Historically, the Indian subcontinent has been home to several separate Jewish communities with distinct origins, but most of their history prior to the 18th century remains shrouded in mystery. The recent discovery in the southern Indian province of Tamil Nadu of an inscribed stone pillar, dated to the 13th century, is a potential source of data on the antiquity of the region’s Jewish population. Aaron Reich writes:

The stone was . . . found by the Ramanathapuram Archaeological Research Foundation president V. Rajaguru. . . . According to Rajaguru, the stone had 50 total inscriptions, though one side of it had its inscriptions destroyed. The text, analyzed by the epigraphist S. Rajagopal, reportedly spoke of a trade guild known as Ainnurruvar constructing Suthapalli in the Ramanathapuram district, specifically in the port village of Periyapattinam, as well as further mentions to the construction of Tharisapalli and Pizharpalli.

First off, the Ainnurruvar were a well-known medieval merchant guild from Tamil Nadu who were one of the most prominent merchant guilds of their era. . . . They also were known to have operated around the same time as the Anjuvannam, another merchant guild that mainly consisted of non-Indian traders, which usually included Arabs and Persians—specifically including Syrian Christians, Muslims, Zoroastrians, and Jews.

Next there is the term Suthapalli. . . . This is important because Suthapalli may actually be pronounced as Yudapalli, due to how the Tamil language works. The suffix -palli means places of worship that were not temples associated with Shaivism and Vaishnavism, with Yudapalli therefore meaning “Jewish place of worship.” This [interpretation] is further supported by other lines in the text.

Currently, despite the long presence of the Cochin Jewish community in the area, the oldest known synagogue in recorded history in southern India was the Kochangadi Synagogue, built in what is believed to have been in the 1340s CE.

Between the explosion of thousands of Hizballah pagers on September 17 and now, Iran’s geopolitical clout has shrunk dramatically: Hizballah, Iran’s most important striking force, has retreated to lick its wounds; Iranian influence in Syria has collapsed; Iran’s attempts to attack Israel via Gaza have proved self-defeating; its missile and drone arsenal have proved impotent; and its territorial defenses have proved useless in the face of Israeli airpower. Edward Luttwak considers what might happen next:

The myth of Iranian power was ironically propagated by the United States itself. Right at the start of his first term, in January 2009, Barack Obama was terrified that he would be maneuvered into fighting a war against Iran. . . . Obama started his tenure by apologizing for America’s erstwhile support for the shah. And beyond showing contrition for the past, the then-president also set a new rule, one that lasted all the way to October 2024: Iran may attack anyone, but none may attack Iran.

[Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s] variegated fighters, in light trucks and jeeps, could have been stopped by a few hundred well-trained soldiers. But neither Hizballah nor Iran’s own Revolutionary Guards could react. Hizballah no longer has any large units capable of crossing the border to fight rebels in Syria, as they had done so many times before. As for the Revolutionary Guards, they were commandeering civilian airliners to fly troops into Damascus airport to support Assad. But then Israel made clear that it would not allow Iran’s troops so close to its border, and Iran no longer had credible counter-threats.

Now Iran’s population is discovering that it has spent decades in poverty to pay for the massive build-up of the Revolutionary Guards and all their militias. And for what? They have elaborate bases and showy headquarters, but their expensive ballistic missiles can only be used against defenseless Arabs, not Israel with its Arrow interceptors. As for Hizballah, clearly it cannot even defend itself, let alone Iran’s remaining allies in the region. Perhaps, in short, the dictatorship will finally be challenged in the streets of Iran’s cities, at scale and in earnest.