see an end of the Jewish state?

As the years have passed, those places I used to go as a student just are not so available anymore, because this territory has since been passed to the Palestinian authority under the Oslo Peace Process. It dawned on me, “Gee, it’s ironic that the Peace Process hasn’t brought much peace, has it?” We do not have access to those territories. Tourists, if you want to go to Shechem today, especially if you are Jewish or Israeli, you’d better watch out. Now we have a so-called separation wall between the West Bank territories, Judea and Samaria, and the rest of the state of Israel which did not used to exist. What do people imagine that, if a Palestinian state will ever arise in this area, that it is going to be nirvana and kumbaya and men wearing lederhosen will come prancing across the hills yodeling. Is that what it is going to be like? I doubt it. I am not happy to see that separation wall. I would like to see it come down. I would like to see us have access to all the archaeological sites. There is only one way that is going to happen. That is if Israel will extend Israeli sovereignty over areas that are historically Jewish, that have been Jewish for the last 2000, 3000 years and more. The proof of that is right under our feet. We are living on top of the Bible. These are ancient Jewish areas, and all you must do is take a spade and dig down a little bit and you will find it.

Jerry Gordon: Dr Hanson, speaking about that, the subtext of your book is Archaeology Meets Geopolitics in today’s Middle East, what is the significant archeological evidence of the over three Millennia Jewish presence in Israel?

Dr. Hanson: It is everywhere. Somebody said, “You want to learn about America, take a book. You want to learn about the land of Israel, take a shovel.” You dig down and from Jericho to Shechem to Nablus, which is currently a Palestinian city, that is sitting on top of an area that was Jewish. Joseph’s Tomb, Rachel’s tomb, Bethlehem, it is everywhere. All you must do is look. There are ongoing archaeological digs, that are controversial. Beyond that, there are Jews who desire to live in these places where you have had an historical Jewish presence for thousands and thousands of years. Settlements have gone up, some of which have been deemed illegal by the international community. What? It is illegal for Jews to live in their own land. If you are Jewish, you cannot live in Hevron or Hebron.

Now, did Jews come in and literally evict Arabs from their homes? They bought the place where they are living. Nonetheless, these areas are supposed to be devoid of Jews. I hate to employ a Hitlerism Nonetheless, Hitler had a term that the Reich must be judenrein—meaning free of Jews. The word means clean of Jews. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the goal of the Palestinian authority. When a Palestinian state should ever arise in this land, all Jews must leave. The Jewish settlers and settlements must be dismantled. They must leave. Palestine must be judenrein. If they do not leave, what would be the fate of the settlers who have the audacity simply to want to live near the tomb of the patriarchs, where Abraham, at least in tradition, is buried, the other patriarchs and the matriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob? Not a pleasant one. It would not be possible.

Rod Bryant: No. If anything, they would be in peril of their life.

Dr. Hanson: In peril of their life, you are exactly right. That is what the Middle East is facing. Do we want a land which is indeed diverse and multi-cultural, which is what the State of Israel currently is, or do we want apartheid? They talk about Israel being apartheid. That would be true apartheid, a separation of populations and “judenrein for the state of Palestine.” This is Judea and Samaria, and even the term West Bank is a misnomer. West Bank of what? West Bank of the Jordan River. This is an artificial term that was basically invented to de-Judaize these areas. The correct term is in fact Yehuda, Judea v’ Shomron, and Samaria, Yehuda v’ Shomron, Yesha, as it is abbreviated. That is the name of a council of Jewish-Israeli settlers who have gone to various areas in this historic land and simply said, “We want to live here. We will happily live side by side with the Arabs.” The Arabs will not have it.

Rod Bryant: What do you think is the most significant archaeological evidence that points out absolutely 100% that this is Jewish land?

