What does Passover tell us about international relations?

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Thursday, April 9, 2009 - 3:18 AM Share

A few months ago Steve Walt provided a useful guide for how IR theory can provide insights into Valentine's Day. In light of tonight being the first night of Passover, this post reverses the question -- what can this holiday teach us about international relations?   

This question is impossible to avoid for someone who attends a Seder and thinks about international relations. The essence of the seder is to answer the Four Questions -- i.e., to tell the story of how the Jews escaped from enslavement in Egypt.  And while international relations scholars tend to be more fond of using ancient Greek history to inform their theories, the Passover story reveals at least four relevant lessons about politics: 

1)  Minority rights in an autocratic regime are a fragile thing. As the story begins, the Jews are treated well in Egypt, what with Joseph having been a successful prime minister and all. Eventually, however, a new Pharaoh emerges, and then there's trouble: 

[T]here arose a new king over Egypt who feared the Jews because they were different. And he said to his people, "Look at how rich and how powerful are these children of Israel. If war comes, they may join themselves to our enemies and fight against us."

Autocratic leaders can ignore institutional restrictions, and are more likely to exploit ethnic tensions if they perceive a minority group as increasing in power and influence. 

2)  Sanctions against an autocratic regime will rarely yield significant concessions. To get the Pharaoh to let the Jews go, God imposes an escalating series of sanctions against Egypt. These sanctions crippled Egyptian agriculture, health, sanitation and, er, sunlight, inflicting great suffering against the Egyptian people. Not until the first-born male children are killed, however, does Pharaoh relent for a sufficiently long time for the Egyptians to make their escape. Not coincidentally, that plague is the only one to truly hurt the autocrat personally, as his son was killed in the plague as well. Compellence strategies would seem to have a greater chance of success if they target autocratic elites. 

3)  God was not that good at bargaining. For each of the ten plagues, the following pattern recurs:

  • Plague descends upon Egypt
  • Pharaoh begs Moses to get God to end the plague, promising freedom for the Jews if it happens
  • God lifts the plague
  • Pharaoh's heart hardens, and he reneges on the deal. 

Pharaoh does this nine -- count 'em, nine times -- before God resorts to the grisly tenth plague. No wonder the Egyptian leader kept reneging -- if anything, the Pharaoh's resolve should have increased over time, because he discovered that cheap talk could get God to stop what he was doing.* 

4)  America's idiotic sugar quotas are particularly bad for the Jews.  During Passover, Jews are not supposed to eat anything that contains yeast, rice, millet, corn, legumes, wheat, rye, oats, barley, and spelt (quinoa is apparently kosher).

All well and good, except that because of America's prohibitively high barriers to most sugar imports, a lot of food manufacturers use corn sweeteners -- i.e., high fructose corn syrup -- as a substitute for sugar.  Which means that for observant Jews, an entire category of goods that in other countries would be Kashrut is off the edible list for the next eight days. 

*Yes, yes, God was the one who hardens Pharaoh's heart, but that just makes the story sound like a seven-year old boy playing both sides of a checkers game. 

For a book-length treatment of how to think about the Old Testament from a strategic perspective, I warmly recommend Steven Brams' Biblical Games: Game Theory and the Hebrew Bible.

William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

EXPLORE:INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY
 

TLAW

8:42 AM ET

April 9, 2009

It seems like God hardening

It seems like God hardening Pharaoh's heart leads inexorably to a Chomskyan conclusion that human rights is just a smokescreen and policymakers don't really care about us.

 

KENNETH SORENSEN

9:51 AM ET

April 9, 2009

You clearly belong to an isolated minority

Try to blend a little more into the American Society. Indeed the rufusal of the Jews of America to blend in, has brought The United States and the entire world its greatest security Peril since WW2, because representatives from this tiny community out of entirely selfish reasons having to do with an urge to protect their dubious colony in the Middle East, have hijacked US Foreign Policy, and now virtually controls all aspects of it.

What can Drezner do?

