{"id":228903,"date":"2024-05-13T16:52:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T20:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=228903"},"modified":"2024-05-13T16:53:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T20:53:26","slug":"the-dangerous-history-behind-netanyahus-amalek-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=228903","title":{"rendered":"<h2><b>The Dangerous History Behind Netanyahu\u2019s Amalek Rhetoric<\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><em>His recent biblical reference has long been used by the Israeli far right to justify killing Palestinians.<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><!--more-->Noah Lanard<br \/>\nMother Jones<\/p>\n<div class=\"hero is-image \">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-228905\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/20231103_netanyahu.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"556\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/20231103_netanyahu.webp 990w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/20231103_netanyahu-300x168.webp 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/20231103_netanyahu-768x431.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 990px) 100vw, 990px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credit\">Abir Sultan\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mj-text-cta\">Fight disinformation:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/newsletters\/?mj_oac=Article_Top_Fight_Disinfo\" data-ga-category=\"TopOfArticle\" data-ga-label=\"ewsletterPromoCovid\" data-ga-action=\"click|https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/newsletters\/?mj_oac=Article_Top_Support\">Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for the free\u00a0<em>Mother Jones Daily<\/em>\u00a0newsletter and follow the news that matters.<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"section-lead\">On Saturday,<\/span>\u00a0Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israelis were united in their fight against Hamas, whom he described as an enemy of incomparable cruelty. \u201cThey are committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world,\u201d Netanyahu\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P5LmB6uup3o&amp;ab_channel=SkyNews\">said<\/a>\u00a0in Hebrew. He then added: \u201cYou must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are more than 23,000 verses in the Old Testament. The ones Netanyahu turned to, as Israeli forces launched their ground invasion in Gaza, are among its most violent\u2014and have a long history of being used by Jews on the far right to justify killing Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>As others quickly pointed out, God commands King Saul in the first Book of Samuel<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>to kill every person in Amalek, a rival nation to ancient Israel. \u201cThis is what the Lord Almighty says,\u201d the prophet Samuel\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1%20Samuel%2015&amp;version=NIV\">tells<\/a>\u00a0Saul. \u201c\u2018I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"incontent_promo_1\" class=\"incontent-promo\">\n<section id=\"mj-connatix-player-widget-2\" class=\"widget mj-connatix-player-widget\">\n<div class=\"connatix-player-container\">\n<div id=\"FreeStarVideoAdContainer\">\n<div id=\"freestar-video-parent\">\n<div id=\"freestar-video-child\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mj-floating-ad-wrapper\">\n<aside id=\"sidebar-right\" class=\"col-4 hidden-sm hidden-xs hidden-xxs\">\n<section id=\"mj-floating-ad-widget-2\" class=\"widget mj-floating-ad display-none\">\n<div id=\"rhc-scroller\" class=\"ad display-none\">\n<div id=\"ROS_Scroller_Refresh\" class=\"up-show display-none\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div class=\"ahover\">\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/static.btloader.com\/safeFrame.html?upapi=true\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"upo-label\">AD<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/49189977\/ROS_Scroller_Refresh_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div id=\"Site_Skin_Left\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"Site_Skin_Right\"><\/div>\n<section id=\"text-5\" class=\"widget widget_text\">\n<div class=\"textwidget\">\n<div id=\"interior-rhc-membership\" class=\"blog\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"pullquote-left\">Forty-seven percent of Israeli Jews said in a poll conducted last month that Israel should \u201cnot at all\u201d consider the \u201csuffering of the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza\u201d in the next phase of fighting.<\/aside>\n<p>The Amalek reference is one of many comments by Israeli leaders that serve to help justify a devastating response to the brutal Hamas attack on October 7 that took the lives of more than 1,400 people in Israel. A member of the Knesset has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/israel-palestinians-gaza-evacuation-history-nakba-a1bec1ee3477573e80b39b4044a48111\">called<\/a>\u00a0for a second Nakba, in reference to the expulsion of Palestinians that Israel carried out in its 1948 war with Arab neighbors. A military spokesperson\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/oct\/10\/right-now-it-is-one-day-at-a-time-life-on-israels-frontline-with-gaza\">said<\/a>\u00a0about Israel\u2019s initial airstrikes that \u201cthe emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-11-2-2023-6a398d4aeba979aef24960efc31eb772#:~:text=Israeli%20troops%20advance%20toward%20Gaza,death%20toll%20rises%20above%209%2C000&amp;text=DEIR%20AL%2DBALAH%2C%20Gaza%20Strip,death%20toll%20rose%20above%209%2C000.