“Kill them first.” Netanyahu announces changing Israel’s security doctrine based on the Talmud news

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements regarding the Israeli security doctrine based on “initiative and pre-emptive strike” sparked a widespread wave of controversy, after he presented them in the context of a political speech that carried religious references and intellectual justifications for this approach, which reopened the debate about the nature of the Israeli security strategy and its moral and political limits.

Netanyahu said, in a speech he delivered during a conference organized by the Jewish News Agency in the occupied city of Jerusalem, that “Israel has changed its security doctrine,” adding: “We take the initiative, we attack, we surprise, and we attack the enemies who seek to destroy us and who are looking to kill us. We attack them before they have the opportunity to do so.”

Netanyahu cited a Hebrew phrase: “Haba lehorgikha hashikim lehorgo,” which translates to: “If someone comes to kill you, get up early and kill him first,” referring to what he described as an intellectual basis that justifies the proactive approach in Israeli security doctrine.

He also referred to a text from the Babylonian Talmud that carries the same meaning, stressing that this approach reflects, as he put it, a rational response to the existential threats facing Israel, and not a departure from religious or intellectual traditions.

Netanyahu’s statements come in the context of an escalating political and security discourse, reflecting a hardening adoption of the option of pre-emptive strikes, in light of ongoing regional tension and escalating confrontations in more than one arena.

These statements sparked widespread interaction on social media platforms, amid a wave of sharp criticism denouncing their content, and a strong rejection of the justifications contained in them, in light of a state of widespread anger and denunciation towards what was stated in the speech.

The “Voice of the Rabbis” page wrote on the “X” platform that Netanyahu “does not believe in God, His Torah, or the teachings of the Talmud,” considering that the so-called “resistance” is – according to its description – “a failed formula for a Zionist ideology that has brought endless conflicts,” calling for an end to what it described as “the recruitment of Jews around the world as political shields.”

For his part, the American Jewish rabbi who opposes “Zionism” Yaakov Shapir said that the problem is that Israel “claims and legally establishes itself as a state that represents the Jews of the world,” adding that this claim is “fake, hateful, and immoral and must be rejected,” as he put it.

On the other hand, activists saw that Netanyahu’s statements reveal an aspect of the nature of Israeli political discourse and its regional goals, considering that they reflect what they described as ambitions that go beyond the borders of Palestine.

While others described Netanyahu as a “war criminal” and “obsessed with genocide,” considering that his statements reflect an extremist approach to conflict management.

Bloggers say that these statements are not just a passing statement, but rather – according to their opinion – reflect the essence of the Israeli security and military doctrine based on the concept of a pre-emptive strike, which Netanyahu has always promoted in his political speeches.