In the earliest annals of Jewish history a people known as the Amalekites had their name and reputation forever infamed by the kosher chronicles of the Pentateuch. These Hamitic-Arab speakers south of the Negev desert became the first mortal enemies of the Israelites in a neighborhood trend that continues to this day. The Amalekites were vanquished on orders from the Hebrew God, but you wouldn’t know it listening to the bellicose screeds of modern Israeli politicians. For the memory of the Amalekites was morbidly preserved by the Jews over the ages and employed like a wandering specter, projected onto their main enemy of the day via the collective metaphor Amalek.
Fast-forward to the present and Amalek is in a most prolific flux, with both Palestinians and Iranians being the target of Knesset firebrands who quote the Torah’s commands to “Wipe out the memory of Amalek” and “Never forget what Amalek did to you.” These religious commands, while nominally contradictory, are in fact ritually celebrated as a paradox during Purim. The Amalekites were the ones wiped out—and the Jews still haven’t forgiven them for it, with the bad blood of earlier episodes in their shared history truly preventing bygones from being bygones. In the estimation of Jewish leaders, lugging around victimhood for centuries didn’t have to be heavy cargo—rather the memory of Amalek could provide motivation and momentum from the rearguard. A primeval grudge turned into a psychological weapon that the Jews have gotten more mileage out of compared to anything else in their caravan of hagiography......