Tomorrow is the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, which commemorates the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia. In the books of Jeremiah, Kings, and Chronicles one finds descriptions of the siege, which are among the Hebrew Bible’s many accounts of ancient warfare. But what was it like to fight a war in the ancient Near East? Paul Edgar discusses this subject with Aaron MacLean, along with how his service in the U.S. Army brought him to Israel, his experience studying there, what historians know about this time period, and Middle Eastern geopolitics in the late Bronze Age. (Audio, 43 minutes.)

If there is to be peace, Palestinians will have to unlearn the hatred of Israel they have imbibed during nearly two decades of Hamas rule. This will be a difficult task, but Cole Aronson argues, drawing on the experiences of World War II, that Israel has already gotten off to a strong start:

The population’s compliance can . . . be won by a new regime that satisfies its immediate material needs, even if that new regime is sponsored by a government until recently at war with the population’s former regime. Axis civilians were made needy through bombing. Peaceful compliance with the Allies became a good alternative to supporting violent resistance to the Allies.

Israel’s current campaign makes a moderate Gaza more likely, not less. Destroying Hamas not only deprives Islamists of the ability to rule—it proves the futility of armed resistance to Israel, a condition for peace. The destruction of buildings not only deprives Hamas of its hideouts. It also gives ordinary Palestinians strong reasons to shun groups planning to replicate Hamas’s behavior.