I just finished reading Esther this morning. It’s quite astonishing to read it in 2024 – with what’s going on in Israel & Gaza. There are some fascinating similarities (and important differences) between 480 BC and 2024; between ancient Persia and modern Palestine, which I wanted to reflect on here.

The Reality of Oppression

Jewish identity is shaped by many things, but among them we must include the tragic reality of being oppressed.

This is a historic trajectory that goes all the way back to Egypt. Israel under the lash of oppressive rule by Pharaoh. Making bricks without straw. The book of Exodus narrates the astounding victory that Israel experienced under God’s redemptive hand. It’s an ultimate reversal of power. The ultimate under-dog story. The little guy beating the big guy. Little Israel plundered the Big Egyptians. Their Big fancy chariot wheels got stuck before they all got drowned in the sea, and we Little guys made it through just fine with dry feet.

The book of Esther narrates the Jews under a kind of new Egypt, this time it is Persia. And this time, it is not the king that plays the leading oppressor role, but a high-ranking official named Haman. The basic story arc here is similar to Exodus, but instead of escaping with plunder, the reversal here is that the ones who were about to be entirely destroyed got to do some defensive destroying of their own.

Fast forward to 1933-1945 and the sense of victimhood has another horrific and historic chapter supporting it. This time Egypt is the Third Reich and Pharaoh is Hitler. I’ve been to Auschwitz. I’ve read Night by Elie Weisel. Utterly inhumane and horrific. Jewish folk carted in, dehumanised, starved, humiliated and systematically disposed of.

So then, in the mind of the Jewish people, the lineage of oppression and victimhood is clear and historic.
Egypt. Persia. Third Reich.
Pharaoh. Haman. Hitler.

Victims in the Present Moment

The time-span from Hitler and the WWII era to the current situation is only mere decades, but for us it feels like ages. The UN Partition Plan (1947) placed Israel officially back in the land. Without wanting (or pretending to be able) to get into a balanced summary of events, shall we say it’s not been a peaceful situation. There’s not much I want to say about the current horrors taking place. But I will risk making an observation that I think is crucially important.

Putting aside the question of what is correct or right, and focusing on the question of what motivates action… both the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) and Hamas (note: I’ve deliberately not used the terms ‘Israel’ or the ‘Palestinians’) are operating from a victim mindset… and both feel their actions are justified because of it.

Whatever you think about Just War theory, pacifism, or self-defense, we can probably acknowledge the difference between senseless, random, brutality (“let’s kill people for fun”) and the kind of violence and counter-violence at play here (“they have it coming to them”). Agree or not with the actions of either, it is useful to try to understand them.

Let’s go back now and look a little closer at Exodus, Esther, WWII and then the present…

Justifying Violence?

Lets start in Exodus. Egypt justified violence and ‘shrewd’ treatment against the Israelites, arguing that “the Israelites have become much too numerous” (Exodus 1:8-10). They feared them growing even more numerous, fighting against them, and leaving. In light of this oppressive enslavement, we see Moses justifying killing the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew (2:11-13). In the book of Exodus, there is a strong theme of God fighting for Israel (14:14; 14:25). They don’t have to wield swords, the Lord brings plagues and parts the sea. The Israelites are more numerous, but weaker in terms of political power, might and money. And through divine rescue, they conquer. The little guys (large in number) beat the big bad guys.

Next, let’s look at Esther. Here we have Haman, the Agagite, who is not only incensed that Mordecai will not bow to recognise the high standing he’d been given, but escalated matters to planning and scheming to have all Jews destroyed throughout the whole kingdom. We don’t know if the logic he lays out to Xerxes (Ahasuerus) is genuinely part of his background hatred of Jews, but his argument was that the Jews have different laws, keep separate, and don’t obey the king’s laws. Their impropriety made them, by his logic, worthy of extinction. By the time Haman had written letters in the king’s name, they contained “the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews – young and old, women and little children… and to plunder their goods.” (3:13) The order identified a single day for the slaughter, and went out to every province.