He can spend every waken moment contemplating how Israel can be closed down in an orderly fashion. It is not unusual to close down a colony - even a state (German South Africa- now Namibia) was closed in the early 1920'ties and it was carried out by the predecessor to the UN. And the UN itself was instrumental in closing down one of Israels allies - White South Africa in the beginning of the 1990'ties So don't tell me that it can't be done. But what we need is commitment. Commitment from people like you. You must start by realising that this is a worthy goal

So when are we going to close White South Israel? The power within this colony lies with Whites from the former Russian Empire. It was set up by people from theree, without any blood-relationship to 'The Tvelve Tribes of Israel' at all. These people are at the same time the most virulent.
It continues to be a huge embarassment to all White people to have White people living in a colony in the middle of Arabia - of all places - and behaving in this way. It gives all White people a bad name there.

A Russian Empire problem
7 out of 8 of the following born there

Israel was created due to The Russian Empire's mistreatment of its Jews. It was not Maroccan or Iranian Jews that set Israel up, but people like:

  • David Grün ('David Ben Gurion') born in The Russian Empire. (now Poland)
  • Szymon Perski ('Shimon Peres') born in The Russian Empire. (now Belarus)
  • Ariel Scheinermann ('Ariel Sharon') born in Germany to parents from The Russian Empire. (now Belarus)
 

BLUE13326

9:57 AM ET

April 9, 2009

You've got issues. No,

You've got issues.

No, really, you do.

 

TESS

10:57 AM ET

April 10, 2009

You speak for yourself

Try to blend a little more into the American Society.

I certainly hope they don't try to blend in more. There are many benefits to Western societies brought by our minorities, including our Jewish population. If you consider their contributions to our Arts alone, it is huge.

This week I discovered "Kosher" gelatins are often vegan. Which is something I needed for preparation of our Easter meal, and is helpful for breaking our Lenten fast for the sects of Christianity not allowed animal products during Lent.

I think a "thank you" for not blending too much is better.

Also, be wary of confusing the term "Jew" and the term "Israeli" they are similar, but not totally conflate-able.

 

JUDITHS

12:03 AM ET

April 12, 2009

Try to blend in???

Kenneth Sorensen, I usually try to ignore trolls, especially bigoted ones. However, I'm concerned that other people may read your post, and not realize how wrong your facts are.

The Jews who live in Israel are not a bunch of White Europeans. First, Jews are a distinct ethnic group and have been for about four THOUSAND years, not a subset of White European Christians who for some trivial reason "refuse to blend in," as you seem to think. Second, most of the Jews in Israel are from the Middle East, not from Europe. Ashkenazim, or Jews of European decent, now mostly live in the US, not Israel. The Jews who live in Israel are mostly Sephardim—that is, Jews from the Middle East and Mediterranean countries. Their ancestors have been in the region for centuries or millennia, in most cases. Many of them lived in Arab countries until being forcibly expelled from them.

The idea that Jews are somehow to blame for the biggest security risks in the world is unbelievably anti-Semitic, not to mention stupid. I would say that the most dangerous conflict right now is between Pakistan and India, two nuclear-armed nations that have been at war for decades. Exactly how are Jews to blame for this conflict between a Hindu nation and a Muslim one? It also seems to have escaped your attention that North Korea has nuclear weapons, and just launched a missile. Are you going to claim that the North Koreans are secretly Jewish? And, I suppose you think Jews are also somehow to blame for the conflicts between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia, the Sudan, and the Philippines?

As for the idea that Jews have “hijacked” US foreign policy, you seem to have overlooked that both our President and our Secretary of State are Christian. Also, Christians in the US often take a harder line on Arab-Israeli issues than American Jews do. Many fundamentalist Christians cite the Bible as proof that God gave Israel to the Jews, whereas Jews tend towards a less literal interpretation of the Bible and (especially in the US) are more likely to favor compromise on territory issues.

Many of your comments are self-contradictory. How can you believe that Jews are an "isolated minority", as the title of your comment says, and at the same time believe that Jews control US foreign policy? Why do you feel it is so vital that Arab groups be free from the influence of White Europeans, yet when it comes to Jews, you feel they should completely give up their identity and assimilate to the White European majority?

