Last night, in a prerecorded message, Benjamin Netanyahu compared the war against Iran, Hizballah, Hamas, and the Houthis to the ten plagues visited against Egypt in the Bible. In this analogy, Netanyahu compares Israel’s enemies to Egypt and himself to God.

Netanyahu’s speeches often seek to evoke the Dionysian intoxication that eviscerates distinctions and to place his premiership within a grand, world-historical, and civilizational context. Building off the recent deaths of four soldiers, Netanyahu’s war time bravado and repeated claim that Israel has become a super-power apparently yearned for the poetic register of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.

Yet, Netanyahu is not God, Egypt is currently our ally, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis attack us daily, and to many Israelis, Netanyahu’s speech conjures up not Die Walküre, but Elmer Fudd jamming his spear into holes in the ground singing “Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!” After all, Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that the corruption........

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