Netanyahu’s anti-messianic messianism of forever war

Given the religious and political folklore that are taken for serious historical guidelines around Israel, it looks more and more like the apocalyptic visions being applied to it are devolving into a theocratic nightmare of the worst kind.

Julie Cooper in Haaretz notes the trend among Israelis protesting Netanyahu’s brand of war and demanding that his government show more serious concern for the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

The anguished calls [by Israeli dissenters] for action "now" feel increasingly powerless to arrest the relentless drive toward a forever war. Why has it been so hard to translate this sense of urgency into an effective resistance movement – despite polling that consistently shows a majority of Israelis support a hostage deal and end to the war?

There are many factors that explain why a war lacking widespread popular support (or a compelling military rationale) continues: The cynical calculus of coalition politics, the feeble response of the international community, the cowardice of Israel's center left opposition parties. Netanyahu's ability to drag Israeli society ever deeper into the quagmire, with no end in sight, also reflects the extent to which this has become a messianic war. [my emphasis] (1)

Haaretz headling to Cooper’s article:

Cooper points to the great scholar of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem, who she quotes as writing, “in Judaism the messianic idea has compelled a life lived in deferment.” Until the Messiah arrives, in this concept, the full Jewish life cannot be lived. She points to how Netanyahu embodies a practical, real-world form of deferment.

On the one hand, Netanyahu is the antithesis of the passivity of which Scholem unfairly accused diaspora Jews. Netanyahu wields immense, indiscriminate and devastating military power with brazen disregard for civilian immunity, human rights and the laws of war.

Yet Netanyahu is also a master of the art of deferral. Pundits have long noted Netanyahu's compulsive tendency to put off or avoid difficult decisions. Netanyahu has always favored stasis over change, conflict management over conflict resolution. From today's vantage point, Netanyahu's ideology of the status quo may turn out to be his most consequential deformation of Israeli political discourse. ... [my emphasis]

She argues that Netanyahu, despite his “anti-messianic pretensions … has trapped Israeli society in a temporal vortex no less messianic than the deferment Scholem criticized” and that Netanyahu “and his far-right government have 'doomed us to forever live by the sword’." A stasis of violence and endlessly recurring violent conflict.

In a more prosaic vein, we could say that Netanyahu has created a situation in which it is in his own personal vital interest to stay in power for as long as he can, and he can do that only in the context of a forever war. For which he requires the continuing backing of the United States. In a separate article, Cooper wrote in 2021:

To Netanyahu’s chagrin, influential players in Jewish politics are in thrall to what he considers a “fantasy view of Israel’s situation”: [contemporary Jewish] left messianism dictates willingness to withdraw from the occupied territories, right messianism a belief that settlement will bring the (literal) messianic era. … Netanyahu suggests that the lone alternative to “simplistic, sentimental, and even messianic views of politics” lies in constant military vigilance and realpolitik. (2)

Notes:

(1) Cooper, Julie (2025): How Netanyahu Has Trapped Israel in a Messianic Timeline of Eternal War. Haaretz 08/26/2025. Stable link: <https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-08-26/ty-article-opinion/.premium/why-protests-to-bring-them-home-now-fail-in-the-battle-against-netanyahus-gaza-war/00000198-e0e2-dd20-a5fc-fce313410000?gift=ac48c171245d424daf8b1c77aa42d1cb> (Accessed: 2025-27-06).

(2) Cooper, Julie (2021): Can the World Be Redeemed? Geʾulah versus Pidyon: Toward a Mundane, Non-Eschatological Approach to Redemption. Journal of Jewish Though & Philosophy 29:2021. <https://people.socsci.tau.ac.il/mu/juliecooper/files/2021/04/jjtparticle.pdf> (Accessed: 2025-06-09).

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Captain Ahab of the Middle East

I see I’m not the only one to think of the metaphor of Captain Ahab and Moby Dick in connection with Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsession with Iran.

Ofri Ilany just used it in a column:

The prevailing attitude in the anti-Netanyahu camp tends to see him as cynical and corrupt. The protest movements have generally depicted him as a hedonist heading a Byzantine court saturated with pink champagne and cigar smoke. Many believe that the submarine affair of yore and the Qatar scandal are just the tip of a vast iceberg, harboring corruption on a humongous scale, and that sooner or later it will emerge that over the years, the Netanyahu family stole huge sums from the state.

I thought so as well in the past. But somehow the hedonist portrayal just hasn't stuck. After all, the prime minister is an extraordinarily grim and stern man. This dark disposition was captured precisely by Donald Trump, who recently described Netanyahu as an "angry man." The situation in which we now find ourselves exposes the truth about his personality. The political phenomenon known as Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been determining our fate for generations, is revealing its true nature now more than ever.

Like Ahab, Netanyahu is unrestrained and out of touch. This has certainly resulted in resounding failures, culminating in October 7. However, these failures did not emerge out of extreme decadence, but are due rather to his total devotion to an obsessive personal mission: a life-and-death struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leader Ali Khamenei. This is far more alarming than mere political corruption. [my emphasis] (1)

The analogy of Captain Ahab is often associated with obsession. But particularly with self-destructive obsession and fanaticism:

Ultimately, the prime minister's prophecy of an unavoidable clash fulfilled itself. We are now facing a fateful final act. Just before his final exit from the stage, Ahab had to surrender to the death drive and steer the ship straight toward the whale. And even if everything was to shatter into pieces, Ahab would not change, nor would he abandon his mission. [my emphasis]

Netanyahu is taking his country and the whole region toward a much worse situation.

With the full cooperation of Peace President Trump.

