Brigandage was rife in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods. There were notorious gangs of pirates
based in Cilicia, who not only stole merchandise but also kidnapped
people in the Mediterranean and then sold them into slavery or held them
for ransom. This situation was reflected in talmudic sources, which
described the Ishmaelites as following in the footsteps of their
robber-ancestors.
The Sages first adopted the hostile
attitude of the Torah, formed in the wake of the religious-ethnic
conflict of the Israelites with the peoples that inhabited the “Land of
Canaan”. Therefore, they permitted discriminating against the Gentiles,
defined as the Canaanites. However, following Roman intervention, and
because of their fear of possible retaliation and abuse of the name of
the God of Israel, the Sages prohibited anti-Gentile discrimination.
Daily contact with non-Jews, especially in the cities having mixed
populations, brought the Sages to foster friendly behavior towards the
Gentiles, even to providing them with economic aid directly – with the
condition that this did not involve recognition or support of idolatry.
The same policies and practices are exhibited by the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Just as the Sages modified their
stand, so we – in this age of globalization – must act so as to ensure
the well-being of our fellow Jews abroad, remembering that “all Jews are
responsible for one another.”
* * *
The rebellion of the Maccabees
against the Seleucid kingdom in the 2nd century BCE,
following which the Maccabees conquered many Greco-Syrian cities on the
sea coast, in Samaria, in Galilee, and elsewhere, increased the
hostility of the native population. This hostility was expressed in
libellous and anti-Semitic treatises (see my “Tacitus and Ancient
Anti-Semitism”, Revue des etudes juives 154 [1995]: 281-294).
When confronted by Antiochus VII
Sidetes’ demand that he evacuate the coastal areas, Shimeon the Maccabee
retorted that this land was inherited from the Jews’ forefathers, and
that its enemies occupied it unlawfully. Echoes of this dispute are
found in the writings of John of Antioch and of Procopius, two Christian
historians of the 5th and 6th centuries
respectively. Their writings state that, after leaving Egypt, the
brigand, Joshua son of Nun, led the Hebrews into Palestine, conquering
the land of the Girgashites, the Jebusites, and the Canaanites. As a
result, they said, these inhabitants had to flee to Africa.
This tradition is corroborated by
several midrashim, in which “sons of Africa”, Canaanites, and
Ishmaelites, claim that the Land of Israel was theirs and that the
Israelite robbers had stolen it. These Gentiles’ claim, based on
Biblical verses, was refuted by other Biblical verses cited in the
midrashim.
Nowadays,
the Palestinians – dissatisfied with their identification with Ishmael
the son of Abraham – assert that they are the descendants of the
Canaanites and the Jebusites, who preceded the Israelites in the Holy
Land. Thus, they fabricate a “history” for themselves, while
obliterating all evidence of the continuous Jewish historical bonds with
the Land.
