Excavating in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem, archaeologists came across what they consider “a very rare find” from the time of the First Temple. Amy Spiro explains:

The limestone cubicle . . . had a carved stone toilet with a hole in the center, positioned over a deep septic tank. The find . . . is believed to belong to an “ancient royal estate” that operated in the 7th century BCE, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) suggested.

“It is fascinating to see how something that is obvious to us today, such as a toilet, was a luxury item during the reign of the kings of Judah,” said Eli Eskosido, director of the IAA. “Jerusalem never ceases to amaze. One can only imagine the breathtaking view.”

Alongside the toilet, archaeologists working at the dig site have uncovered stone capitals that once stood atop columns as well as small architectural columns that once served as railings for windows. Evidence has also been discovered of a garden with fruit trees and other plants that once stood near the toilet cubicle, symbolic of the once “lush mansion.”

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.