Netanyahu’s Biblical Genocide- Part 1

Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah

Gaza City, a sprawling city of over 2.2 million people is now a spectral vestige of horrors of destruction, mayhem and bloodshed. The stark paradox is that this cataclysmic upheaval has unfolded under the observant eyes of the 21st-century civilized world, often receiving tacit or overt endorsement. The war in Gaza presents a complex moral quandary for some, while others perceive it as a clear-cut contest between the forces of malevolence and benevolence. A notable segment of the policymakers in the Colonial West, influenced by their religious doctrines, colonial mindset, and geopolitical inclinations, appears to endorse this unprecedented aggression. Predominantly, the extreme Zionist Jews, ultraright Evangelists, and their secular allies form the core supporters of this morally challenging, disproportionate conflict, which, paradoxically, poses little ethical dilemma for them. Their interpretation of the conflict is steeped in biblical narratives, viewed through a scriptural prism, and is intertwined with expectations of profound cosmic and global repercussions. To them, this is a holy war of biblical proportions.

The belief held by some is that they are engaged in a divinely ordained crusade, a holy war, with the objective of vanquishing God’s adversaries and reclaiming a biblically sanctioned Holy Land, purged of the so-called ungodly interlopers, namely the Palestinians.

The term “Peleshet” in Hebrew, as referenced in Exodus 14:14, Isaiah 14:29, 31, and Joel 3:4, has occurred in the Hebrew Bible no less than 250 times. It historically denotes invaders who settled in the coastal regions flanking Gaza. These groups, known as Philistia or Palestina, are characterized in biblical texts as contemptible outsiders who encroached upon the sacred territory reserved for God’s Chosen People. Their presence in the Holy Land, marked by practices and beliefs antithetical to the Jewish practices, is viewed as a defilement and an obstruction to divine designs of a pure Holy Land, the Kingdom of God on earth with cosmic significance.

This extreme, unenlightened, ideological perspective represents an embodiment of a dualistic biblical worldview, distinctly categorizing individuals as either Jews or non-Jews. This dichotomy establishes a notion of theological and political ascendancy of Jews over Gentiles. Rooted in a plethora of both explicit and implicit references found within classical Jewish texts, this ideology draws its justification from sources such as the Hebrew Bible, Rabbinic exegeses, the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Babylonian Talmud, the Yerushalmi Talmud, Zohar, Aruch, Yalkut, Soferim and numerous other medieval and contemporary orthodox commentaries on the Talmud.

From a scholarly perspective, incorporating both scriptural and historical analyses, this ideology is deeply entrenched in its authenticity and foundation within traditional narratives. The annals of Hebrew scripture and history, undeniably, exhibit instances of racism, supremacy, and discrimination. A literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Christian Old Testament, serves as the primary fountainhead for this dualistic worldview characterized by supremacy. However, it was during the Enlightenment period, beginning in the eighteenth century, that progressive Jewish intellectuals robustly challenged and repudiated this outdated, medieval, and literalist tradition. They disarmed and neutralized the problematic Biblical passages through the application of metaphorical, allegorical, Christological, and spiritual methods of hermeneutical interpretation. Top of FormThey advocated for a transition towards a framework grounded in universal ethical principles. Literalist extremism appears to be reversing enlightenment progressive achievements, thereby diminishing the global welfare, advancement, and relevance of the Jewish community.

The Hebrew Bible literally divided the world into the Jewish people and other nations of the world, the Jews and Gentiles. The Jewish people were pure while the other nations were impure, idolatrous, immoral, and malevolent. The Hebrew term for a Gentile was “goy” which could be neutral or pejorative depending on the context. Its use in the Talmud predominantly revolved around the sense of “unclean” meaning that the non-Jews were filthy unclean people. Rebecca Einstein Schorr argued that the word had an established pejorative overtone,[1] “to say that the word goy historically has not been a slur is simply incorrect. It has long been used by Jews in a negative sense when talking about non-Jews who cannot be trusted and whose values writ large are lacking. Many of us have grown up using words like goy, shiksa, sheigetz, and shvartza as part of our Ashkenazic Jewish lexicon. To see these words for what they are, and how they have been used to dismiss entire groups of people, might make us feel as though we are losing part of the language that helps define us. And right now, for many, there is a genuine need to retain anything that defines us. But do we really want to cling to words that marginalize and alienate other people? Is that how we want to be defined?” Carroll, Andrew Silow stated: “I have a hard time seeing “goy” as anything but offensive… the word “goy” has too much historical and linguistic baggage to be used as casually as “non-Jew” or “gentile.” It starts with the obvious slurs – like “goyishe kopf,” or gentile brains, which suggests (generously) a dullard, or “shikker iz a goy,” a gentile is a drunkard. “Goyishe naches” describes the kinds of things that a Jew mockingly presumes only a gentile would enjoy, like hunting, sailing and eating white bread.”[2]

The Bible set the tone for Israelite supremacy and divinely sanctioned terror.

