“Amalek” Is Back in the Headlines

Not in ancient parchment.
Not in dusty history.
But in prime-time interviews and political debate.

When Tucker Carlson suggested in his interview with Ambassador Mike Hukabee, that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s invocation of Amalek was a call for genocide, he did more than misquote a verse — he distorted a moral category.

When Netanyahu told Israeli soldiers entering Gaza, “Remember what Amalek did to you,” he was not issuing a halachic decree against a people. He was invoking a Torah archetype: the first nation to attack the Jewish people without provocation, targeting the weak and defenseless, driven by hatred alone.

Amalek is not defined by ethnicity. Amalek is defined by ideology.

On October 7th, the world witnessed brutality that mirrored that ancient pattern — civilians hunted, families burned, children kidnapped. It was not political negotiation. It was cruelty as creed.

And this week, we read Parshas Zachor.

The Torah commands us to remember Amalek. The sages note that Amalek shares a numerical value with safek — doubt. Amalek’s first weapon is not the sword. It is moral fog.

The fog that blurs aggressor and victim.
The fog that questions Jewish indigeneity.
The fog that whispers: maybe your history is negotiable.

Which is why another development this week matters.

The Arizona State Legislature passed a resolution affirming the historic and biblical terminology of Judea and Samaria — recognizing the Jewish people’s ancient connection to the land and rejecting language that obscures that truth.

In an age of narrative warfare, clarity is courage.

Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel did not begin in 1948. It did not begin with the United Nations. It began with Avraham. With Yehoshua. With David HaMelech in Jerusalem.

There was a Jewish kingdom.
There was a Temple.
There are inscriptions, coins, and archaeological testimony.
And for thousands of years, Jews have faced Jerusalem in prayer.

To deny that is not historical nuance. It is erasure.

Parshas Zachor comes immediately before Purim for a reason.

Haman, a descendant of Amalek, sought annihilation. The Jewish response was not despair and not doubt. It was unity — “Lech kenos es kol haYehudim.” Gather the Jews. Stand together. Give to one another. Reclaim identity.

Purim teaches that when clarity returns, decrees collapse.
When unity rises, annihilation fails.
When Jews remember who they are, history bends.

Remembering Amalek today means refusing naïveté about ideologies that glorify death. It means defending life without apology. It means rejecting moral equivalence. And it means removing doubt about our own legitimacy — in our land, in our history, in our destiny.

Amalek thrives in confusion.
Purim erupts in clarity.

This Shabbos Zachor is not a call to hatred.
It is a call to memory.
It is a call to courage.
It is a call to remove doubt — once and for all.

And when doubt is removed, redemption begins.

Shabbat Shalom — and may we merit a Purim of revealed truth and unshakable clarity.

Rabbi Ruvi New