\">9,000 people<\/a>\u00a0in Gaza have now been killed, including more than 3,700 children, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033\">Gaza Health Ministry<\/a>. A spokesperson for UNICEF now\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/31\/gaza-has-become-a-graveyard-for-thousands-of-children-un\">says<\/a>\u00a0that Gaza is a \u201cgraveyard for thousands of children\u201d and a \u201cliving hell for everyone else.\u201d Forty-seven percent of Israeli Jews\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.idi.org.il\/media\/21835\/war-in-gaza-public-opinion-survey-2-data.pdf\">said<\/a>\u00a0in a poll conducted last month that Israel should \u201cnot at all\u201d consider the \u201csuffering of the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza\u201d in the next phase of fighting. Casting the enemy as Amalek reinforces that attitude.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jewish.cofc.edu\/documents\/jewish-studies-faculty-and-staff-bios\/joshua-shanes,-associate-director.php\">Joshua Shanes<\/a>, a professor of Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, explained that the biblical animosity toward the Amalekites stems from what is described as the merciless\u00a0ambush they launched against vulnerable\u00a0Israelites making their way to the promised land. The attack leads God to tell Moses to wipe out Amalek. Hundreds of years later, Saul nearly fulfills the command by killing all Amalekite men, women, and children. But he spares their king, who keeps his people barely alive by having a child. Many more generations later, one of his descendants, the villain Haman, goes on to develop a plot to kill all the Jews living in exile under a Persian ruler. The lesson, when read literally, is clear: Saul\u2019s failure to kill every Amalekite posed an existential threat to the Jewish people.<\/p>\n<p>Jews traditionally hear the story of the Amalek ambush and God\u2019s decree that they be eliminated on the Shabbat service before the holiday of Purim. Shanes said it is perhaps the most important of all Torah readings.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/truah.org\/about\/our-people\/staff\/\">Rabbi Jill Jacobs<\/a>\u2014the head of T\u2019ruah, a rabbinical human rights organziation\u2014said that rabbis generally agree that Amalek no longer exists, and that references to it do not provide a morally acceptable\u00a0justification for attacking anyone. \u201cThe overwhelming history of Jewish interpretation is to interpret it metaphorically,\u201d Jacobs said, explaining that one common approach is to see it as a call to stamp out evil inclinations within ourselves.<\/p>\n<div id=\"incontent_promo_2\" class=\"incontent-promo\">\n<section id=\"mj-incontent-ad-widget-11\" class=\"widget mj-incontent-ad-widget display-none\">\n<div class=\"incontent-ad-container ad display-none\">\n<div id=\"Incontent_970x250_1\" class=\"up-show display-none\" align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__970x250 __970x90 __728x90 __1060x520\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div class=\"ahover\">\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/static.btloader.com\/safeFrame.html?upapi=true\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"upo-label\">AD<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/49189977\/Incontent_970x250_1_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mj-floating-ad-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<aside class=\"pullquote-left\">Rabbi Jill Jacobs said that rabbis generally agree that Amalek no longer exists, and that references to it do not provide a justification for attacking anyone.<\/aside>\n<p>Nevertheless, Jacobs said that it remains common for Israeli extremists to view Palestinians as modern-day Amalekites. In 1980, the Rabbi Israel Hess\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/2004-09-15\/ty-article\/losing-gods-image\/0000017f-e352-d9aa-afff-fb5a42e00000\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0an article that used the story of Amalek to justify wiping out Palestinians. Its title has been translated as \u201cGenocide: A Commandment of the Torah,\u201d as well as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpa.org\/content\/upload\/bjpa\/rebu\/REBUILDING%20JEWISH%20PEOPLEHOOD.pdf\">The Mitzvah of Genocide in the Torah<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his 1997 book,\u00a0<em>The Vanishing American Jew<\/em>, celebrity attorney and Harvard professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz made a point of expressing his disgust about the article and the idea that Palestine was Amalek. He asked, \u201cHow can anyone distinguish this incitement to murder from similar incitements by Muslim fundamentalists who quote the Koran as authority for genocide against Jews?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Brooklyn-born extremist Baruch Goldstein also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/lifestyle\/1994\/03\/20\/a-time-to-kill\/8ff1f7d1-ad8a-4c30-8720-ad8062501fd4\/\">saw<\/a>\u00a0Palestine as Amalek. In 1994, he slaughtered 29 Muslims praying at a mosque in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank that is sacred to Jews and Muslims. Goldstein carried out the massacre on Purim, one week after he would have heard the\u00a0biblical retelling of the\u00a0command to wipe out a rival nation. As the journalist Peter Beinart and others have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peterbeinart.substack.com\/p\/the-amalek-in-us\">written<\/a>, the timing was not a coincidence.<\/p>\n<p>Goldstein\u2019s grave has become\u00a0a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jewishcurrents.org\/this-purim-stand-against-kahanism\">pilgrimage site<\/a>\u00a0for the Israeli far right. His tomb says he died of \u201cclean hands and pure heart.