The immediate response was “great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing.” (4:3) This was in addition to their existing sense of oppression as exiles. Esther (Hadassah) was not only a descendant of captives, but also an orphan. She didn’t have any wealth or power, but we learn she is rich with beauty and wisdom (2:5-7). As the story plays out (spoilers if you haven’t read it), Haman gets hung on a gallows he had made for Mordecai (7:10). Still more, although the previous order of Haman could not be undone (it carried the seal of the signet ring), the king empowered Esther and Mordecai to issue a second decree, authorised again by the signet ring, that the Jews have “the right to assemble and protect themselves, to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children, and to plunder the property of their enemies.” (8:11). Haman’s orders were literally genocidal (“all the Jews” young/old, women/children), while Mordecai’s were restricted to the defensive destruction of armed attackers. When the day came for the previous genocidal orders of Haman to be carried out, the Jews assembled “to attack those seeking their destruction” (9:2). The enemies resisted and destroyed reached as high as 75,000, and it is repeated three times that “they did not lay their hands on the plunder.” (9:10, 15, 16) The would-be victims were empowered to defend themselves, and did not escalate matters and take the plunder that the edict had entitled them to. The victims had resisted oppression without becoming oppressors themselves.

Fast forward to WWII and Hitler. Hitler was motivated by a victim mentality. He and other Germans felt that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh. With his own brand of so-called scientific reasoning, he felt that the Jews were a threat to the health, strength, and purity of human progress. Such was the horrific thinking that justified such terrible tragic brutality and violence. As for the Jewish people, there was no opportunity for counter violence – and no need for justifying it. Unlike the mass deliverance narrated in Exodus, not everyone was able to escape to neighbouring countries or survive the concentration camps (better called Death Camps). Unlike the stark triumphant reversal narrated in the book of Esther, there was no great empowering act of self-defense in 1945. The war simply ended one day and survivors were freed.

Revisiting Victimhood in the Present Moment

Again, both the IDF and Hamas feel victimised.
Let’s consider some of the ways each feel victimised.

Palestinians in general – and Hamas in particular – protest displacement going back decades to the 1947 UN Partition Plan. They see this as an ongoing act of oppression. They lament the imposition of walls that were built between families that separated people and communities. They lament the responses of Israel that they would claim are consistently disproportionate.

Israel, by contrast, feels the pain of long-standing displacement and diaspora, going back centuries. They feel hated by surrounding nations. They feel the pain of being judged for what they would call self-defense. They feel misrepresented and labelled as reckless when they claim they are doing everything possible to warn innocent people to clear out.

When Justifications aren’t Just…

I’m going to risk suggesting that the victim mentality has wrongly justified violence on both sides.
That’s not me sitting comfortably on the fence, that’s trying to be even-handed in critique.

Hamas cannot justify their literally genocidal intent. Whatever the realities of ongoing colonisation and oppression, that does not justify the actions of 7 October 2023, and the ongoing refusal to return all hostages. It does not justify the tactics of hiding under hospitals and using civilians as human shields.

The IDF cannot justify its ‘collateral damage’ of civilian casualties in Gaza. Whatever the legitimacy there may be to defending yourself against a group (Hamas) that wants to end your existence, and however fair it is to take action to achieve the return or rescue of hostages, this does not justify the mass bombing. Civilians are never going to be able to clear out faster than Hamas.

A Better Way…

Jesus spoke to a group of Jews who also identified as Victims. They were under the thumb of Roman occupation. They longed for a Messianic rescue. Some of them were ready to wield the sword. Some did. The Maccabean revolt decades before Jesus. The Simon bar Kokhba revolt a century after.

Jesus instead taught these victims to pray for those who persecute them. To strive for and pray for justice, but to do that with Mercy and Humility, in line with the prophet Micah. Jesus knew then and knows now what happens when “the things that make for peace” remain hidden from our eyes.

Let us Pray for Peace and Work for Peace. At all times and places.