In 2007, preparations for building a parking lot near one of the oldest areas of Israel’s capital led to the unearthing of a number of archeological treasures. Since then, extensive excavations have continued to provide surprising discoveries, including channels for holding some sort of liquid that date to the 9th century BCE. Nathan Steinmeyer describes this baffling discovery:

Located in the heart of ancient Jerusalem, the channels are unique within the archaeology of Israel. Consisting of two separate installations, 32 feet apart, the channels are cut into the bedrock of the hillside. The first installation consists of nine channels, smoothed on the inside. The second installation includes at least five channels that were related in some way to an industrial process carried out in the first installation.

As the channels were found near the area of the Temple and the city’s royal administrative quarter, excavators from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Tel Aviv University propose the installations may have been used for industries related to one or both institutions. Currently, the team’s best guess is that they may have been used to soak products or materials, as the channels show no signs of having carried or transported liquid from one area to another.

The mystery only grew deeper when a second installation was found to the south. “This [second] installation consists of at least five channels that transport liquids,” said Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University and the excavation’s other co-director. “Despite some differences in the way the channels were hewn and designed, it is evident that the second installation is very similar to the first. This time, we also managed to date when the facility fell out of use, at the end of the 9th century BCE, during the days of the biblical kings of Judah, Joash and Amaziah. We assume that the two installations may have been used in unison.”

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.