“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own treasured possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

God had assigned his Chosen People a specified “Holy Land” from the River Nile to the Euphrates as an inheritance for eternity. The Hebrews were called to purify the Promised Holy Land of unclean, impure, and pagan Gentiles and to enslave them by a genocide of biblical proportions. ^“When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you.If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 20:10-18) This genocide was not a defensive war but preventive in nature to protect the Hebrews from the pernicious influences of the Gentiles.

Richard Dawkins wonders whether “those people who hold up the Bible as an inspiration to moral rectitude have the slightest notion of what is actually written in it?”[3] He feels the same about the biblical God: “What makes my jaw drop is that people today should base their lives on such an appalling role model as Yahweh – and, even worse, that they should bossily try to force the same evil monster (whether fact or fiction) on the rest of us.”[4]

The genocidal vengeance was also idealized by Moses. “Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!” (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

On Saturday, October 28, Netanyahu announced the “second phase” of the war and land invasion of Gaza pledging that the State of Israel would “completely eliminate this evil from the world,” by waging a war of biblical proportions. “You must ‘remember what Amalek has done to you,’ says our holy Bible. And we do remember and we are fighting,” Netanyahu declared.

The Prime Minister behaved like Saul who acted upon Samuel’s divine exhortation and annihilated the Amalekites. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both men and women, children and infants, ox and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” (1 Samuel 15:2-3) This was the biblical command that Netanyahu implied to invade Gaza, a campaign which he executed with devastating efficiency, resulting in what many have characterized as a genocide of Biblical scale. Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. The deployment of excessively lethal armaments and high-powered explosives resulted in the deaths of approximately 15,000 civilians, predominantly women and children, and inflicted grave injuries upon over 30,000 others. This military action also led to the displacement of millions and the decimation of a significant portion of Gaza City. The scale and nature of this devastation, evocative of Biblical destruction and justified through Biblical rhetoric, have led numerous international law specialists and United Nations personnel to label these acts as genocidal.

The utilization of the Biblical allusion to the Amalekites was not unique to Netanyahu; he was amidst a notable assemblage comprising many Zionist hardliners, Evangelicals, Western dignitaries, and ultraconservative clerics. Amos Harel, serving as a military journalist for Haaretz in Israel, noted that “army chaplains are actively circulating among bases, propagating the scriptural mandate to annihilate Amalek.” Similarly, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s invocation of “a religious war” while advocating for Israel to obliterate Gaza paralleled this ostensibly spiritual, scriptural ideology that precipitates unparalleled carnage, devastation, and suffering. This radical mindset mirrors a dichotomous perspective, distinctly segregating the humaneness of diverse nationalities and factions. Unfortunately, this destructive mindset is often attributed in the Bible to Moses and his God.

Moses himself, under the direct command of God, reportedly oversaw such massacres of disproportionate scales. “The Lord said to Moses, “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites…They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho. Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle. “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them.“They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.” (Numbers 31:1-18) Such indiscriminate killing was perpetrated to save Israel from disloyalty to God.

Richard Dawkins notes: “No, Moses was not a great role model for modern moralists. In so far as modern religious writers attach any kind of symbolic or allegorical meaning to the massacre of the Midianites, the symbolism is aimed in precisely the wrong direction. The unfortunate Midianites, so far as one can tell from the biblical account, were the victims of genocide in their own country.”[5] To him, modern moralists are more moral than biblical Moses and his God. He is grateful that “modern morality, wherever else it comes from, does not come from the Bible.”[6]

He further observes that the “ethnic cleansing begun in the time of Moses is brought to bloody fruition in the book of Joshua, a text remarkable for the bloodthirsty massacres it records and the xenophobic relish with which it does so.”[7]

The irony is that Moses’ successor Joshua committed unprecedented biblical massacres under divine supervision. ^“Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men… and they took the city.They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys… Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house.” (Book of Joshua 6: 2-25)

Joshua stoned and burned the enemies of Israel. “Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters,

his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor… Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.” (Joshua 7: 24-26)

Joshua completely annihilated both the Southern and Northern Kingdoms along with its inhabitants. “Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city… When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua… So Joshua burned Aiand made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening.” (Joshua 8: 1-29)

Joshua chapter 10 records that Joshua killed the five kings of the Amorites—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon, burning their cities and killing their inhabitants. The Lord fought for Israel. “The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!” God was fully involved in Israeli massacres. “Then Joshua put the kings to death and exposed their bodies on five poles, and they were left hanging on the poles until evening… He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors.And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho… Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned around and attacked Debir. They took the city, its king and its villages, and put them to the sword. Everyone in it they totally destroyed. They left no survivors. They did to Debir and its king as they had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron.” (Joshua 10:5-39)

