Looking at the two big news publishers in my country. One isn’t reporting about the current bombings at all, while the other one is phrasing their words mostly anti-Palestinian.

Is there some neutral coverage I can keep up to? Where do you guys get your info from?

  • Hegar
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    8 months ago

    That area, because of so many religions centered on it and/or the power it holds, has been fought over since Solomon’s Temple.

    Nope! Solomon’s temple was built 1000-600 BCE. From then till christianity took over it’s mostly been a backwater, or buffer zone.

    It only seems important because we have writing from people who lived there (the Torah, etc.) saying how important it was (to them), then that writing got the official stamp of truth when the Roman empire took over Christianity.

    To the extent it was fought over, it was mostly because it was between much more important areas - the Egyptians and other powers like the Hittites, Babylonians or Assyrians.

    Even then the neo-babylonians for example seem to have left the region largely depopulated - it’s not like they actually wanted it for any reason

      • Hegar
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        8 months ago

        What happened to the First temple?

        The neo-babylonians sacked Jerusalem, among many other cities and temples. Temples are where much of the wealth and power was kept, sacking the first temple had little to do with the potency of their specific religion. At that time the religion was just the normal Canaanite pantheon.

        Judaism as we think of it, with the covenant between the special people and a single all powerful god - that only begins after the first temple is destroyed and Judah is largely depopulated, around the 500-200BCE time period.

        What happened to the 2nd (actually 3rd) temple

        The Romans destroyed it 70CE. ~600 years between major sacks of your city shows it’s not that important.

        Don’t forget, Crusades anyone?

        Yes, during the medieval period Jerusalem finally starts to become an important goal of religious conflict - 2-2.5 thousand years later than the building of the temple of Solomon