But then, just after the holiday this year, Elliott Horowitz's book, "Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence," fell into my hands, and I was glad to find in it allies for my aversion to Purim. Since the mid-19th century, I learned, criticism of the Book of Esther seeped into liberal Jewish circles, especially in Victorian England, and various leaders of the community sought to play down the killing and the element of revenge that underlies the holiday.

A "Bible reader adapted for the use of Jewish schools and families," published in 1877 and endorsed by the chief rabbi of Britain, Nathan Marcus Adler, left out many of the gory details that appear in the final chapters of the Book of Esther. Claude Goldsmid-Montefiore, a great nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, created a stir in 1888 when he published an article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle, harshly criticizing the message of Purim. Choosing his words with care, he declared that he "would not be sorry" if the festival "were to gradually lose its place in our religious calendar."

In his later comments on the Book of Esther in "The Bible for Home Reading," published in 1896, Montefiore was perhaps the first Jew to describe the events of its final chapters as "a massacre of unresisting Gentiles." "If the Bible had not included the Book of Esther," he concluded, "it would have gained rather than lost in religious value and moral worth."

But 19th-century liberals were not the first to criticize the Book of Esther. Censure first came from ecclesiastic circles, and especially the Protestant Church. Back in 1543, in his infamous essay entitled "On the Jews and Their Lies," Martin Luther remarked on how much the Jews "love the Book of Esther, which so well fits their bloodthirsty, vengeful, murderous greed and hope." Elsewhere, he described the book as "too Jewish," and in a seemingly unholy alliance with Jewish liberals hundreds of years later, Luther wrote that he wished the book had never existed. Over the generations, his disciples continued to portray it as the most bloodthirsty, and hence the most "unchristian," book in the Old Testament.

In the Jewish world, however, criticism of the Book of Esther was always a minority view, not reflective of the mainstream. And it is the mainstream approach that stands at the basis of Horowitz's central - and provocative - thesis regarding Jewish violence against non-Jews, especially, though not exclusively, on the festival of Purim.

In contrast to the anti-Semitic stereotype of the Jew as weak, passive and effeminate, Horowitz postulates that throughout the ages, Jews committed their share of violence, which has always peaked around Purim. Even if the bloody account in the Book of Esther lacks historical credence, the very fact that the acts described in it were glorified every year created a tradition of vengeance and violence, as well as the opportunity to act those feelings out.

It is true that Zionism, especially after Israel's occupation of the territories following the Six-Day War in 1967, allowed Jewish violence against the Arab "Amalekites" to flourish, but according to Horowitz, the seeds for such behavior were planted long before. Haman "the Agagite" is described in the Book of Esther as a scion of the Amalekites - a label applied over the years to the Romans, the Armenians, the Christians, the Nazis and in our day, by many rabbis, to the Arabs. And Amalek, as is well known, must be wiped out.

Mocking Jesus

In the year 408 C.E., the Roman emperor Theodosius II issued an edict prohibiting the Jews from "setting fire to Aman in memory of his past punishment, in a certain ceremony of their festival, and from burning with sacrilegious intent a form made to resemble the saint cross in contempt of the Christian faith." In other words, the custom of mocking Jesus and the cross in Purim processions, which Horowitz discusses at length in the second half of the book, was already common in the fifth century C.E. Theodosius' edict, explains Horowitz, did not put an end to the anti-Christian traditions of the holiday. The combination of a narrative of divine salvation of the Jews and the vengeance taken on their enemies with the carnival atmosphere and the drinking that is characteristic of Purim, led to behavior that was very different from the stereotype of the meek Diaspora Jew.

The second half of the book begins with various accounts of Jewish debasement of the cross during the Middle Ages, not only on Purim. Horowitz cites dozens of instances, many of them conspicuously missing from modern Jewish historiography, of symbolic Jewish violence - or "violence against symbols," to be more exact - that included setting fire to, and spitting and publicly urinating on, the cross. Such acts often ended in "martyrdom," i.e., the death of the perpetrator, or harm to the entire community. These are the "reckless rites" that give the book its title, and are linked to Mordechai's stubborn but unexplained refusal to bow down to Haman in the Book of Esther.

To return to the present, in October 2004 a student at the Har Hamor yeshiva in Jerusalem, Natan Zvi Rosenthal, spat at the Armenian archbishop as he was walking in a holiday procession in Jerusalem's Old City, carrying a large cross. This incident, which sparked a public outcry and was reported widely in the local media, is portrayed in the book as a link in the long chain of Jewish violence against Christianity and Christian symbols. (To complicate matters further, the Armenians have been described in Jewish writings since the 10th century as descendents of Amalek.) Rosenthal's shameful act must thus be viewed in its historical context: as a direct continuation of the Jewish tradition of public disdain for the cross.

