Two Historical Thoughts

When you go on the tour of Masada, theere are big rocks that look like cannonballs. They tell you the Jews prepared these rocks to roll down at the enemy as they came up and attacked. So why are they still at the top of Masada and not at the bottom? Cuz the Romans used Jewish prisoners to build the ramps going up; the Jews even while knowing they were going to be attacked and killed couldnt throw rocks at their brothers. Everyone is surprised that Gaza fell so quick, but what was the alternative?

In the Middle Ages there was the big "Burning of the Books", when the church burned every copy of the Gemara and every Jewish book they could get in their hands. I recall hearing the Rabbis said the church took the precedent from the Jews themselves, when they didnt agree with R' Luzattos books, they publicly burned them. I hope that these scenes that the whole world is seeing, of Jews destroying their own shuls, of expelling Jews from their homes, isnt taken as a precedent for anoyone else.