[dagav]

I'm not sure your first point matters. There is one canonical Jewish nation today who live and die by the Torah.

The history of Jews isn't them committing violence against others, but of violence being committed onto them. The Jews in the diaspora weren't going around stealing people's land and possessions, they were merely trying to live in peace, integrate into whichever nation they were a part of, and suffered pograms, massacres, and blood libel for trying. The violence in 20th centruy started to defend their nation from a second Holocaust, once the lesson had been learned that integration into another nation was impossible. Your impression of Jews as violent people is horribly misguided.

[Kednicma]

My impression is that everybody in the Bronze and Iron Ages were more violent, and my aim is to advocate for less violence overall, including less religious violence. It happens that the religious violence is rooted in religion, and it also happens that the religions are based on mythological histories; if people were more cognizant of the history, they would be less willing to kill for some nebulous-yet-murderous Creator.

The entire history of the region [0] is worth examining, but I'll highlight one sample which is both indicative of the era and also happens to show Israelites conquering and subjugating their neighbors: The Mesha Stele [1] tells of a time when the Moabites were occupied by Omri (or one of his family), a biblical king of Israel. In more modern times, I can point to the Six Day War [2], the conflict which serves as the capstone to the era of Israel's history covered in the original article, and in which Israel achieved a stunning and decisive military victory over its neighbors.

The history of everybody is committing violence against others, and having violence done to them in turn. It's up to us as humans to choose to do better.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ancient_Israel_and_...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War

[aaomidi]

And to add to your point using past violence to justify new violence on innocent people is fucked. Beyond fucked.