Dr. Hanson: Just a year ago, we had the opening of an archaeological tunnel underneath the ancient City of David, which has been disputed for many years. Was there even such a person as a King David? This is what archaeologists’ debate. Did King David exist? Was he any more historical, say, than King Arthur? Well, this is where archaeology comes in, because for decades now, there has been an underground dig in the area called David’s City, beneath the Arab neighborhood of Silwan, which is in Arab East Jerusalem. That means it is technically over the border of the “green line,” the 1949 Armistice line which artificially divided Jerusalem into Eastern and Western sectors. Now, when a Palestinian state is created, what is the demand? That Jerusalem be divided again along those very borders. What is sitting directly underneath this part of Arab East Jerusalem as they call it, the City of David, and a new tunnel. It was discovered by accident in the year 2004 when a sewage pipeline burst in that part of town. Now, Jerusalem has been united ever since 1967 under Israeli rule, and the Israelis have strict rules themselves as to how to approach anything that happens underground.

Rod Bryant: Dr. Hanson, before the last break, you were talking about the archaeological digs underneath the City of David that have made a significant amount of progress connecting back to the Second Temple era.

Dr. Hanson: And before the Second Temple era. All the way back presumably to the days of the historical King David. A monumental structure literally has been uncovered underground, which certainly was an enormous administrative center in antiquity. The question posed by Israeli archaeologists is, who might have administered such a center? If there were not a King David, who, then, built this massive complex? It is all underground. There are really two Jerusalems. There is one you see, but there is also underground Jerusalem. That is what is so terribly controversial because there are many on the Palestinian side who do not acknowledge that Jews ever lived in the land of Israel. This is the extent of the propaganda that goes forth, even to school children who grow up in the Palestinian authorities. The Jews came here as colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries, there were no Jews in this land prior to that.

I have the actual quotations in my book stating what they claim. Here we go underground, and we find evidence all over the place, ancient seals with Paleo-Hebrew script on them. As I mentioned, the opening of a tunnel in 2019, which itself was hugely controversial because, you are opening a tunnel underneath the peaceful Arab settlement or village of Silwan and producing more international condemnation. Never mind the fact that this has built not only infrastructure, but brought more tourism into the area, increased wealth, prosperity, across the length and breadth of Jerusalem and beyond. I am talking about the Palestinian community, who are living side by side with some of the most productive, ingenious, entrepreneurial people on earth, would want to share in that prosperity. Instead, no, they want to destroy it all, they want literally to crush the State of Israel. They are doing a rather good job because their propaganda, of course, leaks out into the international media and is picked up and reverberated hook, line, and proverbial sinker.

Rod Bryant: What are a few of the myths that the Palestinian Arab Muslims have created over Judea and Samaria?

Dr. Hanson: “There never was a temple. Jews never lived in Judea and Samaria.” What about the ancient city of Jericho? “No, no, Jews were never there.” Never mind that we have archaeological evidence going back to King Herod the Great. We have uncovered an entire palace built by Jewish hands under the tyrannical King Herod the Great. Who was living in this land before that for centuries and centuries, all the way back to Joshua and Jericho? That is hugely controversial, because can we prove that there ever was a Joshua or that the walls came crashing down? All of that is out there. It is debated among archaeologists. However, there is no question that the Jewish heritage of the land has always been present. How about Hebron? The Tomb of the Patriarchs is amazing. This is the oldest place of worship in continuous use from the time that it was constructed back in the Second Temple period and before, until the present day, centuries in continuous use. It is still there today in Hevron or Hebron. And this, in tradition, marks where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob were buried.

