The Atlantic

Why Does Trump Want to Address Israel at Masada?

The famous fortress is about pageantry, and specifically the pageantry of the underdog.
Source: Kieran Doherty / Reuters

When Donald Trump travels to Israel later this month as part of his first foreign trip, he plans to give his main speech at Masada, a hilltop fortress soaked with bloody symbolism.

It looks like a strange choice. Trump’s trip is theoretically about , but the historic event that made Masada famous—960 Jewish rebels chose to commit mass suicide there in the first century rather than die at the hands of the

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