[justa-hairyape]

Hannibal precisely. Great Point. If the Israeli's are looking for any advice, perhaps they should not make the same historical mistake the Romans eventually made against 'Carthage'. Oh sure they did kill and destroy Hannibal's Army, and eventually all the Carthaginians in Carthage, and they did destroy Carthage and they did 'salt the earth'. But guess what. A group of people called the Vandals, who had been forced out of Eastern Europe's Southern Regions by the Huns, ended up settling in Carthage and rebuilding the city. Eventually they invaded the Italian peninsula and sacked Rome. Of course it was a late period Rome that had allowed itself to get soft and weak. Bottom line - You may need more then just salt to keep that meal down.

[Cyclopean Squid]

The space of time from the destruction of Carthage to the Fall of Rome was about 600 years. I'm not sure how much correlation there was.