The Pentagon’s New Mission: Buy More Weapons To Buy More Time

Just before Thanksgiving, Admiral Samuel Paparo unveiled a massive turkey: America’s defense posture in Asia. Paparo became the head of America’s Indo-Pacific Command in May after commanding the Pacific Fleet for three years, and he came to Washington to deliver some bad news. The United States is not keeping pace with the threats facing his forces.

In the nearly three years since Russia attacked Ukraine, Washington has failed to arm U.S. forces or their allies sufficiently. The Replicator Initiative is scrambling to make up for lost time, and peace in Asia will depend on the Pentagon using that time wisely.

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Mondaire Jones Says Israel Must Negotiate West Bank Land Swap for 'Lasting Peace and Security'

Congressional candidate Mondaire Jones (D., N.Y.) said Wednesday that a "land swap" in the West Bank is necessary for Israel to secure peace through a two-state solution. The former congressman also suggested that Israeli settlements there should be dismantled and called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's expansion in the region "inappropriate."

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The West Bank, Once Quiet, Is Now Flooded With Iran-Backed Terror Groups

Iran has spent the last decade quietly smuggling advanced weapons into the West Bank to arm more than two dozen militant factions responsible for a spate of recent terror attacks, experts say, culminating on Wednesday in a massive Israeli military operation to root out Tehran’s proxies.

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'Monumental' fortification that protected Jerusalem's biblical kings discovered, reveals hidden history from 3,000 years ago



Archaeologists have uncovered a "monumental" fortification that protected Jerusalem's biblical kings some 3,000 years ago. The "dramatic" archaeological discovery solved a 150-year-old mystery in the City of David.

Since 2007, archaeologists have been excavating the area around the Givati Parking Lot, the largest active archaeological excavation in Jerusalem today. The excavation site on the northwestern side of the City of David has unearthed different layers of the city's life from the Middle Ages to ancient times.

'The creation of the moat was a large-scale, monumental operation, designed ... to demonstrate the power of Jerusalem’s rulers to those who entered its gates.'

The most recent archaeological find is the remnants of a moat that split the City of David in half — separating the king's palace and Temple Mount from the rest of the city, including the Ophel in Jerusalem.

The fortification aligns with the city's division noted in the Bible as Ophel and Millo. In the first Book of Kings (11:27), King Solomon described a fortification known as Millo.

"And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the City of David his father," the Bible verse reads.

Archaeologists had been searching for the route of Jerusalem's northern fortification for 150 years. However, the recent excavation finally solved the riddle and revealed a city-dividing moat with unclimbable perpendicular cliffs on both sides.

“It is not known when the moat was first dug, but it is clear that it was used during the centuries when Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah – almost 3,000 years ago, starting from the days of King Josiah,” said Tel Aviv University professor Yuval Gadot and Israel Antiquities Authority’s Dr. Yiftach Shalu.

The archaeologists added, “During those years, it divided between the extension of the city that spread to the south and was served as the residence of the people of Jerusalem and the Acropolis – the upper city, which was where the palace and the temple were located and stood on the Temple Mount, to the north.”

“The connection of the two exposed sections creates a deep and wide trench that stretches across About 70 meters at least, from west to east,” Gadot noted. “Following the dramatic discovery, we reexamined the past excavations reports written by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who excavated in the City of David in the 1960s, in an area located slightly east of today’s Givati Parking Lot.”

Gadot said the "dramatic discovery" has opened up a "renewed discussion of terms from biblical literature that relate to the topography of Jerusalem," which includes Ophel and Millo.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said of the engineering efforts involved in the moat's construction, “The creation of the moat was a large-scale, monumental operation, designed to change and modify the natural topography to demonstrate the power of Jerusalem’s rulers to those who entered its gates.”

Israel Antiquities Authority Director Eli Escusido said in a press release, "The excavations in the City of David never cease to amaze; once again, discoveries are being revealed that shed new and vivid light on the biblical literature. When you stand at the bottom of this giant excavation, surrounded by enormous hewn walls, it is impossible not to be filled with wonder and appreciation for those ancient people who, about 3,800 years ago, literally moved mountains and hills."

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Archaeological discovery backs up epic battle from 2,700 years ago documented in the Bible



An archaeological discovery has seemingly corroborated an epic battle that took place some 2,700 years ago and is documented in the Bible.

