Abstract
David Ben-Gurion's attempt to forge a collective Israeli identity rooted in the biblical conquest myth adopted a bi-directional hermeneutic: biblical text and modern reality were mutually illuminating. While Ben-Gurion read Scripture ‘from above’, with the eyes of the IDF, Edward Said called for readings ‘from below’, with the eyes of the Canaanites. Following Said, this paper reads the Conquest narrative and the Nakba bi-directionally, tracing four themes: (1) Depopulation and dispossession, (2) Traitors and Tricksters, (3) Spoils of War, (4) Incomplete expulsion. The exercise cautions those who see both narratives as zero-sum games only one side of which merits moral consideration.
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