The Mysteries of Jerusalem’s Ancient Moat

Dec. 26 2023

Located just south of the Temple Mount, the City of David is the oldest part of Jerusalem; its original buildings predated King David’s conquest of the city, described in the book of Samuel, by hundreds of years. The area has yielded countless archaeological discoveries, including most recently the remains of a moat separating the city from the Temple Mount, which dates at least to the 10th century BCE (the putative era of David and Solomon), and possibly as far back as the beginning of the second millennium BCE. Nathan Steinmeyer writes:

The moat would have provided a natural defense against enemies attacking Jerusalem from the north. Notably, the moat’s southern scarp is cut at a vertical angle while its northern scarp was made into a series of rock terraces. Such a defensive structure would have been very important, as the southern ridge (the City of David) sits at a slightly lower elevation than the area of the Temple Mount. . . . It remains unclear, however, where exactly ancient Jerusalem was located and, as such, whether the moat had a defensive function or served some other purpose.

It seems more apparent, however, that by the 9th century BCE, the moat had come to serve as a physical barrier . . . to separate Jerusalem’s acropolis from its lower city. This barrier appears to have remained in place until the late 2nd century BCE, when it was finally filled in and covered over to allow for new construction.

Read more at Bible History Daily

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Jerusalem

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023