Jerusalem As A Nincompoop's Non-Capital

 A professor emeritus of geography, Gideon Biger, wrote this:

Once again Jerusalem Day arrived, and once again the prime minister repeated the clichéd mantra: “Jerusalem was and is the capital city of the Jewish people only.”
Is that really so – or is Benjamin Netanyahu, known for historic declarations that do not always accord with the historical truth, once again mistaken and misleading the masses?
Jerusalem, according to scientific research, has existed for about 4,000 years. During the first 1,000 years it had no connection to the Jewish people. Even in the Bible, the Book of Genesis tells about Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who came out to bless Abraham, who had no connection to Jerusalem. During the time of the patriarchs, Jerusalem did not figure in their activity at all. Even when the Israelites were in Egypt, Jerusalem was never mentioned, and when they wandered in the desert they spoke about the Land of Canaan – but not about Jerusalem.
The conquest of "the land" by Joshua, son of Nun, did not include taking over Jerusalem. It was actually the king of Jerusalem who organized the coalition of five monarchs against Joshua, and at the time the city was apparently the capital of another nation, not the Israelites.
The conquest of Jerusalem by the tribe of Judah, following the death of Joshua, led to the burning of the city rather than to settlement of the tribe there. Later on it was inhabited by the Jebusites, and only 1,000 years after its establishment did King David capture the city and turn it into his capital...

There's more here.

Some comments from friends of mine:

What a staggeringly dumb article.


Come On.  Everyone knows the Capital of the Jews is Boca Raton


"During the time of the patriarchs, Jerusalem did not figure in their activity at all." Are there alternative theories about where Mt Moriah was? Some traditions have an alternative site near Mecca. So yeah - checkmate.


Which is where Abraham offered his son Yishmael as a sacrifice to God.


so David conquered Jerusalem only 3000 years ago. Jews were here through all that time except for periods when various conquerors specifically prevented Jews from being here, as after the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in the period after Constantine up to the Arab conquest [see, the Arabs did something good, they let Jews come back to Jerusalem] and during the Crusader period. Again, since 1000  BCE, Jews/Israelites were always here except when specifically excluded.

As to the Temple Mount, it is identified in the Bible as Mt Zion. Today's Mt Zion outside the Zion Gate takes its name from a Byzantine church there called the Nea Sion [its ruins are next to the parking lot in the Jewish Quarter]. This is not the original Mt Zion. As to Mt Moriah I don't think anybody knows where it is/was.   The practice of naming Mt Zion/Temple Mt/ as Mt  Moriah started with the Talmud, not the Bible.


Ridiculous.  By this standard, nobody on earth has a valid capital city.


Did Biger get paid to write this?


Embarrassingly stupid. Perhaps he can explain why it appears 669 times in the Tanakh (not counting other equivalent references such as Zion).



How long has Paris  been capital of the French? 2000 years ago, Paris was called Lutetia and was small settlement on a mud spit in the middle of the Seine river. It may have become the capital about 1000 years ago, roughly speaking. But 2000 years ago nobody called the country France, it was just Gaul. Cairo did not exist 2000 years ago. Damascus did exist 2000 years ago, but the people there did not speak Arabic and were not Arabs (there were probably some Arabs around). There was no Tunis and no Algiers.


^