Gog and Magog
In the early 19th century, some Chasidic rabbis identified Napoleon’s invasion of Russia as “The War of Gog and Magog”. But as the century progressed, apocalyptic expectations receded as the populace in Europe began to adopt an increasingly secular worldview. This has not been the case in the United States, where a 2002 poll indicated that 59% of Americans believed the events predicted in the Book of Revelation would come to pass.
In the prelude to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush told Jacques Chirac, “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East”. “This confrontation”, he urged the French leader, “is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase His people’s enemies before a new age begins”. Chirac consulted a professor at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Lausanne to explain Bush’s reference.
