Near Tel Megiddo—the site of the ancient fortress that gave English the word Armageddon—Israeli archaeologists have recently discovered that what they once thought were the remains of a Roman military outpost were in fact part of a much larger army base including many buildings and its own roads. Gavriel Fiske reports:

The 1,800-year-old site, which has been the subject of several seasons of excavations, is now known to be “a huge, complete camp. It’s not something you find every day, it’s very rare and important,” Dr. Yotam Tepper, lead archaeologist, explained.

The permanent military base housed over 5,000 soldiers of the Roman Legio VI Ferrata, known as the “Sixth Ironclad Legion,” for over 180 years, from 117 or 120 to around 300 CE, the Israel Antiquities Authority said. The Sixth Legion had a storied, centuries-long history in Roman annals, and fought against Judean/Jewish forces during both the Jewish War (66–73 CE) and the Bar Kochba revolt (135–136 CE).

Steve Witkoff, the American special envoy leading negotiations with the Islamic Republic, has sent mixed signals about his intentions, some of them recently contradicted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Michael Doran looks at the progress of the talks so far, and explains why he fears that they could result in an even worse version of the 2015 deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA):

This new deal will preserve Iran’s latent nuclear weapons capabilities—centrifuges, scientific expertise, and unmonitored sites—that will facilitate a simple reconstitution in the future. These capabilities are far more potent today than they were in 2015, with Iran’s advances making them easier to reactivate, a significant step back from the JCPOA’s constraints.

In return, President Trump would offer sanctions relief, delivering countless billions of dollars to Iranian coffers. Iran, in the meantime, will benefit from the permanent erasure of JCPOA snapback sanctions, set to expire in October 2025, reducing U.S. leverage further. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps will use the revenues to support its regional proxies, such as Hizballah, Hamas, and the Houthis, whom it will arm with missiles and drones that will not be restricted by the deal.

Worse still, Israel will not be able to take action to stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons:

A unilateral military strike . . . is unlikely without Trump’s backing, as Israel needs U.S. aircraft and missile defenses to counter Iran’s retaliation with drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles—a counterattack Israel cannot fend off alone.

By defanging Iran’s proxies and destroying its defenses, Israel stripped Tehran naked, creating a historic opportunity to end forever the threat of its nuclear weapons program. But Tehran’s weakness also convinced it to enter the kind of negotiations at which it excels. Israel’s battlefield victories, therefore, facilitated a deal that will place Iran’s nuclear program under an undeclared but very real American protective shield.