Are you saying the Jews were the small group that resisted empire? Their rebellion is marred, though, by their scriptures which fantasize about how Jews dominated foreigners in early Jewish history. (I come from a Jewish family, by the way.) I suppose that if the totality of Jewish scriptures entails that Jews grew out of imperialism, leading to the humanism, world-weariness, and discontent you find in Job and Ecclesiastes, ancient Jewish imperialism would amount to a growing pain.

I'm Canadian. Sometimes the spell-checker pressures me to pick the American spelling.