Bibi Netanyahu's Bible lessons: How he pushes Gaza war to Jewish and Christian far right

Source: Salon

Bibi Netanyahu's Bible lessons: How he pushes Gaza war to Jewish and Christian far right

Netanyahu deploys the biblical tale of Amalek, a story of violent revenge, with very specific audiences in mind

By ARIEL GOLD
Contributing writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 13, 2023 5:30AM (EST)

“You must ‘remember what Amalek has done to you,'” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admonished on Oct. 28, as he announced the “second phase” of Israel’s war in Gaza, the ground invasion that is now underway.

To many non-Jewish people around the world, the reference likely seemed obscure or meaningless. In the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, Amalek is a nation whose soldiers ambushed the Israelites as they made their way to the Promised Land. Following the attack, which the Israelites were able to beat back, God instructed them never to forget the near-catastrophe, and to wage an eternal war until no trace of Amalek’s existence remained.

Netanyahu is notoriously secular in his private life. But he is nothing if not a shrewd politician, and scripture is the language he has chosen to sell this war both to Jewish supremacists in Israel and right-wing evangelical Christians in the U.S.

The victims of Hamas’ vile Oct. 7 attack, in which more than 1,400 Israelis died, lived within what is sometimes called the “Gaza envelope,” meaning the sparsely populated regions of southern Israel along the Gaza border. It’s an area heavy with kibbutzim — Israel’s famous intentional collectives, traditionally based around agriculture — and its residents are known for being largely secular and left-leaning.

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Read more: https://www.salon.com/2023/11/13/bibi-netanyahus-bible-lessons-how-hes-selling-gaza-to-jewish-and-christian-far-right/