No one was Cyrus in 1948

Truman famously said “I Am Cyrus” on May 14th 1948 after giving Israel mere De Facto recognition while still enforcing an arms embargo on them. And I imagine if the unexpected combination of a Zionist Tankie exists they’d want to give that title to Stalin for being the first to give Israel De Jure recognition.

First of all none of the Persian decrees resulted in a fully Independent Jewish state.  All this obsession with being the Cyrus of 1948 reeks of trying to deny modern Jews agency in their own Liberation.

But as a believer in “History doesn't repeat itself but it does often rhyme” let us indeed look at what interesting insights could come from comparing Ancient history to Zionist history as documented by Sam Aronow in this playlist (Aronow’s Ancient History videos are not good, I don’t recommend them).

The two Empires that controlled the land in question were first the Ottomans then the British so only they were in a comparable position to Persia. The Ottomans never even pretended to cooperate with the Zionists, but by the time the British obtained control of this land an organized grassroots Zionist project was already well underway. 

Still the Balfour Declaration is the closest thing we have to a modern Decree comparable to any of these Persian Decrees.  But as anyone who actually understands Zionist history and doesn't just believe the Anti-Zionist canards will tell you, the Balfour Declaration was a promise that the British became determined not to keep.

However what is often forgotten is how there were also Persian Kings who didn’t consistently support the Jews.  I made a post earlier this year about the Chronology of Ezra and Nehemiah where I argued for problems with the Assumption that the Artaxerxes who issues pro Jewish Decrees during the times of Ezra (the person not the book) and Nehemiah was Artaxerxes I.  It seems more plausible that he’s Artaxerxes II and that Artaxerxes I was the Artaxerxes of Ezra chapter 4, who caves to the enemies of Israel in a way that is very comparable to British Policy under King George VI following the Arab Revolt.  

The Nations that offered Israel key diplomatic legitimacy while they were fighting their war of Independence against Arab Proxies of British Imperialism (and their Nazi allies) shouldn’t be compared to anything from Persian history but rather the roles the Romans and Lacedemonians play in books of Maccabees. As tired as comparing Rome to America is, it fits here as the rising Empire in the West. The text of Maccabees strangely claims that the Lacedemonians claimed to descend from Abraham, that is probably not based on anything real, maybe never even meant to be taken literally how some modern fringe theorizers take them.  

Maybe the Lacedemonians in Maccabees really means the Achaean League, which Sparta was part of from 192-146 BC? Either way the comparison I’d make here is to the Eastern European nations who gave Israel De Jure recognition around May 17-19.  A lot of the Israeli population at the time came from that region or their recent ancestors had.  And the Nazis’ Antisemitism and Antislavism was partly tied to seeing the two as interchangeable. Some Zionists organizations had vital support from Poland before WW2, and Czechoslovakia was a key source of many of Israel's weapons in the Palestine War.  Sparta in 167 BC didn't have either of his Kings anymore, just as Czechoslovakia was not governmentally speaking, still the same state founded by Tomas Masaryk who in this comparison could be the Areus of 1 Maccabees 12:20..

Since the Seleucid Empire would be the British in that comparison, it’s fitting that their rivals the Ptolemies work well as the French. 3 Maccabees with different subject matter from the other books recount an incident of Jewish Persecution under the Ptolemies in Alexandria before Judea came fully under Seleucid control, fitting the role the Damascus Affair and Dreyfus Affair played in the early history of Zionism. But after they gained independence the Ptolemies were a sometimes ally of the Hasmonean Polity, and for much of its history Israel’s most reliable ally was in fact France not the U.S. usually under the influence of French Socialists who had been part of the Resistance to Nazi occupation, like Leon Blum who had been around during the Dreyfus Affair, Vincent Auriol, Christian Pineau and Guy Mollet.

Geographically it’s amusingly reversed though, since during the Mandate Period France had Syria and Lebanon (including Hatay where Antioch is now part of Turkey) while Britain had Egypt already even before WWI.