Now, the Israelis conquered this territory in essentially a defensive war in 1967; the June 1967 Six-Day War, which started between Israel and Egypt. The Israelis at the time sent a fervent message to King Hussein of Jordan in those days saying, “Stay out of this. This is between us and Egypt and Syria.” What happened? The Jordanians opened cannon fire across the border of what, in those days, was just a truncated state of Israel, because it had lost all its territory in their war of independence of 1948. The Jordanians attacked the Israelis, the Israelis took this territory in a defensive war. It is only about 40 to 50 miles in length from the Israel proper to the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. Judea and Samaria was taken by the Israelis, and that meant not only the Arab East Jerusalem, the most important site in all of Judaism, the Western Wall, but now the second most important site in all of Judaism, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

When the Israelis took it, it wasn’t long until they found an entrance into the underground recesses of that great Herodian tomb, and they actually lowered a little girl, her name was Michal, who was skinny enough to fit down the narrow opening into the underground recesses. I have a photograph of them lowering her in my book. She went down there and started exploring all the caves. There really are caves underneath that tomb. The Bible calls it the Cave of Machpelah, which Abraham purchased from the Canaanites in those days. Michal did a little bit of exploration. Then there was a subsequent clandestine attempt to explore those same subterranean recesses decades later, where they found human bones down there. Whether they are Abraham’s bones is another question. There certainly is a long Jewish heritage, all of that denied. I call it Temple Denial for one thing, and then you have the denial of all Jewish presence in the region.

Rod Bryant: This denial is not coming from a lack of information. It must be a cognitive disconnect that says, “I choose to believe this.”

Dr. Hanson: Exactly. You repeat something frequently enough, that is what propaganda does. I choose to believe what I choose to believe.

Jerry Gordon: It has roots in the myth of Mohammed’s infamous night flight to the farthest mosque as it is known in the Quran. Al-Aqsa. Going back to the wonderful day that liberated Jerusalem during the fifth day of the battle, in the June 1967 Six Days of War when the Temple Mount is seized by Israeli troops. What did Rabbi Goren—who was with the troops—say?

Dr. Hanson: Rabbi Goren was quite prepared to blow up the Dome of the Rock. Israeli authorities said, “No way are you going to do that.” The Israeli general on hand said, “You say that one more time, I’m taking you to jail.” Because this is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina, whatever the historicity or lack of historicity of the Prophet Mohammed’s night ride, where he presumably got on his mystical steed Al-Buraq, and in a single night was transported to the farthest location, which is Al-Aqsa, and set foot on the actual rock on which Ibrahim supposedly sacrificed Isaac. He was taken up to heaven on a ladder of light and met Allah himself, who washed his heart, and then he went back down again and back to Mecca in a single night. The Al-Aqsa mosque was built on the Temple Mount, so was the Golden Dome of the Rock, third holiest site in Islam.

Where was the ancient Jewish temple, which the Palestinians denied? Where was it located? Well, some have thought, it could have been anywhere up on the Temple Mount. It might have been further north of where the Dome of the Rock is. There is good archaeology now that suggests that the Dome of the Rock is sitting exactly on the site of both King Herod’s temple and Solomon’s temple. And Rabbi Goren was saying, “This is our holiest site. This is the rock. This is where our temple should stand. Why don’t we just get rid of the Dome of the Rock?” Well, Israelis, never mind the zealotry, do desire to live in peace and in co-acceptance with Muslims, with Arabs. Obviously, they have done this for years. There is a long history of Jews living in peace and tranquility, rising to high positions under Arab Islamic rule across the Middle East. Look at Maimonides, for example. There is no desire to destroy Islam or a sacred site of Islam. Therefore, the Israelis bent over backwards to respect Islamic sites, to respect Christian sites, to respect all holy sites in the city of Jerusalem and across the entire land. What they did, under General Moshe Dayan, was create an Arab trust on top of the Temple Mount called the Waqf, which gives the Arab Muslims virtual complete control of the Temple Mount.

Rod Bryant: Dr. Hanson, what is your website?

Dr. Hanson: The website is drkenhanson.com. I have links there, not only to Amazon, but to my own YouTube channel where I have created six Judaic Studies courses. All on my own YouTube channel called Treasures in Time.

