This video is a PressTV interview I did critiquing Netanyahu’s abuse of the Book of Esther to gin up hysteria against Iran.
Bibi Netanyahu is trying his best to get out from under the cloud of three different corruption investigations. During his last police interrogation he conveniently managed to have Pres. Trump call him during his meeting with them, with a message of encouragement. Bibi’s also been traveling around the world to any country that will have him. His most recent trip was this week to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin.
Israel and Russia have a close relationship. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is reportedly very close to the Russian leadership. There is a great deal of coördination between the two militaries regarding Syria. Both have a military presence there (in Israel’s case it is more covert) and seek to avoid accidents and interference in each others initiatives. Both countries also have competing interests regarding Iran, which Russia supplies with advanced military weaponry and its nuclear facilities like the Bushehr reactor.
Given his political weakness (if he is indicted as a result of any of the investigations he will likely be forced to resign), his rivals like Naftali Bennett are exerting intense pressure from his political right. They’re advocating annexing the West Bank in order to garner further support from the settler lobby, one of the most powerful factions in Israeli politics.
Netanyahu, who is rather a deft political tactician while a horrid strategist, sees Iran as the perfect pressure valve to use to release the air in Bennett’s tires. If he can gin up increased fear of Iran, he will divert the attention of Israel’s voters from domestic issues like annexation. This is also the reason Trump and Netanyahu have engaged in this odd dance lately in which the president has toned down significantly his support of Israeli expansionism. He’s stopped talking about moving the embassy, asked Israel politely to stop building new settlement housing “for a little while,” and not said a word (as he had earlier) about supporting a one-state solution. He’s even purportedly warned Israel not to pursue annexation.
So it’s no surprise Bibi chatted up Putin about Iran when he was in Moscow. He trots out the same history lessons over and over for his foreign audiences. Since it was the holiday of Purim, which commemorates an ancient Persian failed attempt to exterminate the Jews, the Israeli leader did a little Ziosplaining to the Russian president:
In a meeting with Putin in Moscow, Netanyahu said Persia had made “an attempt to destroy the Jewish people that did not succeed” some 2,500 years ago, an event commemorated through the holiday of Purim, which Israel will celebrate on Sunday and Monday. “Today there is an attempt by Persia’s heir, Iran, to destroy the state of the Jews,” Netanyahu said.
“They say this as clearly as possible and inscribe it on their ballistic missiles.”
In the video above, Bibi offers the same lesson he tried to teach Putin to a gaggle of Israeli pre-schoolers. They regurgitated it to him like trained seals. How inconvenient that Putin wasn’t someone Bibi could lecture like a 4 year-old.
The Israeli tried to same ploy in his speech to the U.S. Congress in 2015, which he delivered in a deliberate attempt to embarrass Pres. Obama. In that case, the trumped up historical analogy went over well. But Putin is a far more astute student of history and he was having none of it:
…Putin said that the events described by Netanyahu had taken place “in the fifth century B.C.” “We now live in a different world. Let us talk about that now,” Putin said.
Despite my severe allergic reaction to virtually everything Putin represents, in this case he was exactly right. Israel has no right to expect the world owes it anything based on the myths inscribed in ancient Jewish texts and traditions. They are, to quote my grandmother, bubbeh meises. They belong in the synagogue where the Book of Esther is recited. Not in the halls of power where decisions are made affecting the lives of tens of millions.
Further, Bibi’s Purim shpiel to Putin omits a key Persian figure in Jewish history: he was Cyrus the Great, a Persian ruler who, after the Jews had been exiled from Israel after destruction of the First Temple, encouraged them to return to their homeland. Isn’t it convenient for Bibi to omit such a benevolent Persian ruler who liberated the Jews and delivered them from exile?
If Israel were to determine its foreign policy according to which nations historically did the most damage to the Jewish people, there would be many who’ve harmed it far more than Iran. Christian medieval Spain expelled almost every Jew from its lands and tortured thousands into converting to Christianity. Nazi Germany murdered 6-million Jews as recently as half a century ago. Why go back 2,500 years to find enemies when you have such a ready enemy much closer at hand? Could it be that Germany is a far more helpful nation to Israel than Iran? One that has provided millions in Holocaust reparations, not to mention nuclear-capable Dolphin submarines?
Netanyahu made a further error when he attempted to enlist Putin in Israel’s war against Shia Islam. Russia certainly faces a battle against Islamists within and without its borders. But its enemies aren’t necessarily Shia and certainly not Iran. That’s why this appeal fell on deaf ears:
Putin’s comment came after Netanyahu stressed that while Israel was capable of defending itself, the country — and the whole world — remained threatened by radical Shia Islam.
“The threat of radical Shia Islam threatens us no less than it does the region and the peace of the world, and I know that we are partners in the desire to prevent any kind of victory by radical Islam of any sort,” Netanyahu said.
Unlike Trump, Putin wants no part of propping up Bibi’s political fortunes by trashing Iran. Russia’s interests are based on the value another nation brings to it. Relations with Iran benefit Russia in a number of important ways. Putin is not about to throw over Iran because it will help save Bibi’s political hide.
And the Purim story never happened, not even in 500 BC.
http://www.torahmusings.com/wp-content/uploads/2004/04/en_esther.html
Anything you say, Elisabeth. Anything you say.
@Seamus: You’ve offered an Orthodox non-historical source, Torah Musings, to prove that Esther is historically true? Really?
@Richard
Obviously you didn’t read the link I provided.
The authoritative Anchor Bible series is scholarly, not Orthodox. Emeritus Professor Carey Moore cites Herodotus and contradicts that ancient historian.
Yamaguchi’s, ‘Persia and the Bible’, is scholarly, not Orthodox.
Emeritus Professor Edwin Yamaguchi cites to Gordis, Wright, Shea, Talmon and Claus Schedl.
Kitchen’s, ‘On the Reliability of the Old Testament’, is scholarly, not Orthodox.
Professor Emeritus of Egyptology, Kenneth Kitchens cites and contradicts O. Leuze.
Basta!
@ Seamus: Torah Musings, the site to which you linked, is not the Anchor Bible series. It is Orthodox as I said. A fact you ignored in your comment. That site acknowledges that there are disagreements among sources about the historicity of the Esther story. However, your source doesn’t refer to any scholar who disputes this claim. And there are many. Why would that be? Because the source is Orthodox and doesn’t dispute the historicity. How terribly inconvenient to grapple with any scholar who disputes your views, right?
Further, as I said it doesn’t matter a whit whether the source is historical or mythical. That’s not the point at all. What a Persian did or didn’t do to a Jew 2500 years ago has as much relevance as whether Moses wore sandals or flip flops when he parted (or didn’t part) the Red Sea.
You are done in this thread.
Not meaning to be rude, but if there was an attempt by the Persian court to kill all the Jews then one would expect that this is a notable event both from the Persian *and* the Jewish point of view.
But if the only sources of this story are…. Jewish texts…. then I’d be rather sceptical of it being a true event.
The Persians didn’t keep records, Seamus?
Yeah Right, it is exactly because of the total lack of historical attestation, and other reasons that the story is believed to be a myth. There are other arguments: Persian kings of that period married women only from the seven leading families of Persia, therefore the king’s marriage to Esther would have been impossible. The protagonists all have the names of pagan gods: Ishtar/Astarte (Esther) and her consort Marduk (Mordecai), who sacrificed to the god Hammon, or Amon (Haman). Then there is the date for Purim: Adar 14, which was “Marduk’s day”, Marduk, being the creator god of Babylonian myth. The whole thing is a reworking of pagan myths, as are some other bible stories.
It is disturbing to find this myth so often quoted by Jews who insist on believing that there is an an age old incurable hatred against Jews in the genes of non-Jews. (And then they bring in the Amalekites too of course, who also ‘hated Jews simply for being Jews’ (those anti-semites!).
This allows Jews, in their mind, to use all means to ‘defend’ themselves against the always aggressive non-Jews, even pre-emptive attacks, and pre-emptive mass murder, as in the Purim story.
And now the prime minister of Israel actually quotes this story as a basis for contemporary policy….What can you say to such utter stupidity.
Richard: “Both have a military presence there (in Israel’s case it is more covert)”
Well, considering that the IDF has been encamped on Syrian territory for nearly 50 years now, I’d have to say that Israel’s belligerency w.r.t. Syria is Rather Less Than Covert.
I know that’s not what you meant, but to forget that the Israelis have invaded and are occupying Syrian territory – and that they actually claim that they have *conquered* that territory by force of arms – is to drink the Zionist Kool Aid.
Netanyahu and Trump are two peas out of the same pod!
“If Israel were to determine its foreign policy according to which nations historically did the most damage to the Jewish people…”
Its funny – that a distortion of Netanyahu words. He doesn’t just go to history to find ancient enemies but looks around to see he endanger Israel nowadays. Then he mentions the same nation tried to do it before. Bubbeh meises or not, Germany does not endanger Israel now.
This is what MEMO writes – “At an ideological level, the Islamic Republic is committed to Israel’s destruction”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170313-irans-palestine-conference-was-designed-to-shore-up-tehrans-regional-position/
This is an article from yesterday not 2,500 years ago
Nor does Iran. Certainly not directly.
That’s a clever reference from MEMO. Very clever of you to ferret out a quote from a progressive publication to bolster your distortions about Iran. Slummin’ through the anti-Zionist media demimonde, are you?
First, the author of that article doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Iran is NOT committed to Israel’s destruction. Second, even if Iran wished, it couldn’t destroy Israel. As far as I’m concerned Iran’s “ideology” (which the reporter has falsified anyway) can say the moon is made of green cheese. That doesn’t make it so. Third, I wasn’t aware that journalists were now determining the foreign policy of entire nations. If I say that the U.S. is ideologically committed to white supremacy because Trump advisors are members of the alt-right, does that make it so?
[comment deleted: No, no. We’re not going to get into an argument about whether Iran wants to destroy Israel. Unless you want to get into an argument about Israel wanting to destroy Iran.]