Amalek, Haman, Purim and Saddam Hussein

Now I will allow an Israeli to tell the story from his perspective:

This War is for Us

by Ariel Natan Pasko

Arutz Sheva

March, 26 2003

Stop and think for a moment: the last Gulf War in 1991 ended erev - just before - Purim. This Gulf War began motzei - just after - Shushan Purim. Get the picture?

Of course this war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein is for us ...

... this war is for us - i.e., the Jews and Israel. Chazal - our sages - throughout the ages have explained the Torah, telling us that everything that happens in the world is for the benefit of the Jewish People.

Simply put another way, if all the world is a stage, then the Jews - and especially those in the Land of Israel - are the lead actors on the stage of history, and the goyim - the nations, i.e. the gentiles - have supporting roles, while the evil-doers are props and background scenery. As our tradition states, G-D - the great playwright - created the world for the sake of the Jewish People, and it is our responsibility to implement the Torah - absolute morality and the blueprint of creation - in it.

Stop and think for a moment: the last Gulf War in 1991 ended erev - just before - Purim. This Gulf War began motzei - just after - Shushan Purim. Get the picture? In between, "The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honor." (Book of Esther 8:16)

Read the Purim story in Megilat Esther again, it is a rags to riches story on a national scale. Haman, the proto-typical anti-Semite, plans mass murder of the Jews and in the end pays with his life, the life of his ten sons - all hanged - and the Jews kill 75, 800 members of the anti-Semitic - i.e. Nazi - party of the time.

... As I said earlier, of course this war is for the Jews and Israel, and instead of hiding from the accusation, or crying, "anti-Semitic slur", we should gratefully acknowledge what the Master of the Universe is doing to our enemies for us. Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat, Bashar Assad, Osama Bin-Laden, and the other dictators, terrorists and mullahs of the region, are the modern day Hamans ...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/2125

Perhaps this Israeli's excitement with wars against "modern day Hamans" coinciding with Purim, the holiday commemorating the Jews' vengeance against Haman, can be understood in light of Judaic messianic prophesy:

"But withal redemption will not be complete until Amalek will be exterminated, for against Amalek the oath was taken that “the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation” (Ex. XVII,16). (Soncino Zohar, Bereshith, Folio 25b)