Ahab’s final battle with the White Whale

And he has created a nightmare for his country and for the Palestinian civilians he is targeting. Ahmed Ahmed and Ibtisam Mahdi report on the nightmare he and the Israeli Defense Forces have created at the aid-distribution locations for starving Gazans:

After two months without a single drop of food, medicine, or fuel entering Gaza, a trickle of white flour and canned goods has been allowed in since late May. Most of it has gone to sites in Rafah and the Netzarim Corridor managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), guarded by private American security contractors and Israeli soldiers. On June 10, small shipments also began arriving via aid trucks operated by the World Food Programme (WFP).

But with hunger deepening, people no longer wait for the trucks to move safely past Israeli troops. Instead, they rush toward them the moment they appear, desperate to grab whatever they can before supplies vanish. Tens of thousands gather at the distribution points, sometimes for days in advance, and many go home empty-handed.

Starving civilians gather in massive crowds, waiting for permission to approach. In many instances, Israeli troops have opened fire on the masses — and even during distribution itself — killing dozens as they try to collect a few kilos of flour or canned goods to bring home in what Palestinians have dubbed “The Hunger Games.”

Since May 27, well over 400 Palestinians have been killed and over 3,000 wounded while waiting for aid, according to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basel. The deadliest single attack on aid seekers occurred on June 17, when Israeli forces fired tank shells, machine guns, and drones into a crowd of Palestinians in Khan Younis, killing 70 and injuring hundreds. [my emphasis] (2)

A genuine horror show. The kind of scenes fanaticism and obsession can produce.

And the fanaticism in both America and Israel is made worse for nationalistic religious/apocalyptic influences:

To his evangelical base, Trump is fulfilling end times prophecies before their eyes. Moving the [US] embassy [from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during Trump’s first turn] was but the first step in reorienting US policy toward prophecy. What is happening right now — with the US joining with Israel in this bombing — is nothing less than God's work, and they believe that they are the recipients of the long-awaited promise of Jesus' return.

... [T]he MAGA "Jesus" and their particular prophecy tradition only dates to the mid-1800s. It was a completely invented theology about 200 years ago.

Yet that theological innovation has been one of the most wildly successful heresies in the history of Christianity in terms of spread and influence — mostly via Pentecostalism, the largest and most sustained global religious movement of the last century. (3)

Abed Abou Shhadeh also elaborates on that theme:

Israel’s decision to attack Iran cannot be interpreted through any rational lens. I>t directly contradicts Israel’s longstanding military doctrine, which was built on short, decisive operations aimed at securing tangible strategic goals - a doctrine rooted in Israel’s inherent geographic, economic and demographic vulnerabilities. 

What we are witnessing now is a fundamental shift: the abandonment of strategic realism in favour of a theology-driven war without end. 

The transformation is stark. Israel is evolving from a western-backed colonial project seeking international legitimacy, into a messianic colonial enterprise that thrives on perpetual war. The growing use of religious rhetoric and the enlistment of God into the logic of war underscore this systemic change. [my emphasis] (4)

Notes:

(1) Hany, Ofri (2025): Without Iran, There's No Netanyahu. He's Obsessed, and Israel Has Been Swept Up in It. Haaretz 06/21/2025. <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-21/ty-article-opinion/.highlight/without-iran-theres-no-netanyahu-hes-obsessed-and-israel-has-been-swept-up-in-it/00000197-8f3c-d879-a5df-bf7d22240000> (Accessed: 2025-21-06).

(2) Ahmed, Ahmed [sic] & Mahdi, Ibtisam (2025): ‘The Hunger Games’: Inside Israel’s aid death traps for starving Gazans. +972 Magazine 06/20/2025. <https://www.972mag.com/hunger-games-israel-gaza-food-aid/> (Accessed: 2025-21-06).

(3) Bass, Dian Butler (2025): War and Prophetic Ecstasy: Bombing Iran and Evangelical Dreams. The Cottage 06/22/2025). <https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/war-and-prophetic-ecstasy> (Accessed: 2025-22-06).

(4) Shhadeh, Abed Abou (2025): Israel-US attack on Iran: The price of Netanyahu's forever wars. Middle East Eye 06/22/2025. <https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-us-war-iran-the-price-netanyahus-messianic-wars> (Accessed: 2025-22-06).

American Jewish reaction to Isreali officials supporting Trump against criticism for his promoting anti-Semitism

Allison Kaplan Sommer writes about the significance of the response to Israeli officials to the Pittsburgh massacre last week and how it may shape American Jewish attitudes about the Likud-led government of Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (American Jews May Never Forgive Israel for Its Reaction to the Pittsburgh Massacre Haaretz 11/04/2018):

Over the past week, when American Jews expected comfort and support, Israeli government officials instead offered carefully honed political talking points: It is “unfair” to assign responsibility to the president, they lectured. Trump is the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House, he has Jewish family members therefore, any implication he is either anti-Semitic himself or encourages anti-Semitism with his populist “America First” rhetoric is outrageous. These arguments were inevitabley followed up by the “both sides” defense - that Farrakhan-style leftist anti-Semitism is equally as bad and dangerous as white supremacist Soros-bashing xenophobia.

What Sommer describes is a good example of how narrow or short-term calculations of national interest can potentially compromise broader and more long-term ones:

Not only did Israel’s leaders choose Trump over American Jews, but they did so easily, naturally, without hesitation, leaping to the defense of a political leader who is actively and openly fanning the flames of hatred that now has an unprecedented death toll. That they did this, and did so before the bodies of eleven American Jews: brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, were even buried, was experienced as a stab in the back, which, even if it does heal one day, will leave a scar.