News From Israel- October 04, 2021

ILTV Israel News

Did the destruction of this Middle Bronze Age city inspire the story of Sodom?

ARIELLA MARSDEN

Archaeologists investigated the destruction of Tall el-Hammam and discovered an event similar to the description of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

‘THE DESTRUCTION Of Sodom And Gomorrah,’ John Martin, 1852 / (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Tell el-Hammam in the Jordan Valley might have inspired the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, according to a new study that has spanned 15 years.

In the study, published in the journal Nature on Monday, archaeologists researched the remains of Tell el-Hammam in an attempt to discover what destroyed the ancient city during the Middle Bronze Age.

During the period, there were roughly 50,000 people living in the area of the Jordan Valley in three cities: Tell el-Hammam, Jericho, and Tell Nimrin, with Tell el-Hammam the biggest of the three, implying that until its destruction, it would have been the political center of the area.

Radiocarbon dating dates the destruction to within 50 years of 1650 BCE.
Examination of the remains revealed evidence of a destructive event that involved high temperatures, such as pottery pieces that were melted and boiled on the exterior, but normal on the inside.

The buildings of Tell el-Hammam were made of mud bricks, some five stories tall. In the upper part of the city, the destructive force demolished the buildings to the height of their foundations in the walls, and little mud-brick remained. Of the palace that was in this part of the city, the first floor walls and the upper stories are missing, and most of the mud-brick was pulverized.

In the lower part of the city, the buildings suffered more severe damage, and researchers found evidence of heat-fracturing in the remains.

The towers in the wall that surrounded the city were also destroyed, with mud-brick remains only existing at the height of the towers’ foundation.
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An asteroid is seen falling to Earth, breaking apart in the atmosphere (illustrative). (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

To try to discover what could have caused this destruction, the researchers compiled a list of possible events and tested their probability relative to the evidence found at the site.

They initially examined the possibility of a fire, warfare, volcanic eruption, earthquake or lightning, but concluded that these events were unlikely to cause the kind of destruction that they found at the site, because none could have produced the intense heat required to cause the melting that they found.

Having dismissed these events, the researchers turned to two other possibilities: cosmic impact or a cosmic airburst.
The consequences of a crater-forming cosmic impact matched all the evidence found by the archaeologists, but it was dismissed as unlikely because no crater was found in the area.

The most likely cause of destruction was a cosmic airburst caused by a comet or meteorite. The consequences of such an event also match the evidence found by the researchers, and using an impact calculator, they were able to estimate the details of the event, which also involved the shock wave hitting Jericho that was burned to the ground.

It can be assumed that the event that destroyed Tell el-Hammam would have been witnessed and recounted through the generations until the time of the biblical Sodom, at which point the event would have been an inspiration for the story, which tells of stones and fire falling from the sky to destroy the city.

Iran could have a nuclear weapon in 1 month – report

ERUSALEM POST STAFF

Iran has reportedly not been this close to nuclear capability since before the nuclear accord in 2015.

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AN IRANIAN FLAG is pictured near in a missile during a military drill, with the participation of Iran’s air defense units in October. (West Asia News Agency/Reuters) / (photo credit: WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY/REUTERS)

Iran could have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb within one month, according to a report published on Monday by the Institute for Science and International Security.

The institute estimated, in a worst-case scenario, that in as little as a month Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear weapon. In three months it could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a second weapon and in five months a third.

Iran already has 200 grams of enriched uranium metal, which is a key element for the production of nuclear weapons.

The late Wednesday report by ISIS – also known as the “good ISIS” – would not mean the Islamic Republic could fire a nuclear weapon, as this requires additional tasks relating to detonation and delivery, but if correct, it would mean Tehran is at a new nuclear threshold where all that is needed is the political decision.

This dire prediction by the think tank came with criticism of the IAEA’S latest deal with Iran on Sunday in which a new dialogue was opened with Iran’s new government over nuclear issues, but without Tehran stopping its 60% enrichment violation of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
Since April, the Islamic Republic jumped its enrichment from 5% and 20% to the 60% level, which is considered only one level down from the 90% weaponized level.

At lower levels, Iran has in fact had sufficient quantity for multiple nuclear bombs for several months.

However, what was most significant about the report was that it was laid out in quantitative scientific terms based on IAEA reports itself, as opposed to the sometimes more vague statements by Israeli or other politicians.

RALLYING AGAINST the Iran nuclear deal on Capitol Hill in Washington, 2015. (credit: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS)

Critics will note that the think tank’s founder David Albright is a hawk on Iran issues, but the report is based on IAEA data.

The report concluded that all Iranian moves are designed to pressure the US into concessions in the nuclear negotiations which broke down between May-June and have been totally frozen since new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was elected.

The current and former Israeli governments both oppose a return to the JCPOA without massive changes to fill holes whereas the Biden administration has moved aggressively to return to the deal.

To date, Biden administration officials have vaguely threatened that their patience for Iran to return to the negotiating table was not limitless, but have avoided any actual deadline.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated back in August that Iran was two months away from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Ten minutes of exciting Jewish Hasidic music in front of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem

Zahi Shaked. Israeli tour guide צחי שקד. מורה דרך

UAE Sees $1 Trillion in Trade With Israel Over Next Decade, Says Minister of Economy

Sharon Wrobel

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed display their copies of signed agreements as they participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbors, in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, US, September 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner/

The United Arab Emirates expects economic activity with Israel to grow to more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

“We have $600 to $700 million dollars of bilateral trade happening, we have funds of billions of dollars that have been announced jointly between the two countries, we are moving into so many areas of economic opportunities,” said UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq. “We are looking to create over $1 trillion dollars of economic activity over the next decade.”

Talking at a public event marking the one-year anniversary of the normalization of ties between Israel and the UAE, Bin Touq said that the Gulf power has signed over 60 memorandums of understanding with the Jewish state. The UAE and Bahrain last year agreed to formalize their diplomatic ties with Israel under the so-called “Abraham Accords” brokered with the help of the Trump administration.

One of the investments cited by Bin Touq was the $1 billion stake in an Israeli gas field by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum. The UAE also sees renewable energy opportunities in Israel as well as investments coming from a recently signed agreement on food and agritech technologies.

According to figures from the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce (FICC), the trade volume between Israel and the UAE jumped to $523.2 million in the first six months of this year from about $189 million during the full-year of 2020. Since the normalization of ties between the two nations, about 200,000 Israelis have visited the UAE.

In the coming years, the UAE will focus on trade with Israel in the fields of health, food security, climate change, technology, defense and energy, according to Bin Touq.

“In the next couple of years we are going to see more influx of trade between the two countries. It’s important to say that the opportunities after COVID-19 are endless,” he remarked.

Bin Touq also acknowledged as one of the achievements since the accords were signed, that Israel and the UAE have opened embassies and appointed ambassadors in each other’s countries.

“There is no doubt that the UAE and Israel have a lot of opportunities economically but the peace that comes with the code is something which is very important,” he said.

Speaking at an event to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the United States is committed to “strengthening and expanding” on these agreements.

“That means pushing for more headway among those who have already signed the agreements, such as those here at the table and Sudan, and also reaching additional agreements with more Arab and Muslim countries to extend the circle of peace,” Thomas-Greenfield added.