Infant and suckling, camel and ass: Armenians as prototypical Amalekites

In the earliest annals of Jewish history a people known as the Amalekites had their name and reputation forever infamed by the kosher chronicles of the Pentateuch. These Hamitic-Arab speakers south of the Negev desert became the first mortal enemies of the Israelites in a neighborhood trend that continues to this day. The Amalekites were vanquished on orders from the Hebrew God, but you wouldn’t know it listening to the bellicose screeds of modern Israeli politicians. For the memory of the Amalekites was morbidly preserved by the Jews over the ages and employed like a wandering specter, projected onto their main enemy of the day via the collective metaphor Amalek.

Fast-forward to the present and Amalek is in a most prolific flux, with both Palestinians and Iranians being the target of Knesset firebrands who quote the Torah’s commands to “Wipe out the memory of Amalek” and “Never forget what Amalek did to you.” These religious commands, while nominally contradictory, are in fact ritually celebrated as a paradox during Purim. The Amalekites were the ones wiped out—and the Jews still haven’t forgiven them for it, with the bad blood of earlier episodes in their shared history truly preventing bygones from being bygones. In the estimation of Jewish leaders, lugging around victimhood for centuries didn’t have to be heavy cargo—rather the memory of Amalek could provide motivation and momentum from the rearguard. A primeval grudge turned into a psychological weapon that the Jews have gotten more mileage out of compared to anything else in their caravan of hagiography.

During the Middle Ages, a Renaissance in Amalek antagonization saw Jewry diversify this offensive asset to encompass Armenians, European Crusaders and Muslim Arabs simultaneously.[1] The fact that two Amaleks could be mutual adversaries was no problem for the Judeo-centric model of the universe, indeed by the twentieth century both National-Socialist Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin were called Amalek in rabbinic circles.[2] Even Raul Hilberg—the man credited with tabulating the war’s most important victim count in a scientific and dispassionate way—wrote in his memoir that he insisted on “presenting Amalek with all his features as an aggregate of German functionaries.”[3]

Amidst the generational Amaleks, however, stands one epochal incarnation of Amalek that is exceptional for its sheer longevity and inexplicable origin: Armenia. The Hebrew chronicle Sefer Yosippon shows this assignment to be at least a thousand years old,[4] the term becoming exclusively anti-Armenian in the nineteenth century. Some Jews in the Middle East also used the auxiliary epithet Timheh—another biblical instruction that translates to You shall blot out / erase.[5] Ashkenazim once used the related term mokh for Armenians, according to Michael Wex’s tribute to the Yiddish language, Born to Kvetch.[6]

At this point readers may be wondering what terrific transgressions befell the Jews in order to warrant such disdain for the Armenian people. Alas, here the collective contribution of a millennium of history amounts to—a bagel. In no source, Jewish or Gentile, is a backstory provided that attempts to justify this blood libel. On the contrary, what is known from Armenia’s illustrious history (which featured an empire 12 times larger than the current state) is that there was not a single instance of Jewish persecution. Could it be that the Armenians were a convenient holding category for Jewish enmity during the early middle ages, when intercommunal relations were fairly serene?

In Ottoman times, one Armenian intellectual attempted to get to the bottom of the matter. Eremia Ch’elebi (1637–1695) engaged the influential physicians Aharon and Mordecai in debate as part of his Polemics with Jews, though much of the discourse could be characterized as petty gossip, hurt feelings and the blood libel canard (which actually post-dates the Armenia-Amalek designation by two centuries).[7] The English consul to Smyrna, Sir Paul Rycaut (1629–1700), was likely much closer to the truth when implicating bitterness as the prime motive: “the Jews esteem [Armenians] to have been of the ancient Race of the Amalekites, being the People whom they envy because they will not easily cheat them in their dealings.”[8]

Armenians are a relatively high IQ people suited to honorable work in commerce, so they too occupied the niche role of diaspora merchants as might be expected of a nation at the crossroads of continents, religions and races. Nowadays they find themselves sandwiched between Muslims, recently losing more territory to the Azeris, while their sacred Mount Ararat remains occupied by Anatolian Turks.

What might the Caucasus have looked like had the Arabs not invaded from the south and the Turks not settled from the north? Probably more different than you can imagine. A two-millennia-old ethnographic account by Isigonus of Nicaea describes the people of the Eastern Caucasus as having white hair.[9] A seventh-century source adds that these same people had blue-gray eyes “so that they see better by night than by day”[10]—a conjecture since verified by evolutionary science.

