Mao's Red Army has a surprising affinity with Israel's history from the Biblical exodus.

The Hebrews couldn't conduct a frontal assault on the Egyptians, but relied on miraculous plagues and eventually went "through the waters" into the wilderness. The Red Army tried confronting Chian Kai-Shek's National Revolutionary Army direct, but they failed most of the time. Cornered in Jiangxi, they daringly broke through the Kuomintang ranks and marched to a new haven in the north. Mao's Long March in 1934, involved (according to journalist Edgar Snow):

• crossing 18 mountain ranges
• crossing 24 rivers
• passing through 12 provinces
• occupying 62 cities
• breaking thru enveloping armies of 10 provincial warlords
• defeating, eluding and out-manoeuvring government troops

Israel eventually "blew down" (literally) the walls of Jericho and entered Canaan, the promised land. Mao's Communists stood down the Japanese, gathering favour as the preferred leaders of China, after the Kuomintang failure. Israel's enemies were mostly exiled, some killed. Mao's enemies self-exiled themselves in Taiwan.

Israel had a book full of rules for her people (see Deuteronomy, Leviticus, etc.). So did Mao, some key lines even displaying more nobility than what you easily find in capitalism or even Christianity(!):

1. Put back all doors when you leave a house
2. Rice-stalk mattress must all be bundled up again and returned
3. Be polite. Help people when you can.
4. Give back everything you borrow, even if it's only a needle
5. Pay for all things broken, even if it's only a chopstick.
6. Don't help yourself or search for things when people are not in their houses

Both Israel and Mao's people (nay, kingdoms) had legendary beginnings, steely discipline and huge victories. But both eventually crumbled, their influence dissipated.

Still, we'll always remember the marches, those awesome journeys which, strangely enough, often define a people.