The deeper lesson of 70 CE is the danger of internal collapse.

The government’s decision of 5 July 2026 not to comply with the Supreme Court’s order should trouble anyone who understands how societies unravel. Not because a single legal dispute determines a nation’s fate, but because democracies rarely collapse all at once. They weaken first when institutions cease to command obedience, and when political actors begin to treat constitutional constraints as optional rather than binding.

That is why the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE still matters. Rome did not simply destroy a united city. Jerusalem was already breaking apart before the Roman assault reached its final stage. As Josephus recounts in The Jewish War¹, the city was consumed by factional violence, mutual suspicion, and the destruction of its own capacity to act collectively. The walls were ultimately breached by Rome, but the civic order had already been breached from within.

The parallel is not exact, and it should not be forced. Ancient Judea was not a modern constitutional democracy, and the State of Israel is not a besieged city under imperial occupation. Yet history does not need to repeat itself in identical form to issue a warning. Again and again, it reveals that societies are not destroyed only by external........

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