What Did the Temple Mount Look Like during the Reign of Herod?

The Second Temple was built in Jerusalem by returnees from Babylonian exile around 516 BCE. Some 500 years later, King Herod undertook a program of large-scale renovations and expansions, which included the still-standing Western Wall. As part of a series of depictions of the Mount throughout ancient times, the archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer has created drawings of the results. He writes:

Herod extended the Hasmonean Temple Mount in three directions: north, west, and south. At the northwest corner he built the Antonia Fortress and in the south, the magnificent Royal Stoa. In 19 BCE [he] began the most ambitious building project of his life, the rebuilding of the Temple and the Temple Mount in lavish style. . . . Today’s Temple Mount boundaries still reflect this enlargement.

Read more at Ritmeyer Archaeological Design

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Herod, Jerusalem, Second Temple, Temple Mount

The Mass Expulsion of Palestinians Is No Solution. Neither Are Any of the Usual Plans for Gaza

Examining the Trump administration’s proposals for the people of Gaza, Danielle Pletka writes:

I do not believe that the forced cleansing of Gaza—a repetition of what every Arab country did to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews in 1948— is a “solution.” I don’t think Donald Trump views that as a permanent solution either (read his statement), though I could be wrong. My take is that he believes Gaza must be rebuilt under new management, with only those who wish to live there resettling the land.

The time has long since come for us to recognize that the establishment doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do about Gaza. Egypt doesn’t want it. Jordan doesn’t want it. Iran wants it, but only as cannon fodder. The UN wants it, but only to further its anti-Semitic agenda and continue milking cash from the West. Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians blame Palestinians for destroying their countries.

Negotiations with Hamas have not worked. Efforts to subsume Gaza under the Palestinian Authority have not worked. Rebuilding has not worked. Destruction will not work. A “two-state solution” has not arrived, and will not work.

So what’s to be done? If you live in Washington, New York, London, Paris, or Berlin, your view is that the same answers should definitely be tried again, but this time we mean it. This time will be different. . . . What could possibly make you believe this other than ideological laziness?

Read more at What the Hell Is Going On?

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Palestinians