Bar Kochba and All That

A heated public debate in Israel, lasting from May 1980 until the outbreak of the Lebanese War in June 1982, followed Yehoshafat Harkabi’s attack on Shimon Bar Kochba, the second-century leader of the anti-Roman revolt in Judea, 132-35 C.E. (of the Common Era). Once the tanks were on the move, nobody was in the mood to polemicize about battles fought some 1,800 years ago. But, on the basic issue, there was no break between the debate about the ancient war and the one that still is not o...