Historians are fortunate to have a wealth of material composed by medieval Jews that has been preserved through the centuries. But since most of these writings are rabbinic commentaries, legal analyses, and philosophy, they provide little information of the kind historians are often most eager to find out. The exception is the extraordinary 12th-century travelogue of Benjamin of Tudela, whom Tamar Marvin describes as “one of the most famed . . . of all premodern travelers,” Jewish or otherwise:

His account of his travels, known as Sefer Masa’aot (“The Book of Journeys”) or, more commonly, Masa’aot Binyamin (“Benjamin’s Journeys”), has been translated into Jewish and many European languages, and serves as a source for many other premodern historiographers and chroniclers, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. His dispassionate and factually oriented recollections are of primary importance to understanding medieval Jewish communities in Europe, especially in Provence, as well as in the East, especially Constantinople, Eretz Yisrael, and Baghdad.

Departing from his home in Navarra (Navarre), a kingdom in northern Spain, Benjamin traveled overland through the south of France (Provence, in medieval Jewish parlance), then south through Italy to Naples and other southern Italian cities. He departed by sea from Otranto, the site of an old Jewish community, setting sail for Greece and then Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). He entered the Land of Israel from the north, first visiting the ancient cities of Antioch, Sidon, and Tyre before arriving in Akko (Acre).

After visiting sites around the Land of Israel, he traveled to Damascus, Aleppo, and Baghdad. Benjamin traveled extensively through the region of Iraq and seems to have also spent time in Persia. His accounts of Persia, and even more so of India, Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka), and China, contain legendary material; he presumably did not himself reach Southeast and/or East Asia. From Persia, Benjamin evidently traveled through Arabia, probably sailing around the peninsula, and gives an account of Egypt and his journey home by sea via Palermo, Sicily.

With the IDF engaged in ground maneuvers in both northern and southern Gaza, and a plan about to go into effect next week that would separate more than 100,000 civilians from Hamas’s control, an end to the war may at last be in sight. Yet there seems to be no agreement within Israel, or without, about what should become of the territory. Efraim Inbar assesses the various proposals, from Donald Trump’s plan to remove the population entirely, to the Israeli far-right’s desire to settle the Strip with Jews, to the internationally supported proposal to place Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA)—and exposes the fatal flaws of each. He therefore tries to reframe the problem:

[M]any Arab states have failed to establish a monopoly on the use of force within their borders. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan all suffer from civil wars or armed militias that do not obey the central government.

Perhaps Israel needs to get used to the idea that in the absence of an entity willing to take Gaza under its wing, chaos will prevail there. This is less terrible than people may think. Chaos would allow Israel to establish buffer zones along the Gaza border without interference. Any entity controlling Gaza would oppose such measures and would resist necessary Israeli measures to reduce terrorism. Chaos may also encourage emigration.

Israel is doomed to live with bad neighbors for the foreseeable future. There is no way to ensure zero terrorism. Israel should avoid adopting a policy of containment and should constantly “mow the grass” to minimize the chances of a major threat emerging across the border. Periodic conflicts may be necessary. If the Jews want a state in their homeland, they need to internalize that Israel will have to live by the sword for many more years.