In 2009, archaeologists in Tiberias discovered a large basalt door with a seven-branched menorah carved into it. Although the style of the door and the carving were typical of Jewish tombs built between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE, the carving became part of a staircase in a complex built much later by Crusaders. Now the archaeologists have a theory of how it got there, writes Amanda Borschel-Dan:

Following the Muslim conquest in 635 CE, [Tiberias] became a seat for the early caliphate. It was during this period, said the excavation’s leader Katya Tzitrin Silverman, that the menorah door was reused as the base of a mosque, which was built on an earlier mosque. . . . [I]t is clear that the use of this door by the Muslims in building a mosque was highly intentional. The mosque, she said, also contained reused pagan and Christian pillars, which were put on display as corner pieces.

These materials taken for intentional secondary use are called “spolia.” . . . They are trophies, a way of clearly stating, “We’re building our structure on the backs of those who came before us,” [Silverman] said. “There is an expression of victory and inheritance” in their use, she said.

Interestingly . . . there was a church located next to the mosque which used the spolia. According to an inscription found at the church’s nave, it was still in use until at least the 10th century.

The mosque that was built upon the menorah was destroyed in an earthquake in 1068. Subsequently, its building materials were reused by the Crusaders and so the menorah became the decoration for a staircase in a room in a sugar factory.

Yasir Arafat was often quoted as saying that his “strongest weapon is the womb of an Arab woman.” That is, he believed the high birthrates of both Palestinians and Arab Israelis ensured that Jews would eventually be a minority in the Land of Israel, at which point Arabs could call for a binational state and get an Arab one. Using similar logic, both Israelis and their self-styled sympathizers have made the case for territorial concessions to prevent such an eventuality. Yet, Yoram Ettinger argues, the statistics have year after year told a different story:

Contrary to the projections of the demographic establishment at the end of the 19th century and during the 1940s, Israel’s Jewish fertility rate is higher than those of all Muslim countries other than Iraq and the sub-Saharan Muslim countries. Based on the latest data, the Jewish fertility rate of 3.13 births per woman is higher than the 2.85 Arab rate (since 2016) and the 3.01 Arab-Muslim fertility rate (since 2020).

The Westernization of Arab demography is a product of ongoing urbanization and modernization, with an increase in the number of women enrolling in higher education and increased use of contraceptives. Far from facing a “demographic time bomb” in Judea and Samaria, the Jewish state enjoys a robust demographic tailwind, aided by immigration.

However, the demographic and policy-making establishment persists in echoing official Palestinian figures without auditing them, ignoring a 100-percent artificial inflation of those population numbers. This inflation is accomplished via the inclusion of overseas residents, double-counting Jerusalem Arabs and Israeli Arabs married to Arabs living in Judea and Samaria, an inflated birth rate, and deflated death rate.

The U.S. should derive much satisfaction from Israel’s demographic viability and therefore, Israel’s enhanced posture of deterrence, which is America’s top force- and dollar-multiplier in the Middle East and beyond.