For the Armenians, the seventh century is when their region began to alter for the worse. A formidable new enemy in the Khazars swept through and killed many, among them Prince Gregory. They besieged the luxurious city of Tbilisi, according to an Armenian chronicler, but when the siege ultimately failed, the townsfolk began to parody the retreating “King of the Huns” by adorning an effigy with a huge pumpkin that caricatured his Turco-Mongoloid physiognomy.[11] Tenth-century Armenian historian Movses Daskhurantsi was cruder still, referring to them as “that ugly, insolent, broad-faced, eyelashless mob in the shape of women with disheveled hair.”[12] In addition to the enmity accrued through centuries of conflict, there may have been a creedal one, as the Khazars had begun practicing Islam and Judaism.

By now most readers would be aware of the conversion story as preserved in Judah Halevi’s Kuzari, wherein a rabbi outwits Christian and Muslim rivals to convince the Khazarian king of the Judaic religion. There is, however, another source on the conversion of the Khazars that implicates the Armenians. The so-called Schechter Letter was found in a Cairo synagogue in 1912 and conveys tenth-century Khazarian events in Hebrew writing. If true, it means that Judaism among the Khazars was seeded by Jews fleeing persecution in Armenia and Persia. This would also go some way to explaining the traditional cordiality between Jews and Turks—the latter of whom have never been called Amalek. Could the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians after WWI have been co-directed by the influential Dönmeh Jewish stratum of the Ottoman ruling class? That is the accusation of media mogul and politician Tigran Karapetyan. And why do the Azeris, whose ethnonym is apparently unrelated to the Khazars, keep such close ties with the Israelis?

Following the loss of the Artsakh territory to Azerbaijan under scandalous circumstances, just three million Armenians live in the fatherland, as they call it, compared to six million abroad. Armenia’s traditional allies have gone their separate ways while the EU and US now form the strategic partners of this rump state. Kim Kardashian would be a fitting special envoy.

In the past, especially Soviet times, Armenians went to Russia and did rather well for themselves. Garry Kasparov (Kasparian) is a famous example while less well-known figures include the current Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Kalantaryan) and the head of Russia Today Margarita Simonyan. By contrast, the diaspora in the United States is significantly smaller, although wealthier. This is thanks to the likes of billionaire Las Vegas developer Kirk Kerkorian—not to be confused with Mark Krikorian, who has led the conservative Center for Immigration Studies since 1995.

What seems to distinguish the Armenian diaspora from others, accentuating their natural entrepreneurship, are levels of uninhibitedness, eccentricity and risk-taking behavior that seem substantially elevated. The real-life Wolf of Wall Street Paul Bilzerian epitomizes this psychometric profile, as does euthanasia pioneer Dr. Death, real name Jack Kevorkian. Plastic surgery pioneer and pop icon Cherilyn Sarkisian, better known as Cher, turned eighty this year—but that has not stopped her from dating a Black man half her age.

On the political front, Armenia’s first racialist movement Hosank, deemed to be neo-Nazi by some, was unsurprisingly launched by someone from the diaspora. California-born Hayk Nazaryan taught physics as an adjunct professor at California State University, but with a name like Nazaryan he must have thought himself divinely appointed for his current role. Though he doesn’t quite look the part, members of the alt-right some years ago came to a common understanding that Persians and Armenians form their own special category of White: Hairyans.

Several Jewish outlets and organizations keep lists of individuals disturbing the politically correct peace, and as of 2026 two ethnic Armenians regularly appear at the top of the antisemitism charts:  political commentator Ana Kasparian and entrepreneur Dan Bilzerian. While Kasparian earned her mantle solely for being a strong critic of Israel, Bilzerian has gone supernova in railing against all aspects of Jewish power, subversion of morals, ethnoreligious supremacism and the corruption of Congress.

Much has been made of the murky origins of Dan Bilzerian’s wealth, being the son of corporate raider Paul Bilzerian who for many years has avoided paying a $62 million judgment. In the meantime, Dan allegedly won millions playing high-stakes poker against businessmen. What can’t be denied is that Bilzerian Jr. has become his own brand, the King of Instagram, and he has parlayed that into a diverse business portfolio. For several years he indulged in and promoted a playboy lifestyle, juggling an unholy trinity of addictions to drugs, sex and gambling. By the age of 25, he had already suffered two heart attacks.