Joshua 11 records that Joshua did the same to all northern kings and their cities, the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites and many others, putting their kings “to the sword. Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed… Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded.” (Joshua 11:10-12)

Joshua purified the Holy Land of the Gentiles and bestowed it on the Hebrew tribes. “So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions.” (Joshua 11:23)

Richard Dawkins stated: “The point is that, whether true or not, the Bible is held up to us as the source of our morality. And the Bible story of Joshua’s destruction of Jericho, and the invasion of the Promised Land in general, is morally indistinguishable from Hitler’s invasion of Poland, or Saddam Hussein’s massacres of the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs. The Bible may be an arresting and poetic work of fiction, but it is not the sort of book you should give your children to form their morals.”[8]

The paradox lies in the fact that ultraconservative radicals and some elected representatives are employing these ancient texts as templates to replicate archaic massacres in the 21st-century modern society inundated with social media and information technology. This occurs under the observance of modern man and society, which has ostensibly evolved beyond the primitive, brutal, and xenophobic tendencies of its past. Netanyahu and his ultraright cabinet members are using ancient texts and symbolism to create modern realities with radical implications. They are trying to be the modern Joshuas. Even the atheist Dawkins is appalled at such immorality. But Netanyahu does not see it that way. “Anybody who dares accuse our troops of conducting war crimes are people who are completely hypocritical, liars who don’t have an inkling of morality. The IDF is the most moral, ethical military in the world,” he said as he praised those fighting Hamas today as “joining this chain of Jewish heroes, a chain that has started 3,000 years ago from Joshua bin Nun.” The Prime Minister wants to re-establish the ancient Kingdom of Joshua and David even if it has to stand on the skulls of countless Palestinians and Arabs.  The Prime Minister aspires that the kingdom that was destroyed by the Gentile enemies over the centuries will be re-established before the end times.

Daniel’s prophecy predicts it in the following words: “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” (Daniel 2:44) The Israelites of this kingdom are not allowed interest-bearing transactions between themselves but with the Gentiles. “Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner (Gentile) interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.” (Deuteronomy 23:19-20) The Israelites will be the source of blessings to mankind. Those who refuse to serve them shall face ruin. “Foreigners (Gentiles) will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion.Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations—their kings led in triumphal procession. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined.” (Isaiah 60:10-12) “You will drink the milk of nations and be nursed at royal breasts. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Isaiah 60:16)

The Third Temple will be built ushering in the new millennium. “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip.Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.  Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord. All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple.” (Isaiah 60:4-7)

The current political landscape and conflict in Israel are profoundly shaped by an extremist interpretation of Zionist ideology, which finds its roots in a specific reading of biblical texts. This interpretation, aligned with far-right ideologies, poses a significant threat not only to regional stability but also globally, particularly affecting non-Jewish populations. Moreover, this ideology endangers the Jewish community itself. A substantial number of Jewish individuals, possessing a more progressive outlook, vehemently oppose such a fundamentalist application of biblical scriptures, especially when it leads to aggressive actions by a militaristic Zionist leadership. They are at the forefront of a global resistance movement that is actively opposing this destructive ideology.

This archaic, literalist, and extreme viewpoint, which verges on advocating genocidal tactics, urgently needs to be collectively renounced and neutralized by Jewish, Christian, Muslim communities, and other faith-based groups globally. The emphasis should be on embracing the compassionate teachings of the Torah, rather than succumbing to the fear incited by its fundamentalist interpreters. Gaza is in dire need of the benevolent deity of the cosmos, as opposed to the fabricated deity of ancient Hebrews, which was conceived in their own image and likeness. May the God of Abraham extend mercy to the innocent civilians of Gaza, safeguarding them from the genocidal inclinations of irrational political leaders. May there be peace in the world.

To be continued.

[1] She refers to the observation “the goyishe groomsmen were all drunk and bawdy; of course, you’d never see that at a Jewish wedding” and “goyishe kop” where the word is used in a pejorative sense. She admits that the word can have non-pejorative uses, such as “goyishe restaurant” – one that doesn’t serve kosher food – but contends that the word is “neutral, at best, and extremely offensive, at worst.” Schorr, Rebecca Einstein (August 21, 2017). “Goy: Origin, Usage, and Empowering White Supremacists”. https://forward.com/life/380684/goyim-origin-goy-usage/, The Forward. Retrieved November, 2023.

[2] https://www.jta.org/2019/04/22/ideas/is-goy-a-slur, retrieved on November 27, 2023

[3] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, London, Bantam Press, 2006, p. 248

[4] Dawkins, The God Delusion, p. 248

[5] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, p. 245

[6] Dawkins, Ibid, p. 246

[7] Dawkins, Ibid, p. 247

[8] Dawkins, Ibid, p. 247