A New Discovery May Solve a Mystery about Israel in the 7th Century BCE

In 701 BCE—according to both the Bible and other ancient sources—the Assyrian king Sennacherib invaded the kingdom of Judah and laid waste to dozens of cities. Among these, it appears, was Beit Shemesh, which archaeologists long assumed was subsequently abandoned. But, in the course of a salvage excavation in preparation for the construction of a new highway through the modern city of Beit Shemesh, the archaeologist Yehuda Govrin has uncovered a vast ruin dating to the 7th century BCE, lying to the east of the ruins of the fortified ancient city. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:

There has been a roadway in this area—where several ancient routes and borders meet—for some 3,000 years. Excavations have revealed human settlement on the archaeological mound since the late Bronze Age. . . . Many of the great characters of the Hebrew Bible also passed through Beit Shemesh, literally the House of the Sun. . . .

Govrin managed to uncover some fifteen olive presses and over 200 “royal” jug handles labeled “for the king.” In addition to thought-provoking artifacts, the excavation offered impressive structures, including what Govrin considers a large administrative center. For Govrin, it was evidence of a large-scale olive oil industry in an area—and era—that was [thought] to be vacant.

Until recently, said Govrin, a research fellow at Hebrew Union College, archaeologists tended to look only at strategic high points for [evidence of] settlement, not the harder-to-defend lowlands. He hypothesized that following the Assyrians’ campaign, fortification was perhaps no longer necessary (or allowed). The Judeans could therefore settle in a more hospitable area, closer to the plaster-covered water cisterns his large team . . . had unearthed.

In discovering the unexpected industrial zone and dozens of houses on the relatively small strip of land, “we solved the central mystery of why it was that we didn’t have evidence of the 7th century” BCE — because archaeologists had searched in the wrong places. “Not only did they settle, but there was a massive settlement,” said Govrin.

Read more at Times of Israel

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Assyria, Hezekiah, History & Ideas

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF