Netanyahu’s ‘Amalek’ Rhetoric: How Biblical Genocide Justifies Modern Massacres

 

Graffiti by street artist Lushsux on the controversial Israeli separation barrier separating the West Bank town of Bethlehem from Jerusalem.

When Netanyahu invoked the Old Testament’s Amalek—a tribe God commanded Israel to "totally destroy"—to describe Palestinians, he wasn’t just using poetic license. He was green-lighting annihilation. Historians immediately recognized the dog whistle: Amalek appears in Israeli military training materials as code for "existential threat," while far-right ministers openly call Gaza’s civilians "human animals." The subtext? What happened to Canaanites 3,000 years ago isn’t history—it’s a playbook.

This genocidal framing isn’t new. In 2022, Netanyahu’s Likud party tweeted (then deleted) a video of him praising a rabbi who advocated nuking Gaza. Now, with 20,000+ dead in two months, the world is seeing what happens when ancient vengeance myths meet modern firepower.

(Source: Mother Jones - Netanyahu’s Amalek References)


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