Rod Bryant: What is contemporary history of the third holiest site in Judaism, Joseph’s Tomb

Dr. Hanson: Joseph’s Tomb is the third holiest site in Judaism after the Temple Mount and the Tomb of the Patriarchs. This is where the venerable ancient Patriarch Joseph with his multi-colored coat was, in tradition, buried. Now, what does the archaeology say? How far back can we trace it? Depends who you listen to, there are a lot of competent archeologists on both sides. We do not know if this was Joseph’s tomb or not. Very possibly not, but we know that there was a Jewish tomb structure built here many centuries ago, back into antiquity, and it is well attested in the sources.

Jews find this an especially important place to come, to pray. They built a yeshiva right on the doorstep of the tomb called the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva, which means “Joseph still lives.” Here is what happened: All this territory was transferred to the Palestinian authority under the Oslo Accords which turned out to be a disaster. It opened the door for all manner of unrest in the region. In September of 1996, Joseph’s Tomb was stormed by a group of rioters and gunmen. This was essentially a modern pogrom, like the pogroms that plagued the European communities for so many centuries.

I have a statement from one of the yeshiva students at the time, his name was Hillel Lieberman. Here is what he said, “After a large demonstration in the central square of Nablus, Arabs began to march on Joseph’s Tomb. Within minutes, the tomb was surrounded, on all sides, by thousands of Arabs who began to pelt the compound with rocks and firebombs. The same Arab policemen, who literally served on the joint patrol with the Israelis, now began firing at the Israeli soldiers with their Kalashnikov machine guns.”

It got worse. Upon entering the yeshiva, they engaged in a pogrom reminiscent of scenes from Kristallnacht when synagogues in Germany were ransacked. Sacred texts were burned by Palestinians or torn to shreds. Tallises or tallitot, Jewish prayer shawls, sacred tefillin or phylacteries were thrown to the ground. Anything of value was pillaged. The yeshiva’s office equipment, the refrigerators, were all stolen. The library was set on fire. Unbelievable. The Israeli army essentially helped to evacuate the area, but why was the Israeli response so tepid?

Probably, because they did not want to incite the situation further. They knew that international condemnation would come down as it always had. The Israelis basically abandoned the third holiest site in Judaism. What a tragedy. Now eventually, Jews have been allowed to return for prayer only. They also attempted to create a settlement in the region, in fact, but the Israelis ordered the settlement demolished.

Jerry Gordon: What can you tell about Rabbi Getz, and his project digging underneath the Temple Mount?

Dr. Hanson: When Israel conquered the areas of Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, what a scene it was, where Israeli paratroopers—the roughest and toughest—are literally throwing themselves against the Western Wall and weeping. Unbelievable. Rabbi Yehuda Getz—Rabbi Emeritus of the Western Wall back in the 1980s—started digging to the north underneath the Arab East Jerusalem, the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. He extended a tunnel that was already there all the way northward along the ancient Herodian Wall.

He got to one area called Warren’s Gate, well below ground, and penetrated it and found himself within a series of subterranean vaulted caverns originally built in the days of King Herod. This is the substructure of the Temple Mount and the Great Jewish Temple that stood on the site that Arabs deny existed. Rabbi Getz was overwhelmed, he threw himself on the ground, he said he was just incapacitated for the longest time. He claimed that he had laid eyes on the Ark of the Covenant that was still nestled down there. But he couldn’t do anything about it because Arabs had heard the digging up above, and sent down through the sewer grates on top of the Temple Mount, a series, a group of stalwart young men who engaged in fisticuffs, actually. There was a virtual underground riot going on and the Israelis, again, did not want to incite anything. They ordered the rabbi to get out of that area, to seal the gate with reinforced concrete, the end of that. We will never know what exactly—

Rod Bryant: —what he thought he saw there.

