Shiloh's Press Coverage

Shiloh figures in two recent press stories:

1. The JTA:

...The settlement tours constitute a packed day. They begin early in the morning, end at sunset, and include stops and conversations at a range of settlements -- large and more urban ones like Ariel, and smaller ones like Kida [Keida], which have sweeping views of the desert unfolding into Jordan. They end with a return to the Israeli side of the Green Line -- the pre-1967 border between Israel and Jordan that demarcates the West Bank.

In the past, when settlers gave tours of Judea and Samaria -- the biblical name for the West Bank -- the focus was on security and the role of their homes as strategic buffers because they sit on the mountain range overlooking the Mediterranean coastal strip to the west and Jordan to the east.

Now a "softer,” more human-interest spotlight has been purposefully chosen, one in which visitors can do a wine tasting at the winery in Psagot, part of a new multimillion-dollar visitors' center for the Binyamin region that is set to open over the Sukkot holiday.

...At the edge of the settlement of Eli, home to 700 families, a woman named Eliana Passentin, 36, stands in her backyard overlooking an expanse of sloping terraced hillsides and speaks of her passion for living alongside the history of the Bible.

Explaining the view, she points out an Arab village whose name in mentioned in the Bible for producing especially fine wine. She also points to the ancient site of Shiloh, where the Ark of the Covenant was once housed, providing the central site for Israelite worship for 400 years.

..."The dining room windows look out onto Shiloh," she said, "and from the living room we can see the site of Judah Macabee's first and then final battle.”

2. The New York Times:

...The scenery was breathtaking even from 8,000 feet, with rolling terraced hills on one side, and the beige landscape of the Jordan Valley on the other.

Between the sprawling Palestinian towns and villages, the settlements, which are considered by much of the world to be a violation of international law, stood out distinctively, neat rows of red-roofed houses often built in concentric circles embracing the hilltops.

Several settlements, like Shiloh and Beit El, were named after biblical landmarks. Many have expanded onto nearby hills, with rows or small knots of mobile homes making up new outposts that are illegal by Israeli standards. Some 300,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, about 11 percent of the population there, according to Peace Now...

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