The “Altar of Joshua” is literally more than 3,000 years old, and it is standing today on a barren mountain in Samaria. It is in danger of being destroyed by anti-Israel Arabs the way that ISIS destroyed archaeological sites across the Middle East in the recent past. It is a new discovery, but it has been uncovered following more than 3,000 years of being covered up.
As Yishai Fleisher accurately points out, it is exactly these kinds of archaeological discoveries that anchor the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel in our rich past in this most ancient of Lands. There is no people that has had a longer connection with a Land than the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.
Any discussion about the rights of Jews or Arabs to the Land of Israel must begin with the Bible. The Bible, handed to the Jewish people on Mt. Sinai around 3,500 years ago in the wilderness outside of the State of Israel, contains the Biblical Promise to the Jewish people. This promise was consummated in the lifetime of Joshua, in the generation following the lifetime of Moses.
The very first place that the Jewish people accepted and reviewed the Covenant between G-d and the Jewish people was in the Land of Shechem, just as Avram (who would later be renamed Abraham) had made his first stop in the Land of Israel at Shechem. Just as Avram would build an altar in Shechem, so too, Joshua and the Jewish people built an altar and consummated the Covenant between G-d and the Jewish people in a powerful ceremony at this spot and in the surrounding mountains. These mountains are clearly seen today from a large sprawling town called Elon Moreh sits in close proximity to these two mountains. On one of these mountains, Har Bracha, literally, the Mountain of Blessing, another sprawling town sits.
The Jewish people have returned and the next chapters of the Bible are being lived today. Th events of today are a fulfillment of so many of the prophecies of the Bible. Moreover, the best proof of the stories of the Bible is being unearthed all over the Land of Israel via amazing archaeological discoveries across the entire Land of Israel.