In a recent article published in this newspaper, Yisrael Medad inadvertently captured the central crisis facing Israeli archaeology today. In just a few short paragraphs, he demonstrated exactly how the discipline is being hijacked by messianic extremists. These actors are doing everything in their power to weaponize archaeology, transforming it from a scientific tool for understanding the region’s diverse history into a political mechanism to dispossess Palestinians and violate both Israeli and international law.