In the early days of Israel’s War of Independence, Arab forces managed to cut off Jerusalem, then home to about 100,000 Jews, from the rest of the country. Moshe Levin—a recent immigrant from the U.S. working as a correspondent for United Press and the Palestine Post—took a number of color photographs of everyday life in the city during the subsequent siege, which can now be found at the National Library of Israel. As in biblical sieges of Jerusalem, the residents faced shortages of food and water. In this photograph, Marlin’s wife Betty and another woman give half a loaf of bread to a monk in exchange for water.

Other photographs, together with historical background provided by Amit Naor, can be found at the link below.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.