Author Jeffrey Peoples joins The Black Sheep's Joseph (Jake) Klein to discuss Jeffrey’s book, The Children of Amalek, which explains the ties between religious Judaism and the modern state of Israel, challenging both antisemitic conspiracy theories and claims that modern Israel is purely secular in origin and practice.
In The Children of Amalek, Jeffrey Peoples critiques how ancient religious narratives, especially the biblical command to annihilate the Amalekites and other tribes of Canaan, are invoked in modern Israeli political discourse to justify violence against non-Jews in Palestine. Central to his argument is a deep examination of the concept of Jewish “peoplehood” as constructed through religious, racial, and genealogical mythologies found in the Tanakh. Peoples argues that this mythic genealogy—defining Jewish identity not just as a religion but as a bloodline—has been weaponized to legitimize pseudo-racial nationalism and domination in Palestine. It has also contributed to the suppression of free speech in the United States through the abuse of the concept of "antisemitism," and imperils the prosperity and security of the United States. He explores how these narratives, which sanctify the conquest of Canaan and racial cleansing as divine mandates, are echoed in Zionist ideology and modern Israeli policies, ultimately facilitating an apartheid and genocide. The book challenges the moral and rational coherence of anti-Zionist Jews continued devotion to the ancient mythology of the Torah and a Jewish identity while they simultaneously oppose the apartheid and genocide by Israel.
Read The Children of Amalek:
