Long before Slavs settled the northern coast of the Black Sea, Greek merchants established towns and communities there. Archaeologists have recently uncovered the remains of an ancient synagogue in one of these colonies, known as Phanagoria. Aristos Georgiou reports:

The synagogue is rectangular, measuring just under 70 feet by 20 feet, containing two chambers each about 650 square feet. The walls were adorned with paintings and tiles, the archaeologists said. Inside, they found marble menorahs, liturgy tables, the remains of marble columns, and fragments of marble stelae—upright stone slabs bearing inscriptions or illustrations.

One stela dated to the 5th century CE bears an inscription in Greek that reads “synagogue.” This, along with earlier discoveries at Phanagoria, including marble tablets inscribed with “house of prayer” and “synagogue” dated to 16 CE and 51 CE, respectively, indicates that the synagogue is one of the world’s oldest.

The researchers said the house of worship was likely in use from at least the early 1st century CE—about 2,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of synagogues dates to the 3rd century BCE, although their construction appears to have experienced a notable increase toward the 3rd century CE. . .  An analysis of artifacts at the synagogue indicates that it stood for more than 500 years, meaning it existed until the middle of the 6th century when Phanagoria was pillaged and devastated by local barbarian tribes.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.