In
a recent short video, we see Benjamin Netanyahu being asked what book he is reading now, and answering with a satisfied look that he is reading
Jews vs. Rome by Barry Strauss. Asked why he picked it up, he says: “Well, we lost that one, I think we have to win the next one.”
This video has circulated widely (as it was meant to), because it is telling of the way Israel relates to ancient history. This is not the first time Netanyahu shows that he views the history of modern Israel through the lens of ancient history. He does this for the benefit of Israelis (for example when referring to the
Palestinians of Gaza as Amalek in October 2023) as well as Gentiles (for example when
comparing Trump to Cyrus for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in March 2018). This is not just rhetoric. Zionists like Netanyahu are genuinely obsessed by what they think happened to ancient Israel two or three thousand years ago in their struggles with various empires. This obsession is shared by all Zionists since David Ben-Gurion, who had changed his name Grün to that of a Jewish general fighting the Romans. Dan Kurzman writes in his biography
Prophet of Fire: “Ben-Gurion was, in a modern sense, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah.” In his view, the rebirth of Israel in 1948 “paralleled the Exodus from Egypt, the conquest of the land by Joshua, the Maccabean revolt.” Ben-Gurion was not religious at all, yet he was thoroughly biblical.