Unconcealed agenda

In the final chapters of the book, Horowitz broadens the historical discussion, moving from violence against Christian symbols to physical violence against Christians themselves. The most serious charge discussed at length here is that Jews participated in the massacre of tens of thousands of Christian captives in Jerusalem in the year 614 C.E., after the Persian conquest of the city.

Other incidents cited by the author are few and far between: the murder of a Christian boy during a Purim parade near Antioch, Syria in the fifth century C.E.; the 12th-century execution on Purim of a Christian who murdered a Jew in Brie, in northern France (carried out with the approval of the authorities); and a violent incident within the community, when a Jewish couple accused of adultery in 14th-century Provence was physically assaulted at a Purim parade. What is interesting here, more than the incidents themselves, is Horowitz's brilliant historiographical analysis of what inspired the documentation of these incidents - from the enthusiasm of a handful of Christian historians seeking to draw attention to Jewish violence, to the efforts of modern Jewish historians to whitewash and downplay them.

Meanwhile, the author himself makes no attempt to conceal his own agenda. On the contrary, in his introductory chapter he lays all his cards on the table: "I have therefore chosen, somewhat recklessly, to begin not at the beginning but at the end," drawing our attention to the lessons for today that emerge from his historical research. Since Baruch Goldstein's massacre of Muslims at prayer at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Purim 1994, he writes, "for me and for many others, Purim has never been the same." In effect, it was this event that brought him to widen the scope of his study, which had originally been planned to end with the 19th century. His moral compass is Mordechai's warning to Esther: "For if thou holdest thy peace at this time" (4:14).

As a Jewish historian, Horowitz felt that he could no longer hold his peace and not speak up about the connection between the legacy of Jewish violence and the current actions of "Jews in the Holy Land [who] are still avenging the 'old and new quarrel' against those they consider to be 'Amalekites,' [while] their malice is hardly as impotent as it was in the distant days of Theodosius II."

Horowitz quotes rabbis and settler leaders who equate the Palestinians with Amalek. He describes the Purim processions in Hebron that are becoming more violent from year to year, ever since a group of Jews moved into the Beit Hadassah neighborhood to "renew" Jewish settlement in the city in 1981 - and chose to do so, significantly, on Purim.

Toward the end of his sweeping study, Horowitz returns to his breaking point - the massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs - and concludes with sadness: "The continued celebration of Purim in the streets of central Jerusalem after the news broke of the bloody massacre in Hebron [is] one particular instance in which I would agree with [Samuel Hugo] Bergman's prophetic assertion that the holiday's continued observance is best understood as a consequence of the 'deep decay of our people.'"

The Israeli military said that the object of the attacks on the bridges in Gaza was "to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier".

No casualties were reported in any of the attacks.

Israeli military officials said that the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, had approved a "limited operation" for southern Gaza, aimed at "terrorist infrastructure".

The strikes came amid intensive diplomatic efforts in the Arab world and by the UN. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, urged Israel to "give diplomacy a chance".

Israeli TV reported that international mediators involved in talks with the kidnappers had given up, saying negotiations were going nowhere. An Egyptian official said that talks with Hamas officials in Gaza were "on hold" but insisted negotiations were still taking place with Hamas leaders in Syria.

Hamas yesterday agreed to surrender control of the Palestinian government in favour of a power-sharing administration committed to a negotiated two-state settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

It struck a deal with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who belongs to the rival Fatah party, that commits all parties in the Palestinian government to recognise Israel.

But Israel said only freedom for the captive soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, 19, could defuse the crisis, not a political agreement.

Cpl Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants during a raid on an Israeli army post near Gaza on Sunday in which two Israeli soldiers and two militants were killed.

"We want to bring our soldier home, that is our only goal," said the Israeli minister of national infrastructure, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a retired general and former defence minister.

"The goal is not to search [for Cpl Shalit], the goal is to cause them to send Gilad home ... They have to understand we won't just sit quietly."

The Israeli justice minister, Haim Ramon, said Israel would try to assassinate a Hamas leader based in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, who Israel believes gave the order for the kidnapping.

"He is definitely in our sights ... he is a target," Mr Ramon told army radio. "Khaled Mashaal, as some who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target."

