Benjamin Netanyahu’s “holy war”

The war that Israel is currently waging on three fronts (Gaza, Lebanon, West Bank) can be explained above all by motivations of a geopolitical nature. Israel acts as a forward fortress of the American Empire in a region that is a nerve center for the global economy. However, to mobilize support for his war, both inside and outside, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not hesitate to use political rhetoric of biblical inspiration, at the risk of giving The impression that Israel is engaged in a “holy war” against a transhistorical enemy that Israeli propaganda has quickly demonized.

During his speech on September 27 before the American Congress, Netanyahu did not hesitate to make recurring quotes from the Hebrew Bible. The Israeli columnist, Haim Ouizemann, put forward seven reasons to explain this abusive use of biblical quotations: the desire to “strengthen the historical bond of the Jewish people with the land of Israel” at a time when the war launched against Gaza has caused people to flee several hundred thousand Israelis abroad; the desire to strengthen the legitimacy of the State of Israel, undermined by the atrocities committed in Gaza, which ultimately caused Israel to lose the moral support it enjoyed among part of international public opinion, particularly American, including in Jewish circles; the concern to create a certain identification between a predominantly Protestant American audience and Israel by highlighting a common biblical heritage; the desire to ensure a “symbolic connection” between the ancient history of the Jewish people and Israeli policy, the proponents of which find it difficult to hide the immoral nature of a growing part of public opinion; the desire to give Israeli warmongering discourse a rhetorical dimension capable of provoking an emotional shock within public opinion to better justify a war which appears increasingly unjustified; finally the reference to the Hebrew Bible is inseparable from the desire reaffirmed for several years to make Israel an exclusively Jewish state (1)

Netanyahu’s Biblical Rhetoric

Netanyahu’s reference to the Hebrew Bible does not date from his last speech to the American Congress last September. Last year, in a televised address delivered on October 25, 2023, Netanyahu made a notable reference to the prophecy of Isaiah, to provide further justification for the war being waged in Gaza. The Book of Isaiah is a major text of the Old Testament which notably addresses the deportation of the Jewish people to Babylon and their return as well as the project to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu was referring to verse 18 of chapter 60 of the Book of Isaiah in which it is written: “There will be no more talk of violence in your land, of devastation or ruin in your territory, and you will call your walls ‘Salvation’, and your gates ‘Glory’ . We cannot help but see in this reference a nod to current events marked by a war aimed at expelling as many Palestinians from their land as possible and by the attempts of extremist settlers to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque in order to rebuild in its place the Temple as part of a process of Judaization of the city of Jerusalem-which began several years ago.

This is what made Norman Cornett, former professor of religious studies at McGill University, say that “ since October 7, Netanyahu has continued to use religion to justify his operations in Gaza, decried by many actors in the international community as genocidal and corresponding to war crimes. » The Canadian professor adds: “ Drawing on the scriptures, whether Quranic or Hebrew, gives carte blanche to achieve any military and political ends. » (2)

Netanyahu’s references to biblical verses that directly relate to the war against a historic enemy of the Jewish people in antiquity, the Amalekites, have been interpreted as a barely concealed call for genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza and it is as such, the reference was cited in the file filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The accusation did not leave the Netanyahu government indifferent, whose office attempted to deny any call for genocide by claiming that “ When Netanyahu used the biblical quote “Remember what Amalek did to you”, he used it to describe the savage attack committed by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, and not to call for genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza. The Office also pointed out that the same phrase appeared in a permanent exhibition at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Museum, as well as on a memorial paying tribute to Dutch Jews murdered during the Holocaust in The Hague. “Clearly, neither reference is a call for genocide of the German people,” Netanyahu’s office noted » (3)

Messianism with racial connotations

The denial from Netanyahu’s office can only obscure the fact by referring to a text which calls for “wiping out the memory of Amalek” and which includes the account of King Saul’s attack which destroyed the Amalekites in Book I of Samuel, and this in the middle of the war in Gaza, could only create a dangerous amalgam which unfortunately tends to justify the war crimes singled out by international humanitarian organizations.

