Yesterday, in a newly dug grave, Israeli volunteers buried hundreds of bones found in a two-millennia-old burial cave near Jericho that had apparently been looted. Rachel Bernstein writes:

The cave was . . . exposed by a tractor during illegal agricultural work. The cave’s grottoes were badly damaged, and hundreds of newly severed human bones had been discovered in freshly turned soil. . . .

Haifa University’s Rachel Hachlili, who has extensively studied Jewish necropolises near Jericho, noted during the complex’s initial discovery that these caves constitute the largest Second Temple-era burial ground in Israel. Hundreds of tombs were found in a complex of dozens of burial caves, in which unique inscriptions were uncovered that provided details about the deceased.

The burial complex is believed to be associated with a Hasmonean palace . . . located near Jericho—a place with ideal winter climate not far from Jerusalem. To maintain economic flow to these complexes, the Hasmoneans initiated agricultural projects, which flourished during their time and supported local Jewish communities.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.