Overnight, Israeli planes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza's only power station, cutting electricity to 65% of the Gaza Strip, engineers at the station said.

The attack raised the spectre of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as water pumps in the strip are powered by electricity. Some power in Gaza City was restored by tapping into electricity supplied by Israel in northern Gaza.

Warplanes also flew low over Gaza City, rocking the city with sonic booms and shattering windows.

Early today, Israeli warplanes attacked one of the bridges for a second time, Palestinian security officials said. A public works official said it would take three months to repair the main bridge linking northern and southern Gaza, a coastal area that is home to about 1.3 million Palestinians.

Masked militants from various armed factions took up defensive positions around Gaza City in the northern part of the strip, instructing drivers to turn off headlights.

Militants said they fired a rocket at the Israeli village of Nahal Oz, where Israeli forces are concentrated in a staging area.

An Associated Press reporter saw tanks moving on the Israeli side of the border fence.

In the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, not far from the fence, armed militants took up positions across from the blaring headlights of Israeli vehicles, and Israeli attack helicopters hovered overhead. Earlier today, Israeli forces fired machine guns at the empty streets, witnesses said.

The militants told residents to leave the area. They piled gasoline-soaked tires in the streets. Earlier, bulldozers blocked some of the main roads with piles of sand and dirt to try to slow down Israeli tanks.

The militants who seized Cpl Shalit have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in exchange for information about the captured soldier.

Complicating matters was a new claim by the Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), one of the three groups that carried out Sunday's assault, that it had also kidnapped a Jewish settler in the West Bank.

An Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, told Associated Press the report was being taken "very seriously," and military officials said there was "rising fears" the claim was true.

After Israel launched its Gaza assault, the PRC threatened to kill its hostage.

Israel had been massing troops and armour around Gaza since Sunday and had been threatening a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory if militants refused to release Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

But officials with the Israeli Defence Force told CBC News that they are operating under the assumption that Shalit is still alive and that the attack on the bridges was to prevent him from being transported out of the Gaza Strip.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli television Channel Two said that there is "zero chance" that the talks would secure the release of Shalit, increasing the chance of a major Israeli offensive against Gaza.

Israel has already sealed the borders of the long narrow strip that is home to more than one million Palestinians. Early Wednesday warplanes hit Gaza's power station, cutting electricity to the district.

Shalit, 19, was abducted Sunday after Palestinian gunmen dug a 600-metre tunnel under the Gaza border and attacked a remote guard post. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed in the attack.

The military wing of the ruling Hamas party - Izzedine al-Qassam - as well as the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam, all claimed responsibility for the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has refused a demand for the release of about 500 Palestinian women and children detained in Israel in exchange for information about the captured soldier.

Egyptian, Jordanian and French diplomats have been trying to negotiate Shalit's freedom. Shalit also holds French citizenship.

As part of the siege, Israel closed four crossings with the Gaza Strip and thus blocked all traffic of goods into and out of the area, the army said.

On Tuesday it emerged that the travel ban included Abbas, who usually enjoys free passage between Gaza and the West Bank through Israel.

Israeli military officials said that Abbas would not be allowed to return to the West Bank, as part of an Israeli closure on the Gaza Strip meant to press the militants to release the soldier, who is believed alive. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

A spokesman for Mr Abbas, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said that the Palestinian leader had not yet tried to leave the coastal area, since he was closely following efforts to release an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants during an attack against Israel on Sunday.

The closure imposed on Sunday has prevented hundreds of Palestinian merchants from leaving the area and Palestinian fisherman from sailing off the Mediterranean coast, the army said.

Also, hundreds of Palestinians trying to get into the Gaza Strip were stranded on Tuesday on the Egyptian side of the border at the Palestinian-controlled Rafah crossing, which was closed since European monitors could not reach the area through an Israeli crossing, said the director of security at the Palestinian crossings, Salim Abu Safiah.

According to a U.S.-mediated agreement, the Palestinians agreed to have EU monitors stationed at Rafah when they took over the crossing after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last summer.

The closure of Rafah meant that many Palestinians who need medical treatment abroad were unable to leave Gaza, Abu Safiah said.

Israel said it was allowing Palestinians with medical needs to exit through the Erez crossing between northern Gaza and Israel.

PRISONER RELEASE: Israel rejected a demand by Palestinian militants to release Palestinian women and youths in its prisons in return for information on the abducted Israeli soldier.

Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the governing Hamas movement's armed wing, along with the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and the Islamic Army, said Israel would not get information about the soldier unless it freed all jailed Palestinian women and youths.

