Yuval Noah Harari

So the Romans had no problem accepting the gods and religions of hundreds of other peoples that they conquered.

They did not try to exterminate the other religions.

In many cases, they adopted them.

And, you know, as a Roman, you can go to Jupiter's temple in the morning, and then you can go to the Isis temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and you're also willing to hear about this new god, Jesus, Yahweh, coming from the Middle East.

You're open.

Judaism was not an open religion.

This changed to some extent when the Jews found themselves as a tiny minority.

living under the domination of other religions, other traditions, which kind of forced them to explore and adopt a more open and tolerant worldview.

But now, these 2,000 years of tolerant Jewish tradition is being completely denied and destroyed.

To some extent, it's absolutely correct.

I mean, you do need to rely on force to some extent to ensure your security, but it just cannot be the only thing.

If you think force is the only thing that guarantees your security, eventually you will have to conquer the entire world.

Like anything that is potentially a threat, you will have to conquer it.

And, you know, Israel itself doesn't operate like that.

One of the remarkable things that happened after October 7th is that, you know, all the peace agreements that Israel has signed held.

Hamas hoped that after October 7th, it will cause all the Arab countries to unite and try to destroy Israel.

And it just didn't happen.

The peace agreement with Egypt held.

The peace agreement with Jordan held.

The peace agreement with the Gulf states held.