Last Sunday was the fast of Tisha b’Av, which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples—the latter of which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE following a Jewish uprising. This Saturday is the minor holiday of Tu b’Av, which celebrates rebuilding and recovery after a second revolt, led by Simon Bar Kokhba, from 132 to 136 CE. Recently, archaeologist found coins from both uprisings, reports the Times of Israel:

The first coin was discovered on the ground at the Khirbat Jib’it archaeological site, just south of the West Bank town of Duma. It dates back to the Great Revolt, the first Jewish–Roman War in Judea, according to researchers from Bar-Ilan University.

The Khirbat Jib’it coin was minted around 67-68 CE. . . . On one side it bears a vine leaf and the Hebrew inscription ḥerut Tsiyon (the freedom of Zion). The other side is decorated with an amphora and the inscription “Year Two.”

Just one kilometer north, a second coin was found in a cave on the Wadi Rashash cliffs, . . . minted around 134 or 135 CE; it bears a palm branch, possibly a lulav—one of the ritual plants used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot—and a wreath surrounded by the inscription l’ḥerut Y’rushalayim (for the freedom of Jerusalem).

The other side of the Wadi Rashash coin is decorated with a musical instrument, likely a lyre, . . . as well as the inscription “Shimon,” the name of the rebel leader, Shimon Ben Kos’vah, better known as Bar Kokhba.

Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Trump in the White House. High on their agenda will be Iran, and the next steps following the joint assault on its nuclear facilities, as well as the latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza. But there are other equally weighty matters that the two leaders are apt to discuss. Eran Lerman, calling this a White House visit “unlike any before it,” surveys some of those matters, beginning with efforts to improve relations between Israel and the Arab states—above all Saudi Arabia:

[I]t is a safe bet that no White House signing ceremony is in the offing. A much more likely scenario would involve—if the language from Israel on the Palestinian future is sufficiently vague and does not preclude the option of (limited) statehood—a return to the pre-7 October 2023 pattern of economic ventures, open visits at the ministerial level, and a growing degree of discussion and mutual cooperation on regional issues such as Lebanon and Syria.

In fact, writes Lerman, those two countries will also be major conversation topics. The president and the prime minister are likely to broach as well the possible opening of relations between Jerusalem and Damascus, a goal that is

realistic in light of reconstruction needs of this devastated country, all the more destitute once the Assad clan’s main source of income, the massive production and export of [the drug] Captagon, has been cut off. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia want to see Syria focused on its domestic needs—and as much as possible, free from the powerful grip of Turkey. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration, with its soft spot for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will do its part.