Understanding the Bible’s Political Teachings

Although it is rarely taught in political-science courses, the Hebrew Bible has had a profound impact on Western political thought, from medieval Christian Europe to the American founders and to the present. Yoram Hazony, who has written extensively on this subject, here discusses the Bible’s political doctrines, arguing that Genesis and Exodus contrast the pastoral and nomadic life of the patriarchs with the sophisticated and all-powerful governments found in the empires of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Furthermore, he finds in Judges and Samuel a doctrine of the monarchy, the social contract, and the consent of the governed utterly unlike the notion of “divine right” claimed by many premodern rulers. (Interview by Jonathan Silver. Audio, 39 minutes. Options for download and streaming are available at the link below.)

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More about: Hebrew Bible, Jewish political tradition, Political philosophy, Religion & Holidays, Religion and politics

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

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More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF