At a ceremony in the part of Jerusalem known as the City of David, a group of prominent Israelis announced the official reopening of an ancient road leading to the Second Temple, discovered in recent archaeological excavations and then restored. Daniel Eisenbud writes:

As rain and sleet poured down, the Sephardi chief rabbi Shlomo Amar, the culture and sport minister Miri Regev, and the mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat stood together several meters under the Givati parking lot in Silwan to light a large silver menorah at the end of the ancient road. . . .

Listening intently as they sat on makeshift wooden benches a few meters away with several members of Knesset were the three Israeli paratroopers immortalized in the iconic 1967 photograph of the liberation of the Western Wall. . . .

The approximately 50-meter roadway, built near the Herodian Pool of Siloam, where pilgrims once immersed themselves [in preparation for visiting the Temple], begins south of the City of David and ends at the foot of the Western Wall’s Robinson’s Arch.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.