![Who is responsible for theological drift Netanyahu or West Who is responsible for theological drift Netanyahu or West](/en/assets/uploads/2023/11/299095.jpg)
Who is responsible for theological drift: Netanyahu or West?
While the Israeli army continues its occupation of Gaza step by step, that country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, attempts to justify the killing of Palestinians with reference to the Torah. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, Netanyahu embraced Jewish theology by bringing up the Prophecy of Isaiah regarding the “promised land.”
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While the Israeli army continues its occupation of Gaza step by step, that country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, attempts to justify the killing of Palestinians with reference to the Torah. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, Netanyahu embraced Jewish theology by bringing up the Prophecy of Isaiah regarding the “promised land.”
I discussed in a column last week why that move posed a threat to regional and world politics. I also highlighted the importance of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recognizing the risk of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict turning into a religious war and warning the West, starting with the United States, against portraying the current situation as a battle between the crescent and the cross.
It would seem that Benjamin Netanyahu, finding himself under immense pressure at home, won’t hesitate to double down on this theological discourse. It is alarming, nonetheless, that Western governments haven’t warned the Israeli prime minister against inciting a religious or civilizational conflict – even though more than 8,000 Palestinians have already perished. Furthermore, there is the bitter memory of how the U.S. promptly began to talk about “the crusades” after 9/11 and how its occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq fueled radicalization in the Middle East. That was the toxic environment that gave rise to Daesh.
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