December 8-9, 2011
15 Kislev, 5772
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte landed in Palestine. From his headquarters in Akko, he appealed to the Jews, the rightful heirs of Palestine, to return to their ancient homeland. The letter showed understanding of and sympathy toward Jewish history:
Arise! Show that the once overwhelming might of your oppressors has not repressed the courage of the descendants of those heroes whose brotherly alliance did honor to Sparta and Rome (I Macc. 12), but that all the two thousand years of slavish treatment have not succeeded in stifling it.
(Franz Kobler, Napoleon and the Jews)
Link to the book
Link to a blog with longer discussion of Napoleon's "zionism"