"The question of releasing prisoners is not on the agenda of the Israeli government at all," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a speech. "The time is approaching for a comprehensive, sharp and severe Israeli operation. We will not wait forever," he said. "We will not become a target of Hamas-terrorist blackmail."

In addition, PCHR is apprehensive over the consequences of the current situation, following the military operation near Kerem Shalom checkpoint on Sunday 25 June 2006, and the possibility of a wide scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. The operation resulted in the death of two Palestinians from the group that conducted the operation and two IOF soldiers. Another IOF soldier was taken prisoner during the operation.

According to field information, Rafah International Crossing Point was closed on 21 June 2006, due to the absence of the European monitors. The spokesperson for the monitors indicated that they did not come to the crossing due to an Israeli security alert regarding an impending attack on Kerem Shalom checkpoint. The crossing has been completely closed since Sunday, 25 June 2006, following the military operation at Kerem Shalom. Hundreds of Palestinian travelers are stuck on the Egyptian side of the border. Among these travelers are women, children, elderly and ill persons returning after medical treatment in Egypt. They are enduring inadequate living and health conditions while waiting to enter Gaza.

Furthermore, IOF have closed the other crossings into the Gaza Strip: El-Muntar (Karni) Commercial Crossing; Beit Hanoun (Erez) Crossing - designated for workers, humanitarian cases and international workers; Sofa Crossing - designated for construction material; and Kerem Shalom Crossing - used for food and medical humanitarian assistance.

It is noted that the closure of Gaza Strip border crossings, since the Border Crossings Agreement between the Palestinian National Authority and Israel on 15 November 2005, has created a disastrous economic and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Since the signing of the agreement, El-Muntar Crossing has been completely closed for 96 days and partially closed for 162 days. As a result, the import and export of medicine and other commodities was kept at a standstill for the majority of this time, causing further economic strangulation of the Gaza Strip and a lack of essential goods such as milk and fruits in the local market. In addition, agricultural and industrial exports from the Strip have been barred.

PCHR calls upon the international community to exert pressure on IOF to respect International Humanitarian Law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention, and to immediately end the closure and isolation that is worsening an already dire situation in the Gaza Strip. The continuation of the closure will have catastrophic effects on the living conditions of civilians and accentuate the existing problems of poverty and unemployment. PCHR calls upon the international community to pressure IOF to reopen El-Muntar Crossing, Sofa Crossing, Beith Hanoun Crossing and Rafah International Crossing Point, in order to allow Palestinians enjoy their rights to freedom of movement and to import and export goods. The lifting of the closure will put an end to the daily suffering of nearly 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, whose civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are currently being violated.

The 18-point proposal calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But Palestinian minister Abdel Rahman Zeidan told the BBC Tuesday that the deal does not recognize the state of Israel.

"There is no agreement between the Palestinians on specifically this phrase," the BBC quoted Zeidan as saying. "You will not find one word in the document clearly stating the recognition of Israel as a state. Nobody has agreed to this. This was not on the table. This was not in the dialogue."

In Washington, White House spokesperson Tony Snow said the United States will not change its position toward the Palestinian government until Hamas recognizes Israel.

"Let's wait until we see something for real," said Snow.

Tensions running high

The development comes against a backdrop of rising tensions along the Israeli-Gaza border.

Hundreds of tanks and armoured personnel carriers are gathering near northern Gaza as foreign negotiators work to win the release of an Israeli soldier. He was abducted by Palestinian militant groups, including the military wing of Hamas.

A militant organization that rejects Israel's right to exist, Hamas won a surprise victory in January's parliamentary elections.

The group, whose founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks inside Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, have been locked in a power struggle for weeks, including a number of bloody battles between their security forces on the streets of Gaza.

Abbas has promoted the plan as a way to restart international funding for the Palestinian Authority, cut off by a number of Western countries after Hamas took over control of the government.

The economic embargo has led to a growing humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Territories as tens of thousands of government workers haven't been paid for months.

Abbas, seen by many in the international community as key to restarting peace talks, had threatened to call a Palestinian referendum on the document.

Israel has called the prisoners' document an internal Palestinian affair and repeated a call for Hamas to reject violence and recognize the Jewish state.

Negotiated in secret by Palestinians serving time in Israeli prisons, the deal's signers include Sheikh Abdul Khaleq al-Natsheh of Hamas and Marwan Barghouti of Fatah, one of the most popular Palestinian political leaders.