Detractors of Bilzerian point to another character flaw so often present in those seeking fame and fortune: the tendency to manipulate or embellish the truth. He’s done it to such a degree that people have questioned whether his lifestyle and abode is one elaborate Potemkin village of paid actresses and rented mansions. As an example, he often claims to have been a cop for four years, when in reality he merely obtained “reserve police credentials” through a former program run by a corrupt police department in New Mexico.

Those on the hard right see a lot in his character profile that could be described as Trumpian, or even Jewish, but by his own admission “12% doesn’t make you a jew.” Interestingly, his surname is one of the few in Armenia of unknown etymology, with the patronym Bilzer sounding like it was plucked from the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody. But beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to influential figures willing to take on Jewish power, no holds barred, so for this we ought to be grateful. By all accounts, Bilzerian has left behind his lifestyle of debased values to commit to a cause beyond self-interest, with a political agenda that is, as the youth say, based.

Earlier this year, Bilzerian put words into action and his money where his mouth is by running for Florida’s 6^th congressional district. The goal was to unseat the incumbent Randy Fine, a feat that sounds like it requires giant paddles because Fine is a man whose calorie intake is on par with his legislative gluttony. His loathsome Israel sycophantism and oratory clumsiness collided most spectacularly in this defense against historical Jewish expulsion, while he’s also tweeted about not washing his hands after meeting Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time.

Unfortunately for Bilzerian, having spent millions to oust the “fat Jew,” Fine still won, leaving Bilzerian convinced of electoral fraud. The unusual distribution of incoming votes for Fine suggests foul play, while Bilzerian managed to lose votes previously announced in his favor. Moreover, Bilzerian’s Twitter account was shadow-banned throughout the campaign and miraculously restored the day after the primary, showing that levers were being pulled in high places by a fearful lobby.

Bilzerian believes that Massie was also cheated in his primary, and he would know since the two are in close communication. Tucker Carlson is another close friend—between the three of them one will surely run for president in 2028. Bilzerian is the least likely because of his track record, although there is a certain effectiveness and practicality to his clear, expressive and unapologetic style. He’s at his very best when he’s pointing out that the problem is much deeper than just Zionism. And the data suggest he’s not wrong. Sixty-five percent of Jewish Israelis say they believe a modern incarnation of Amalek exists. Of these believers, ninety-three percent think that the commandment to “erase Amalek’s memory” is still relevant. This is the wording that Israeli social scientists prefer to use, and not later commands from the Jewish God to “slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

To this we may as well add pet rocks and sea monkeys, because such portents of the Hebraic hegemon—the protagonist of Passover—are there not merely for dramatic effect. Such edicts reinforce the notion that, according to Jewish semantics and theological taxonomy, goyim are also considered livestock. The right approach for gentiles, therefore, is not to adapt the linguistic trappings of their antagonists. Bilzerian would be the first to point out that by appropriating such derogatory designations, the people who benefit most from making Amalek great again are the likes of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. Nevertheless, understanding that on some level we are all perceived as Amalek—either dormant, passive or active—is a lesson on Jewish projection and parapsychosis not to be ignored.

[1] Adam J. Silverstein, Haman: A Biography (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025), 166–67.

[2] Elliott S. Horowitz, “From the Generation of Moses to the Generation of the Messiah: The Jews Confront ‘Amalek’ and His Incarnations,” Zion 64, no. 4 (1999): 425–54. [Article in Hebrew; title translated.]

[3] Raul Hilberg, The Politics of Memory: The Journey of a Holocaust Historian (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1996), 132.

[4] Sefer Yosippon, ed. David Flusser, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1978–80), 2:487.

[5] Isaak Markon, “Armenia,” in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (New York: Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1939), 482–83.

[6] Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 122–23.

[7] Kʻēōmiwrchean V1155, 83.

[8] Rycaut [1679] 1970, 387.

[9] Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.12.

[10] Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 9.2.65.

[11] Dan D. Y. Shapira, “Armenian and Georgian Sources on the Khazars: A Re-Evaluation,” in The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives, ed. Peter B. Golden, Haggai Ben-Shammai, and András Róna-Tas (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 307–52.

[12] Movsēs Dasxurancʻi, The History of the Caucasian Albanians, trans. C. J. F. Dowsett (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), bk. 2, chap. 11, 83–84.