How Napoleon's legacy impacts IDF fighting in Gaza
Israeli military historian Allon Klebanoff sheds light on the legendary French general whose impact on the world is felt to this day, particularly in warfare.
As with most great figures in history, Napoleon Bonaparte's legacy is divisive: some laud him as a brilliant thinker and military genius, while others view him as an imperialist and enslaver who should be vilified, not lionized.
Israel Hayom speaks with Allon Klebanoff, a military historian, head of the Israeli Society for Napoleonic Research, and member of the International Napoleonic Society, to shed light on the legendary emperor.
"People don't realize that Napoleon is a historical figure whose influence on our lives today remains great," Klebanoff began. "He ranks second in history in terms of the number of publications about him, with Jesus being the only one to precede him. He is a central subject in books, articles, and various fields of art – literature, poetry, theater, cinema, music, and opera. He even reached the Israeli theater with Nissim Aloni's 'Napoleon, Dead or Alive.'
In addition, at this time, a biopic about Napoleon is also showing in theaters worldwide, directed by Ridley Scott, in which Joaquin Phoenix portrays the emperor.
Q: But some in the French culture view him as a controversial figure, don't they?
"Every significant figure in history is subject to interpretation and debate. Even during his lifetime, Napoleon was criticized by his contemporaries, such as the foreign minister at the time, François-René de Chateaubriand. But in general, he is undoubtedly one of the most admired and popular Frenchmen. He stars in two of Stendhal's most famous novels, one of the greatest writers in French literature, as well as in the works of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. Not to mention director Abel Gance's 1927 six-hour epic 'Napoléon' is considered one of the most central and important films in the history of silent cinema."
Q: Would you say that this is true today as well? Because, in 2021, for instance, when France marked the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon, his tarnished legacy – due to the reinstatement of slavery that had been banned after the revolution, among other things – led to French President Emmanuel Macron insisting that he was "commemorating not celebrating" the emperor's legacy.
"Macron is a statesman. But when it comes to the French public itself, I can say, as someone who has visited the country many times, that there is an innumerable amount of documentaries, books, articles, and exhibitions dedicated to Napoleon. And that was during the coronavirus pandemic, and people still flooded the exhibition."
Q: Napoleon saw the world in a particular manner, and led to many others seeing it the same way.
"That's exactly it. Anyone who has watched legal dramas knows the well-known practice on the witness stand, where a person puts his hand on the Bible and swears to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." But in French civil code, which Napoleon famously bequeathed France, there is no such practice because he believed that a person will always lie if that is in his or her interest and that there is no such thing as 'whole truth.'
"He insisted that France's civil code, the 1804 Napoleonic Code, should be clear to everyone. He demanded that the wording be simple and clear, and was even personally involved in the drafting. After the peace agreements with the Habsburg Empire and England, he dedicated himself to far-reaching reforms in France and turned the country around - from one that was torn apart by the revolution to the most advanced one on the globe, with the Napoleonic Code having formed the basis of the law systems of many other countries.
"This is just one example of Napoleon's ability to make others see the world from his point of view. By the way, based on what my friends said, who live abroad [where 'Napoleon' premiered earlier than in Israel] and watched the movie, what is missing from the latest biopic are the historical impact and the historical consequences of Napoleon's work. He spread two of the central principles of the French Revolution – liberty and equality – with every step he took on European soil as well as in the Middle East."
Q: He is also said to have majorly influenced the Jews at the time. Some say Jewish nationalism was affected by Napoleon, directly and indirectly.
"True, because of his journey to the land of Israel. His army's entry to Israel in 1799 was the first time that a European army entered the land after more than half a millennium, after the departure of the Crusades in 1291. His arrival here was significant."
Q: How so?
"From the moment Napoleon arrived here and until the present day, the Middle East has not for a moment retreated from global attention, and Napoleon was the trigger for this. But before that, on Oct. 7, 1571 – and as I say Oct. 7 I get shivers [because the recent brutal Hamas attack on Israel also took place on Oct. 7] – the Battle of Lepanto took place in the region of western Greece.
"The Ottoman navy was defeated there by a European coalition, which led to the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the decline of the western Mediterranean basin. No one came to the Middle East except travelers and the region was forgotten."
Q: Is it true that during the Siege of Acre in 1799, Napoleon issued a proclamation offering the land as a homeland to Jews?
"You're touching upon an important subject. This was a controversial statement, and some say it was forged. My teacher, Professor Mordechai Gichon – [one of the outstanding archaeological and military historians of Israel in the last decades] – was convinced that it was true, and I follow his view. I am convinced that it is a genuine document, even though the original text has never been found. Napoleon had an interest in bolstering Jewish nationalism so that it would help him in the land of Israel, just like he did in Italy in 1796.
"By the way, there is no dispute that after the Italian unification, [German-Jewish philosopher and Zionist thinker] Moses Hess wrote 'Rome and Jerusalem', which definitely contributed to the birth of Zionism. In other words, after Athens and Rome gained independence, it was Jerusalem's turn.
"Moreover, when Napoleon arrived in Venice in 1797, he saw the [local] ghettos and was revolted. He ordered the ghettos to be dismantled and all the restrictions on Jews lifted because they went against the principle of equality of the French Revolution. Some 118 years before the Balfour Declaration, he called on the Jews to return to the land of their ancestors. There are a number of respected researchers who see this as evidence that Napoleon was history's first Zionist."
Q: And how did the 'first Zionist' influence the IDF, for instance?
