The Bible (1 Kings 9:15) mentions Gezer as one of four cities whose walls were built by King Solomon. Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the ruins of Gezer; according to some, the evidence suggests that its walls were indeed Solomonic. But the city’s sophisticated water system is decidedly older, as Henry Curtis Pelgrift writes

[T]he water system at Tel Gezer has now been dated by project archaeologists to a much earlier period [than King Solomon’s day]—the Middle Bronze Age (MBA)—with a date as early as 2000 BCE. In fact, this should not be surprising, since Gezer is also the site of massive fortifications and other structures dating to the MBA—in addition to the Iron Age monumental architecture of biblical fame. . . .

Gezer was originally inhabited in about 3500 BCE. but remained a small settlement until the MBA, when massive fortifications were constructed throughout the site, including stone walls, possibly several stone towers, a glacis, and a large gate on the south side of the west hill. . . . The water system at Tel Gezer was meant to provide a safe means of getting water to Gezer’s inhabitants within the city walls.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.