Dr. Hanson: Right, we will never know. We cannot even conduct archaeology. We cannot even excavate down there because of the Temple denial. In 1996, when that tunnel was finally opened to the public under Netanyahu, he was Prime Minister in those days as well, he found a place on the Via Dolorosa to open the northern end of that tunnel. There was massive rioting across Jerusalem and the West Bank over an archaeological tunnel. Bibi sent in tanks, helicopter gunships, they were throwing stones onto worshippers at the wall. A lot of people were killed in this rioting. That is what is at stake in the Middle East today.

Rod Bryant: I don’t know if you are secular or religious, but there has always appeared—especially for Jews and even Christians—other forces at work in this process. There are forces that do not want the information, the revelations and understanding of finding this archaeological evidence of the temple. There is a force that does not want that to be in the open.

Dr. Hanson: As a Jew by choice, I agree with you. There are forces even beyond this materialistic universe that we see, and we are engaged in something.

Rod Bryant: The reason why that you and I have to continue to beat this drum—and it seems like this is all that Jerry and I talk about over the years—is to bring people the information to be able to make a good, wise choice about the land of Israel, the Jewish people, the Torah . . . you name it. We are trying to do that. Your presentation and book reveals the archaeological evidence supporting ancient Jewish heritage and claims that support the third commonwealth, the State of Israel.

Jerry Gordon: What is your view about the Trump peace plan in terms of ceding more Jewish land to form a Palestinian state?

Dr. Hanson: I think it is a good start. Yes, it does allow for a Palestinian state, which would be a terror state, and I address that in my book as well. But by the same token, we must balance that with the fact that Trump, whatever you think of him, has been the most pro-Israel president that the State of Israel has ever seen. The very idea that the Trump administration is supporting the extension of Israeli sovereignty over a good part of Judea and Samaria, those Israeli settlements, that this area needs to be under Jewish sovereignty, and that has been supported that is a huge development.

Rod Bryant: It is a huge development. Jerry and I have uncovered that Arabs that live in that area do not want to be under PA control, they want to be under Israeli control.

Dr. Hanson: Exactly. If given the choice, yes.

Rod Bryant: Yes, if they are given the choice, why not prosperity? That is what may happen.

Dr. Hanson: Israel could enfranchise the Arab citizens living in Judea and Samaria. It would dilute the Jewish majority in the land of Israel, but it would not eliminate it. There would be no apartheid, Jews would still have a clear majority, it would be a Jewish state.

Rod Bryant: That is going to come. To our listeners and viewers please go to drkenhanson.com. You can order the book on Amazon or from the website, plus there is a plethora of educational videos on his YouTube channel, which you can find from the website.

Dr. Hanson: I have a YouTube channel that will take you there.

Rod Bryant: This has been a fascinating informative discussion with Dr. Hanson about his book, Whose Holy Land? Archeology Meets Geopolitics in Today’s Middle East. To be continued in a future program. To our listeners and viewers, we will see you this time next week. Shalom.

Jerry Gordon: Shalom.

Listen to the Israel News Talk Radio—Beyond the Matrix interview with Dr. Kenneth L. Hanson.

Watch the Netiv-Online YouTube video of the Israel News Talk Radio—Beyond the Matrix interview with Dr. Kenneth L. Hanson.

«Previous Article Table of Contents Next Article»

 

 

____________________________

Jerome B Gordon is a Senior Vice President of the New English Review, author of The West Speaks, NER Press 2012, and co-author of Genocide in Sudan: Caliphate Threatens Africa and the World, JAD Publishing, 2017. Mr. Gordon is a former US Army intelligence officer who served during the Viet Nam era. He is producer and co-host of Israel News Talk Radio—Beyond the Matrix. He was the co-host and co-producer of weekly The Lisa Benson Show for National Security that aired out of KKNT960 in Phoenix Arizona from 2013 to 2016 and co-host and co-producer of the Middle East Round Table periodic series on 1330amWEBY, Northwest Florida Talk Radio, Pensacola, Florida from 2007 to 2017.

 

Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant is creator and host of Israel News Talk Radio—Beyond the Matrix.

Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast