“Book of Esther given to Obama by Bibi Netanyahu: not so hidden message, Esther stopped plan to kill Jews- Obama should be Esther, Bomb Iran,” Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote to me on Monday minutes after Netanyahu made his gift.
“Then, too they wanted to wipe us out,” Netanyahu reportedly told Obama in giving him the Bible story that ends with mass-murder of Persians.
Now lots of other people are on this story. Robert Wright at the Atlantic makes an excellent point:
Why is it routine to talk about Iranian religious fanatics who are leading us toward war and so rare to acknowledge the role that religious tribalism in America–among both conservative Jews and conservative Christians–is playing in leading us to war? And why is it that when Muslim radicals use religious scripture in a way that foments belligerence we consider it primitive and vile, whereas when Bibi Netanyahu does the same thing (more subtly, I grant you) we nod politely and smile?
Yes and why do we denounced religious tribalism on the abortion issue in our politics and let it go when religious tribalists are leading a Marcus Garvey movement for Jews (Zionism)?
Hi Phil, you got it slightly wrong..
AIPAC is Esther and Mordechai who aim at political domination
Obama is King Ahasuerus who kills the bad Goyim on behalf of the Jews
Iran is Haman who is slaughtered with his sons..
All pretty simple..all in the open..
/Netanyahu gives genocidal bible story to Obama/
The Purim story was used for centuries in classic antisemitic propaganda
and blood libels.
You sure you want to go that way Phil ?
It sure is easy to get the correspondences wrong in these here metaphors.
Yesterday we had Bibi as Torquemada (and seemingly as Nazi) but bad old Mr. T was hard on all the Christians suspected/accused of being Jews or Muslims pretending to be Christians living in post-1492 Spain after the re-conquest (by the irredentists — and are the Israelis another gang of re-conquesting irredentists — and what has the ADA to say about that kind of dentistry?).
The Book of Esther’s historicity has often been doubted:
On the other hand, it is an undoubted historical fact that Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, allowed the Jews to return to Palestine from their Babylonian Exile, and that Cyrus’s program of religious toleration was continued by the later Persian emperors, most notably Darius the Great.
“”Then, too they wanted to wipe us out,” Netanyahu reportedly told Obama in giving him the Bible story that ends with mass-murder of Persians.”
Except that the genocidalist was Haman, and the story is that the Jews stood up to their enemies. Stood up. The word massacre does not appear in relation to the Jews standing up to their enemies. Are you against Jews standing up to their enemies?
But it’s very like you to point stuff like this out (predictable, really), and ignore the main themes of the story, because saying nasty things about Jewish history is part of your MO. Perhaps you would have been happier if Haman triumphed and the Jews assimilated into the Persian empire of the time.