[Avodah] irrational anti-Semites?

[Daniel Eidensohn]

>> There is also an additional phrase in there, "they might /join our enemies
>>   and fight us/, and then leave." It still doesn't make clear exactly what
>> Pharaoh's concern was.
>>     
There is much discussion in the academic literature of the Hyksos who 
were a semitic people who were in Egypt about the same time as the Jews. 
Some theorize that at one time these semitic peoples were accepted and 
even ruled in Egypt but that there was a change in the political 
climatic and they were viewed as a threat to the native Egyptian 
population. The argument is therefore that both the Jews and the Hyksos 
were alien forces whose increasing numbers and influence were a threat 
from within the Egyptian society. At the same time there were Hyksos and 
their allies who lived outside of Egypt. Therefore there was a second 
danger if they would overcome the control the Egyptians had over them 
and escape to join the outside enemy. Thus there is nothing irrational 
about the fear. There was an internal threat in numbers and an external 
threat which their escape would exacerbate. There is also no need for 
psycho-historical analysis.

Daniel Eidensohn