Israeli researchers, using sophisticated imaging technology first developed by the American aerospace program, have deciphered the text on heretofore illegible fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ruth Schuster and Nir Hasson explain:

For the sake of posterity, digitalization, and research, all [the scrolls] are being photographed in high resolution under different types of light, which among other things brings previously unseen writing invisible to the naked eye, as well as some ink stains, to light. [One fragment’s] handwriting differs from previously found scroll fragments, [the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Oren] Ableman explains. Its uniqueness leads him to speculate that there may be a whole scroll that has disappeared, or at any rate, not been found yet. . . .

The writing on many of these fragments is just a few letters rather than complete words or sentences. Even so, Ableman could tell which scrolls most of the fragments were from, generally speaking. . . .

[The one exception] is written in ancient paleo-Hebrew, which could not be attributed to any one of the known manuscripts. This raises the possibility that it belonged to a still unknown manuscript. [Researchers] haven’t done carbon-dating on the fragment, but this form of blocky paleo-Hebrew was the script commonly used in the First Temple period. That said, some scrolls were still being written using that ancient script in the late Second Temple period. Even among the paleo-Hebrew fragments, there are signs that help the researchers distinguish differences between First Temple and Second Temple texts, and certain features of the handwriting indicate that this fragment dates to the late Second Temple period.

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.”