King Sennacherib's Assyrian troops attempted a siege of Jerusalem approximately 2,700 years ago. King Hezekiah of Judah allegedly prayed for a miracle to save the city from being captured.

As per the Bible, an "angel of the Lord" descended on the invading Assyrian troops attempting to besiege Jerusalem. The "angel of the Lord" allegedly "struck down" 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a single night. Sennacherib – the king of Assyria – realized the devastation and was forced into a military retreat. The "angel of the Lord" allegedly prevented an Assyrian conquest of Jerusalem, according to accounts detailed in 2 Kings 19:35 and Isaiah 37:36.

2 Kings 19:35:

"And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."

Historical records do indicate that there was an attempted Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. However, Sennacherib's Annals claim that Assyrian troops returned to Assyria after receiving tribute from King Hezekiah. He was purportedly allowed to stay in power as a vassal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire – which included present-day Iraq, as well as parts of Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Kuwait.

Archaeologists had previously discovered a scene carved into the stone walls of King Sennacherib's palace, which displayed the Assyrian conquest of Lachish – a city 42 miles south of Jerusalem. The carvings showed how the Assyrian military bases were laid out.

Archaeologist Stephen Compton carefully examined these ancient engravings to determine the locations of ancient military camps set up by King Sennacherib in the Levant.

Compton wrote a peer-reviewed paper titled "The Trail of Sennacherib’s Siege Camps," which was recently published in the journal Near Eastern Archaeology. In the paper, Compton mapped out the likely locations for the ancient Assyrian military camps, from around 700 B.C.

Compton utilized aerial photographs of Lachish from World War II, landscape images, satellite imagery, onsite surveys, ancient pottery, and archaeological data to create a virtual map of Sennacherib's camps.

After Sennacherib's invasion of Lachish, the ruins near the city were abandoned for approximately 2,600 years. The ancient Arabic name for the ruins was "Khirbet al Mudawwara," meaning "The Ruins of the Camp of the Invading Ruler." Based on the discovery of pottery sherds from a period of prehistory known as the Chalcolithic, Compton suspects that the ruins were an Assyrian military camp used for the invasion and then abandoned after the city was conquered.

There was similar ruins north of Jerusalem, which was on a hill that was known in Arabic as "Jebel el Mudawwara," or "The Mountain of the Camp of the Invading Ruler."

Some archaeologists believed the ruins were a Roman military camp built by Titus during the later Roman invasion of Jerusalem. However, Compton noted that Roman military camps were always rectangular, but Assyrian military camps were an oval shape.

"We knew it was an oval. What I did was I took the image of the relief and match it up with recognizable features in the landscape with the actual landscape and overlayed the two," Compton told Fox News. "I used earlier photographs of the landscape from World War II, right before major changes were made. And it was a match."

Using the location of the military camps, Compton said that he had determined the location of two lost ancient cities – Libnah and Nob, Both cities were known to have been conquered by the Assyrians, but whose exact locations were uncertain. Nob was described as a "city of priests" near Jerusalem in 1 Samuel 22:19. Compton said Nob "held the tabernacle, the holiest site in Judaism prior to the construction of the temple."

Compton – an independent scholar specializing in Near Eastern archaeology – believes that the sites of the Assyrian military camps tell the story of where Sennacherib's armies invaded and conquered. He concluded that the discovery of the military camps proves that King Sennacherib's infamous siege of Jerusalem did happen.

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FACT CHECK: Video Claims To Show Robbery Gone Bad In Brazil

'The video shows two Palestinian teenagers attacking Israeli police officers in Jerusalem before being shot in 2019. One of them died, and he other was hospitalized

Biden Admin Won’t Say if West Bank Sanctions Apply to Jews Living in Jerusalem

The Biden administration will not say if its decision to impose sanctions on Israelis it accuses of committing human rights abuses in the West Bank will apply to those living in Jerusalem, leaving open the possibility that Jews living in Israel's capital city will be targeted with punitive measures.

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J Street Founder Had ‘Open Door’ to Deputy Secretary of State, Internal Emails Show

The founder of J Street, a leading anti-Israel group, had an "open door" to the Biden State Department and coordinated with top administration officials—including former deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman—to stymie political activity in Jerusalem, according to internal government emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

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FACT CHECK: Posts About Palestinian Teenager Shot In Israel Are Missing Context

Video shows the teenager attempting to stab a police officer before he was shot