Tell it not in Gath

 I first came across this expression in Charlotte Bronte's "Villette". It was unfamiliar, but the meaning was clear - don't mention something that others may gloat over. ("Tell it not in Gath I believe I was crying" - from memory.) It would have come readily to the pen of a daughter of a minister ordained in the Anglican church. 

The full version is from the book of Samuel. In the Authorised Version:

¹⁹The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!
²⁰Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

It came back to me when news of the terrible action of the al-Qassam brigades came through last week. Ashkelon, an Israeli town, was one of the targets. However, the verses above remind us that it was in some ways a reversal of history, because, before the imperial expansion under David and Solomon, Gath and Ashkelon were Philistine settlements. Gath was the home of giants like Goliath. Askelon/Ashkelon clearly has a continuous history. Gath does not, but it has been credibly identified with Tell-es-Safi in present-day Israel.

It is a reminder that the first Israel was established by force, as has much of present-day Israel, going beyond the UN-assigned territory. She looks like going the same way, given that the possibility of Israel living in peace with her neighbours has been brought to nothing after years of Likud government.