In the Bible’s telling, the Israelites, after leaving Egypt, traveled through the Sinai Peninsula into what is now Jordan, and from there entered Canaan from the east. While there is scant archaeological evidence to support this narrative, scholars are divided on what that absence implies; after all, nomads who wandered through an area for a generation or two wouldn’t leave much behind. New excavations, however, may reveal traces of just such evidence, as Philippe Bohstrom and Ruth Schuster write:

[A]rchaeologists are excavating strange ruins previously found in inhospitable parts of the Jordan Valley, hoping to prove or disprove the theory suggested by the late Adam Zertal of Haifa University: that the stone structures found there were erected by the ancient Israelites as they slowly crossed into Canaan 3,200 years ago. Interestingly, if the Israelites did build these structures, they may have done so to shelter not themselves but their livestock. . . .

[A] meticulous survey of 1,000 square miles of the western part of the Valley, headed by Zertal and his team from 1978 onward, found the remains of hundreds of ancient settlements. (One seems to be shaped like a foot, with toes and all.) Of the hundreds, Zertal estimated that about 70 had been erected in the early Iron Age. That is, about 3,200 years ago, which is when the ancient Israelites were said to have been led by the Prophet Joshua from the wilderness to fertile Canaan. . . .

No signs of the builders’ identity have been found thus far. The only reasons to associate the structures in the bitterly inhospitable valley with the ancient Israelites are their location and the estimated timing of their erection. [The current excavation] began with a large and very strange settlement called Khirbet el-Mastarah (loosely translated as “hidden ruins”). While today the only sign of life there is the occasional Bedouin shepherd passing by with his herd, Mastarah seems to have once housed a large Iron Age village. . .

[Oddly], no sign of human habitation was found inside the stone structures, with the exception of grain grinding stones that could have been placed there later, or kept there. [This could be because] the structures were occupied by people for a short time, which fits with the theory of a migratory people taking a break for a decade or two. [Another] possibility is that stone structures were for the animals, while the people themselves, being nomads, lived in tents. . . . Ancient and modern Near Eastern Bedouin . . . also seem to have lived in tents but to have housed their animals in stone compounds—to protect their precious livestock from rustlers.

Analyzing the recent direct Iranian attack on Israel, and Israel’s security situation more generally, Michael Oren looks to the 2015 agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. That, and President Biden’s efforts to resurrect the deal after Donald Trump left it, are in his view the source of the current crisis:

Of the original motivations for the deal—blocking Iran’s path to the bomb and transforming Iran into a peaceful nation—neither remained. All Biden was left with was the ability to kick the can down the road and to uphold Barack Obama’s singular foreign-policy achievement.

In order to achieve that result, the administration has repeatedly refused to punish Iran for its malign actions:

Historians will survey this inexplicable record and wonder how the United States not only allowed Iran repeatedly to assault its citizens, soldiers, and allies but consistently rewarded it for doing so. They may well conclude that in a desperate effort to avoid getting dragged into a regional Middle Eastern war, the U.S. might well have precipitated one.

While America’s friends in the Middle East, especially Israel, have every reason to feel grateful for the vital assistance they received in intercepting Iran’s missile and drone onslaught, they might also ask what the U.S. can now do differently to deter Iran from further aggression. . . . Tehran will see this weekend’s direct attack on Israel as a victory—their own—for their ability to continue threatening Israel and destabilizing the Middle East with impunity.

Israel, of course, must respond differently. Our target cannot simply be the Iranian proxies that surround our country and that have waged war on us since October 7, but, as the Saudis call it, “the head of the snake.”