Worse, Netanyahu’s reference to the war against the Amalekites takes on an even more dangerous connotation when we know that, in the biblical story, Amalek is explicitly identified with his Arab ancestry via his grandmother, Ada, Esau’s first wife. , the nephew of Ismaïl (the mythical ancestor of the Arabs)

Thus, Netanyahu’s reference to the biblical story with the aim of strengthening the legitimization of his war in Gaza is coupled with a discourse of a racialist nature. Under these conditions, it is difficult not to see that Netanyahu’s “holy war” is also a “racial war”. This is not surprising given that all colonial wars, even if they were primarily wars of pillage, had an undeniable racial connotation. And any colonialist ideology is an inherently racist ideology.

Netanyahu’s exploitation of a pseudo-religious messianic discourse is not new. Already in 2011, in a speech on the occasion of the commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp, Netanyahu did not hesitate to quote the Book of Ezekiel, in particular the prophecies of chapters 38 and 39 which describe the victory of the people Jew against his enemies following the battle of “Gog and Magog” (4)

The following year, in 2012, at a time when the Israeli government was (already) considering striking Iranian nuclear facilities, Netanyahu instructed the director of the National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror, to obtain the precious endorsement of the Sephardi chief rabbi. , Ovadia Yossef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shass party, for a possible attack on Iran. For his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Avigdor Lieberman, tried to obtain the support of Belzer Rebbe, a representative of the Hasidics, the main current of ultraorthodox Ashkenazi Judaism (5)

Of course, the instrumentalization of Jewish messianism for political and warlike purposes is not shared by all Israeli leaders, some of whom do not hesitate to point out the dangerous nature of such a drift, including for the future of the the State of Israel itself. The former head of the Shin Bet (Israeli counter-espionage), Yuval Diskin, did not hesitate to express his concern on this subject: “ I don’t trust management that makes decisions based on messianic feelings » (6)

Religious messianism for political purposes

Furthermore, it should be remembered that Netanyahu’s use of messianic rhetoric is undoubtedly a political tactic that has very little to do with the Jewish religion per se. In 2019, the then Israeli Minister of Transport, Bezale Smotrich, outright proposed the creation of a “halakhic state” (Jewish religious state).

Netanyahu did not hesitate to disavow it before a delegation of Democrats from the United States House of Representatives: “ A member of our coalition, not from Likud but from another party, said he would like Israel to be a halachic state…Well, that’s pure and simple nonsense. This is bullshit and nothing can demonstrate it more than the recent appointment of the Likud Justice Minister “, he added, referring to Amir Ohana, the openly homosexual prime minister in Israel (7)

Finally, it must be remembered that the dangerous exploitation of religious discourse for political purposes is not the prerogative of Benjamin Netanyahu nor of certain Israeli political movements. In the Arab world, the currents which exploit, in various ways, religion for political ends are not left out.

Cornett is right to point out that “ This use of religion as a justification and sanctification of acts of war, murder and violation of human rights has a precedent, and is found directly in the concept of holy war. The Crusades had already marked the Middle Ages with decades of violence, and more recently, the actions of terrorist groups like Daesh were also part of this legitimization of violence and hatred..” (8)

The fact remains, however, that the use of religious discourse in politics does not have the same meaning in all socio-historical contexts. To avoid amalgamations detrimental to the understanding of current political processes, it is important to distinguish between movements which place their action within the framework of national liberation or within the framework of the fight against political despotism and messianic movements which , like Daesh, resort to indiscriminate terrorism against innocent people.

Moreover, the action of the latter is part of the strategy of “creative anarchy” dear to certain laboratories of the Empire. In any case, and at a time when worrying signs of a regional war are emerging, the use of messianic discourse by the leaders of a nuclear power like Israel should constitute a reason for anxiety and vigilance for all those who campaign for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Notes:

(1)The Times of Israel, October 10, 2024

(2)The crime, February 28, 2024

(3) The Times of Israel, January 16, 2024

(4) Jeune Afrique, September 20, 2012

(5)Jeune Afrique, September 20, 2012

(6)Jeune Afrique, September 20, 2012

(7)The Times of Israel, August 8, 2019

(8)The crime, February 28, 2024