"The conscription system used today in all armies of the world began with Napoleon. The French Revolution led to the first public conscription in modern history. Mass conscription is well implemented in Israel, which is based on the reserve army.
"Napoleon also influenced the creation of the General Staff: he had unusual abilities, and when he defeated the Prussians and they had to rebuild their army, they said they didn't have anyone as brilliant as Napoleon, and so they had to develop an efficient system to deal with a superior military. And so they established what we today call the General Staff, which is part and parcel of modern armies.
Q: How about the fighting in Gaza?
"Napoleon is the father of the modern concept of fire. Until he came on the scene, artillery was an auxiliary force on the battlefield. Napoleon used it as an independent arm, and achieved his goals through large concentrations of fire. Indirectly, the use of massive fire in Gaza, from the air and on the ground, is inspired by Napoleon.
"Soldiers who rely on canned food should also thank Napoleon, as he was the one who recruited scientists to come up with ways to preserve food on the battlefield, which led to the invention of canned food. Certainly the fighting in Gaza is based on principles that date back to the Napoleonic era."
Q: What about combat objectives? Are Israeli leaders inspired by him?
"This might be surprising, but yes. Napoleon understood that victory was not just about territory and maneuvers, as it was customary to think in the 18th century, but in destroying the enemy's army. In the case of Gaza, our victory will not be complete until Hamas is destroyed physically."
Q: Could a strategic surprise, such as the Oct. 7 brutal attack by Hamas, have happened to Napoleon? He is said to have been quite arrogant and was maybe unprepared.
"He made sure he had excellent intel and had agents all over Europe. I can't imagine Napoleon becoming as blind as we were before the Yom Kippur War or Oct. 7. Something like this didn't happen to him, and there are no "what ifs" in history.
Q: Has Napoleon ever surprised his enemies in such a way?
"He surprised his opponents several times. One of the most amazing strategic surprises was recorded during the crossing of the Alps when he surprised the Austrian army in northern Italy. He crossed an area that was considered impossible to cross and managed to reach the rear of the Austrian army, as seen in the famous painting [by Jacques-Louis David]. By the way, the painting was complete propaganda [to cultivate public support by exaggerating Napoleon's success and image].
"He also strategically surprised Russia when he invaded it, even though they had an alliance."
Q: For this article, we photographed you on the ruins of the Qaqun fortress, a scene that is also connected to surprises on the battlefield.
"In general, the most famous sites in Israel associated with Napoleon are Jaffa and Acre, but the encounter at Qaqun is also captivating. A month and a day before the Battle of Mount Tabor, we got a fascinating window into his tactical, dangerous, outside-the-box thinking. This is an encounter that he supposedly failed in. He tried to catch his opponents between two flames and give them a decisive blow.
"His opponents recognized that it was a practice drill and slipped away, but from that moment on, they were deterred by him and kept their distance. In the Battle of Mount Tabor, on April 16, 1799, he was already successful in the exercise: he surprised the Ottoman force, which was caught by fire from two sides. This is how the goal of his trip to Israel was achieved – neutralizing the threat from the east to his forces in Egypt."
Q: In the Ridley Scott biopic Napoleon is portrayed as a knight, an impressive warrior. Truth or myth?
"He was in the line of fire and displayed courage. At the Battle of Arcole, he grabbed the flag and ran first to the bridge. At the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, in 1814, his uniform was torn by bullets fired at him. Having said that, Napoleon never led a cavalry charge. But he was, of course, a brilliant strategist and tactician. His genius is reflected in his ability to plan ahead."
Q: As part of your work at the Israeli Society for Napoleonic Research, which has about 500 members, you must learn a lot about Napoleon's character. How would you describe him?
"He was a good son and sent half of his salary to his mother, who took care of seven other children. He was a complex, intellectual, self-taught person who already at an early age read intensively. In fact, in his final exile on St. Helena, he said, 'I have fought sixty battles, and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning.'
"It may be pretentious, but it only indicates his intellectual base, which also included a lot of information about Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Hannibal. There are few soldiers in history who were that educated."
Q: Napoleon has also been described as short-tempered, worked around the clock, and was not particularly sociable.
"He was sociable with his friends, but at the same time, he was a practical person and not much into small talk. His work capacity was indeed extreme. He worked 20-23 hours a day. Whenever he felt he was about to fall asleep, he would get into a bath filled with boiling water. One time, his servant put his hand in the water and almost got burnt.
"When Goethe met him, he was fascinated by his depth and sophistication. The philosopher Hegel called him 'the soul of the world on a horse'. Napoleon came from an impoverished family, a small and marginal island, and lost his father at a young age. Despite all this, he built himself up with his ten fingers."
Q: Did his short stature bother him?
"Napoleon was not short at all, that's a myth. His height was average for his period. It was English cartoonists first who portrayed him as short to mock him."
Q: I cannot help but ask about Napoleon's wife, Empress Joséphine, as the latest biopic emphasizes their relationship.
"She was the love of his life, even though their relationship was turbulent. She cheated on him left and right from the very beginning. She did not want to marry him but was later persuaded, which did not prevent her from keeping her lovers. Napoleon found out about it and wanted to break up with her, but he too had lovers and allegedly fathered five children out of wedlock.
"The French say that 'marriage is too heavy a burden to be borne by two', and this mentally helped Napoleon and Josephine bear the mutual betrayal. In the end, Napoleon decided to divorce her because she did not have children and he wanted a legal heir. Both of their hearts were broken, and yet, they remained good friends until the end of her life. His last words were, 'France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine.'"
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