Israel's Long Past With Terrorism

Every other week, I go to synagogue for a discussion group on the Parsha of the week. This week, we talked about what was happening in Israel at the time of the events of the Purim story (which happened in Persia). One of the things we read was the book of Nehemiah.

In Chapter 4 of Nehemiah, the Jews are trying to rebuild Jerusalem (which they have just been given permission to do in a previous chapter). Their enemies "heard that healing had come to the walls of Jerusalem" and "they all conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to throw it into confusion". They tried to demoralize the Jews and, frankly, succeeded. Jewish leaders gave powerful speeches to hearten the populace. These speeches helped, and the people returned to work on the city walls.

But not quite the same.

"The basket-carriers were burdened, doing work with one hand while the other held a weapon. As for the builders, each had his sword girded at his side as he was building."

Sounds a lot like the modern state of Israel, trying to build a nation amidst those trying to destroy them.