\u201d Goldstein\u2019s admirers have included Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel\u2019s current minister of national security. For Purim, a holiday on which Jews sometimes wear costumes, Ben-Gvir\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2023\/02\/27\/itamar-ben-gvir-israels-minister-of-chaos\">dressed<\/a>\u00a0as Goldstein on multiple occasions in his youth. He\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/ben-gvir-responds-to-bennett-fine-ill-take-down-baruch-goldsteins-picture\/\">kept<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0picture of Goldstein in his living room until 2020. He has an extensive\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2023\/02\/27\/itamar-ben-gvir-israels-minister-of-chaos\">criminal record<\/a>\u00a0that includes convictions for supporting a terrorist organization and inciting racism.<\/p>\n<div id=\"incontent_promo_3\" class=\"incontent-promo\">\n<section id=\"mj-incontent-ad-widget-10\" class=\"widget mj-incontent-ad-widget display-none\">\n<div class=\"incontent-ad-container ad display-none\">\n<div id=\"Incontent_970x250_2\" class=\"up-show display-none\" align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__970x250 __970x90 __728x90 __1060x520\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div class=\"ahover\">\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/static.btloader.com\/safeFrame.html?upapi=true\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"upo-label\">AD<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mj-floating-ad-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<p>Shanes said\u00a0that it was \u201cincredibly dangerous and irresponsible and deliberate\u201d for Netanyahu to invoke Amalek, given the ongoing war and it how is understood by the far right. He added that calling the enemy Amalek will make it more difficult for people who try to defend the position that Israel is not \u201cinvolved in a crime against humanity or a genocidal act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beinart, an Orthodox Jew who previously edited the<em>\u00a0New Republic\u00a0<\/em>and now\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peterbeinart.substack.com\/\">writes<\/a>\u00a0on Substack, expressed similar concern. \u201cThe wisdom of rabbinic tradition was to declare that we no longer know who Amalek is because that restrains the genocidal plain meaning of the Biblical text,\u201d he wrote in email. \u201cSo in claiming that he knows who Amalek is, [Netanyahu] is undoing the moral scaffolding created by Jewish tradition and asserting a Biblical literalism that is alien to the Judaism of the last two thousand years and, given the military power at his disposal, is frankly terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jacobs stressed that Netanyahu saying Amalek does not mean that Israel is carrying out genocide. She said that while Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes, Israel\u2019s actions do not meet the international standard of genocide. \u201cIt\u2019s not a term that should be thrown around casually at all,\u201d she explained, particularly against a people that have experienced genocide. Instead, Jacobs sees Netanyahu, who she described as \u201ctotally right-wing and incompetent,\u201d referring to Amalek as yet another case of him \u201cbeing irresponsible and inciting.\u201d (Netanyahu has previously\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/opinion\/2015-03-04\/ty-article\/.premium\/sorry-bibi-iran-is-bad-but-it-is-no-nazi-germany\/0000017f-f61f-d460-afff-ff7f23990000\">compared<\/a>\u00a0the prospect of a nuclear Iran to Amalek.)<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote-left\">Harvard professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told me this week that he supported Netanyahu \u201c100 percent\u201d to the extent that the prime minister was equating Hamas with Amalek.<\/aside>\n<p>In a brief phone call, Dershowitz told me this week that he supported Netanyahu \u201c100 percent\u201d to the extent that the prime minister was equating Hamas with Amalek. When I mentioned the command to kill Amalekite women and children, Dershowitz responded, \u201cThere are other parts of the Bible that say the opposite; that you can\u2019t even destroy a fruit tree.\u201d That is true, but Netanyahu did not cite those parts of the Bible. Instead, he turned to something that the far right has long used as a justification for genocide during a war in which some\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jewishcurrents.org\/a-textbook-case-of-genocide\">argue<\/a>\u00a0Israel is\u00a0committing genocide. (On Thursday,\u00a0a group of United Nations experts\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/un-experts-say-ceasefire-needed-palestinians-grave-risk-genocide-2023-11-02\/\">said<\/a>\u00a0that Palestinians are at \u201cgrave risk of genocide.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>Shanes was not convinced by Dershowitz\u2019s defense that Hamas is Amalek. For one, he said,\u00a0Amalek is clearly described as a nation, not a political\u00a0party.\u00a0\u201cIf someone says, \u2018I just mean the bad members of the Palestinians. I mean Hamas\u2026,\u2019 that\u2019s not the effect it has in the body politic,\u201d Shanes said. \u201cThe effect it has is,\u00a0<em>We have to wipe these people out<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2023\/11\/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament\/\">https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2023\/11\/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>His recent biblical reference has long been used by the Israeli far right to justify killing Palestinians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}