“Operation Rising Lion: Netanyahu’s Biblical Inspiration and Biglino’s Interpretation of the Bible as a Text of War”

I am sharing an interesting reflection by Mauro Biglino, an Italian researcher and emerging scholar of the Bible, who discusses and analyses why Netanyahu named the operation against Iran “Operation Rising Lion.” As one may recall, through this operation, Netanyahu targeted Iran’s central uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.

Biglino examines the biblical inspiration behind this name and the Old Testament references that associate lions with war and military power. According to this biblical scholar, the Bible should be read primarily as a collection of war texts. This, he argues, explains why Netanyahu often draws inspiration from it — viewing the Bible as a book about military leaders, referred to as the Elohim, who, according to Biglino, selected one among them, named Jehovah, to lead violent campaigns that today would be regarded as acts of genocide.