Netanyahu – The New David

Some three thousand years ago the nation of Israel was threatened with destruction. On one side of a steep valley was assembled the Israelite army, led by King Saul. Camped on the opposite side of the valley were the armies of the Philistines, ready for battle.

The Philistines challenged Saul to decide the outcome of the battle in single combat. The Philistine champion was a fearsome warrior by the name of Goliath. Goliath was a giant of a man. He inspired such dread amongst the Israelites that no man could be found who was willing to confront him.

Finally, after forty days, a young shepherd stepped forward and announced that he was ready to face Goliath. The name of this youth was David. He was the youngest of eight sons born to Jesse of Bethlehem.

According to the Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Bible, David felled Goliath with a single stone from his sling, causing the Philistines to flee in terror and allowing the Israelites to win a great victory. For his valor, David became an acclaimed leader, and went on to succeed Saul as the King of Israel.

Now, in the early years of the 21st century, the people of Israel stand once again confronted by enemies who have sworn to destroy them. At a time of perceived weakness, Israel is once again in need of a new champion – one who can withstand the menace of these opposing forces and defend the Jewish nation in its hour of need.

Such a man has arrived on the world stage, ready to claim the mantle of saviour. He is not a man new to power, but one strengthened by past battles, and now ready to take his appointed place in history as the new David. This man is known to friends and enemies alike as “Bibi” – Benyamin Netanyahu.

“Bibi” is unique among those who have been called upon to lead the nation of Israel, as he is the first and only person to become Prime Minister who was born after the foundation of Israel on May 14, 1948.

He spent five years serving his country as a distinguished captain of an elite commando unit at the time of the Six Day War. His elder brother Jonatan (“Yoni”) became a hero when he was killed in 1976 while leading the successful raid on Entebbe to rescue passengers and crew aboard a hijacked Air France Airbus.

When “Bibi” was a teenager, his family moved to the United States, where he was educated at Cheltenham High School in Philadelphia. He later earned a B.S. degree in Architecture in 1975, and then went on to study Political Science at Harvard and MIT.

As a result of his experience in the United States, he became an articulate defender of Israeli interests in the West, and was a frequent guest on radio and television. It was during these interviews that he began to advocate the need to counter the growing threat to Israel posed by Iran.

He likened Iran to Germany during the time of Hitler, and especially warned against the fact that Jews failed to take Hitler’s threats seriously, even though he had clearly outined in his book “Mein Kampf“, exactly how he planned to liquidate the Jews.

In an interview with CNN in 2007, Netanyahu claimed that the main difference between Nazi Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran was that, whereas Hitler had begun a worldwide conflict before seeking atomic weapons, Iran was seeking nuclear weapons first, and then planned to embark on a campaign of global conquest.

This is a theme that Netanyahu returns to again and again. In a recent interview on Israeli TV, he called Iran the greatest danger to Israel and to all humanity. He said that if he was elected Prime Minister, his first objective would be to deal with the growing Iranian nuclear threat.

When asked if that might include a military strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities at Natantz, Netanyahu responded: “It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true.”

An Iranian Goliath now awaits the challenge of the new David. All that remains is to see what weapon he will choose for his response.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Signs of the Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.