On Sunday, Jews marked the beginning of the three-week period of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Coincidentally, archaeologists have just discovered a coin from 69 CE, minted by Jewish rebels fighting the Romans, in an ancient drainage ditch in Jerusalem. In the following year the Romans would capture the city, crush the rebellion, and destroy the Temple. Yori Yalon writes:

The coin . . . bears an inscription in ‎ancient Hebrew lettering reading “For the redemption ‎of Zion” and a depiction of a chalice. ‎Its other side depicts the “four species” used in the rituals of ‎the Sukkot holiday—the citron fruit, palm frond, and myrtle and willow branches—and the words “year four,” ‎referring to the [fourth] year of rebellion against Rome.‎

“The coin was found exactly in the same place that ‎Jews had been hiding in the drainage channel under ‎the street,” noted Reut Vilf [a representative of the organization overseeing the excavation that unearthed the coin]. Evidence of the rebels’ ‎attempt to hide under the city includes intact oil ‎lamps and ceramic pots that were found whole in the ‎sewer itself.‎

Interpreting the inscription on the coin, Vilf said, ‎‎“Freedom is an immediate thing, while redemption is ‎a process. It could attest to their understanding ‎that the end was near.”

Eli Shukron, an archaeologist with the Israel ‎Antiquities Authority, said, [however], that in all likelihood ‎the coin could [also] have fallen into the drainage system ‎through cracks in the stone-paved road.

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.