On The Scripture Netanyahu Quoted

• Jean de Marco/Architect of US Capitol

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress Tuesday concluded with a ringing declaration ripped from Scripture—and then a standing ovation.

Moses was addressing the Israelites on the bank of the River Jordan. As Moses knew, he was hours from his death, and in a handful of days the Israelites, led by Joshua, would cross the Jordan without him. They’d meet little resistance.

For Miles’s purpose, which is to riddle out God, what is going on here is vitally important. “The merciless new attitude toward non-Israelites bespeaks a profound change,” he writes. “God is a warrior with, mysteriously, a military agenda on which Egypt seems to have been just the first entry.”