It’s not only Iran that draws on religious texts to justify its rule.

It’s worth paying attention to the names Israel gives its military operations. It tells you much about how the Israeli government thinks about them and how they frame them as being part of Jewish tradition. Its October 2024 strikes on Iran were named מִבְצָע עוֹפֶרֶת יְצוּקָה Mivtza Y’mei Teshuva – operation days of repentance, which traditionally refer to the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when Jews repent for sins, the implication being that Iran should be made to repent for its strikes on Israel earlier that month (which in turn came in response to Israel bombing an Iranian consulate in Damascus). The Gaza war which began on October 7 is called Kharbot B’razel – Iron Swords, a seemingly non-Biblical phrase that references the Iron Dome missile defence system, though apparently Netanyahu wanted it renamed after Sefer Bereishit (the Book of Genesis) or Simchat Torah, due to the festival on which Hamas’ attack occurred. The first Gaza war, in 2008 was called מִבְצָע עוֹפֶרֶת יְצוּקָה Mivtza Oferet Y’tzukah – Operation Cast Lead – since it began during Channukah and the names refers to a poem by Chaim Bialik:  Mori natan sevivon li / Ben-oferet yetzukah / Yod’im atem lich’vod mi? / Lich’vod haChanukah! Teacher gave me a dreidel/ Made of cast lead / In whose honour, for whose glory? / For the honour of Hanukkah.