And, I'm not even going to comment on most of your spelling mistakes, but since you profess such great respect for Arab societies, let me point out that there is no letter "a" in Morocco.

 

KENNETH SORENSEN

2:05 PM ET

April 12, 2009

It was wrong of Mr. Drezner

It was wrong of Mr. Drezner to quote the Bible about Jews enslavement in Egypt. First of all many Historians dispute much of it, including the 40 years wandering about in the desert. And they dispute that the Hebrews in this way entered the holy land through Jerico; instead they argue that they had been there all along, and indeed are one and the same as the original inhabitants/the Palestinians. Thus the story about enslavement in Egypt are used to mark the Hebrews/Jews as someone special (who have suffered), with a claim to The Holy Land. It is obvous how this can be used politically, and indeed many have used this as an argument for Israels right to exist and its legimity as the home for somebody who have slaved in Egypt and after 40 years wandering in the desert came back to the promised land.

Therefore I certainly did not expect a learned professor to use these syllabies in todays modern world, knowing the laden potency of the stories, and what they have been used for in the case of excusing Israel.-

__________________________

What is needed is a hard-nosed approach towards the worlds last colony, and you need to spell out that it should be closed. Very few people want to hear that their country should be closed, and it is in this psychological way that the israelis and their supporters should be dealt with.

Furthermore they should be told that their colony have absolutely none reason-d'etre. And the little moral high-ground they may have had (something about their suffering in WW2) have long ago been forfeited by their arrogant and ruthless behaviour towards the indigeneous peoples of the region.

Power elite from Imperial Russia

Most of the power elite comes from Imperial Russia, and have no blood-relationship whatsoever to the ancient Jewish tribes, which also existed there 2000 years ago, rendering no value today to any right of 'return' (After so many years others have gained right of usage to the land).

It has a destabilising effect

But the most important argument for closing it down is its destabilising effect on world politics, and its role as the worlds number one incentive to terror. Without it, there would have been no six armed conflicts with its neighbours, no terror-campaign following the ousting of 250.000 Palestinians from the West Bank in June 1967, no terror-campaign (the hitherto most severe in World History) involving hi-jacks of aircraft on a massive scale and hostagetakings, , no oilcrisis in 1973-74, no second oil-crisis in 1979 (it would have been the first, and less severe, because it was due to hysteria about a lack of oil(triggered by the fall of the Shah in Iran), following the first), no two intifadas, no 9/11 (which had as chief motivating-factor US support for harsh Israeli policies towards the Palestinians and as second motivating-factor US troops continued presence on holy Saudi soil after Saddam had been ousted from Kuwait in 1991, despite promises given before the war to King Fahd that they would be withdrawn at the end of hostilities. The man responsible for their continued stay was the super-zionist and -lobbyist Martin Indyk , US citizen from 1993 and later US ambassador to Israel), and subsequently no invasion of either Aghanistan in October 2001 or Iraq in March 2003. And no beating of War Drums towards Iran from Israel and their despicable supporters in the US.

Americans! Dismantle the outlawed colony

Americans do yourself a favour. Dismantle the outlawed colony ASP so that the world can get peace.

 

BUZZ KILLINGTON

11:52 AM ET

April 9, 2009

Hmm

I wish our government would learn a lesson from that story. Iraq aside, we have been following that playbook for quite a while, it seems. And clearly, we will be for the foreseeable future.

 

TGGP

2:24 PM ET

April 9, 2009

Autocrats & minorities

Actually, autocrats are often the defenders of unpopular minorities. Suharto in Indonesia protected the overseas Chinese, who are often attacked in riots there. The Old Testament tells of the Persian king who liberated the Jews (and Persia has long been associated with autocracy). Much of anti-semitism in eastern europe has been attributed to the association of Jews with the (often German) elite nobility, for whom they often worked as tax-collectors. The Armenians performed a similar role in the Ottoman empire, so they certainly didn't benefit from the rise of the Young Turks. It is democracy, which empowers the mob, which minorities must fear.

 

Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

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