Jews Are Colonizers: Ancient and Modern Hypocrisy
In the wake of yet another round of Middle East violence, the Israeli leader sent a delegation to meet with representatives of the people that launched the attack, saying, “Why have you decided to make war on my country?”
The reply was sharp and accusatory, “Israel seized our land, from the river to the… other river. Now, then, return those lands or there will be no peace.”
The Israeli premier replied, “Israel did not go out to seize the land of other nations. Rather, when we were attacked, our attackers lost their land in the ensuing war. Moreover, you have no real claim as you are not even the people who controlled that land at the time we conquered it. At this point, we have been sovereign in those lands for many years. Why has this issue arisen only now?”
That exchange is an adapted version of what appears in the Book of Judges (Shoftim, Ch. 11). It took place around 1106 BCE between Yiftach the Israeli ruler of the Gilead region and the king of the Ammonites. The lands under question may have been called “the East Bank,” if modern misnomers were applied.
In a later confrontation, a Special Middle East Envoy from a major superpower arrived in Israel with a message: “Be aware that you are occupiers. You are doing ‘great evil’ in building more and more settlements. Return the occupied territories, divide Jerusalem, and pay compensation for all the settlements you built. If not, there will be war.”
The envoy specified Gezer, among other areas, as being of special concern to his nation.
The Israeli premier replied: “We have not taken a foreign land, nor do we rule over another nation’s territory. Rather, it is the inheritance of our forefathers, which was for some time unjustly occupied by our enemies. But we, having the opportunity, reclaimed the land of our forefathers. And as to any complaints about places like Gezer, well, they did great harm to our people and to our country – and there are consequences.”
He doesn’t even mention Jerusalem. For the Jewish leader, that is off the table.
The Israeli prime minister in question, to use a modern term, is Shimon the Hasmonean. The foreign premier is Antiochus VII Sidetes of the Seleucid – Assyrian Greek – Empire. And that exchange of messages took place around 138–137 BCE, as recorded in the First Book of Maccabees, Chapter 15.
In other words, we’ve heard all this before.
In fact, the very first comment on the entire Torah by one of our greatest commentators – Rabbi Shimon Yitzchaki, known as Rashi and born in 1040 CE in Troyes, France – poses the following question:
If the Torah is the book of law and guidance for the people of Israel, then shouldn’t it begin with the verse (Sh’mot [Exodus] 12:2) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months,” which is the first commandment given to Israel? Why then does it instead begin with the account of the Creation of the Universe? Rashi proposes an answer he heard from his rabbis:
“Should the peoples of the world say to Israel, ‘You are robbers, because you conquered the lands of seven nations,’ Israel may reply to them, ‘All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us.’”
“When He willed He gave it to them” may be in reference to what we read in the Torah regarding various displacements among the nations in the areas that eventually became the land of Israel. For example, the “War of the Four Kings against Five” in Bereisheet (Genesis) 14 or the list of conquests and takeovers in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 2.
Parenthetically, Israel is now said to be engaged in a “seven-front war.” A curious numerical parallel.
In any case, one may legitimately ask how Rashi’s reply would be persuasive to people who do not believe in the divinity of the Torah. In truth, it wouldn’t. But it is no accident that the two main religions among those who currently oppose Jewish sovereignty do, in fact, explicitly affirm the truth of the Torah.
For the Christians, the claim is self-evident as they too hold the Pentateuch to be God-given. And for the Muslims, the Quran sets forth its own version of the assignment of the land of Israel to the Jews in Surah al-Maidah (the Table), verse 20-21: “And when Moses said to his people, ‘O my people, remember Allah’s favors upon you when He raised prophets from among you, made you sovereign, and gave you what He had never given anyone in the world. O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has destined for you. And do not turn back or else you will become losers.”
So, what of those who reject the Torah or religion altogether? If they had any sense, those people would understand Rashi’s reply thus: ‘Tough luck. We completely reject your double standard when it comes to the Jews and our land.’
For example, the Muslim Arab conquest of the land of Israel in 636-37 CE was clearly and explicitly a settler-colonial enterprise. And they are proud of it (Fateh al-Sham), as they are of all their conquests for the sake of Islam and Arab imperialism. What this means is that opponents of “colonization” and “settlement” by Jews simultaneously openly and loudly support the Arab and Islamic settler-colonial project in the Jewish homeland.
Not only that, but they also entirely ignore actual legitimate struggles for national self-determination elsewhere in the Middle East. A population of 40 million Kurds, an indigenous people with a distinct language and history, is artificially divided across several neighboring states and periodically persecuted. Most recently, a Turkish offensive into northeastern Syria has prevented Kurdish autonomy in post-Assad Syria and a massive campaign is underway to replace Kurdish residents in the region with Arabs.
There you have it. Israeli Hasbara from ancient times until today:
A) It is our homeland. Full stop.
B) When you attack and lose – you lose. No do-overs.
C) Clean up your own house before you start moralizing to us. Hypocrites.
