Ideological Curios, Part III

The Spirit of Ahab still Lives

Israel is a divisive topic.  For many--particularly those on the Left, in the Commentariat, and amongst the chattering classes--it represents implacable evil, whilst Islamic Palestinians represent unimpeachable goodness.  For some Christians influenced by Dispensational biblical theology, Israel represents unimpeachable goodness, whilst those who oppose Israel--on any count--represent forces opposed to God.

Naturally, the world is neither that simple, nor binary. Christians run the risk of thinking in a binary fashion about the modern nation state of Israel when they read Biblical texts outside of the context of the "broad-brush" narrative of the Bible.

To cut to the chase, the modern nation state of Israel is not a fulfilment of biblical promises to the ancient Jewish people.  It is a creation of Britain, the United States, and the UN.  Is this a problem?  Not necessarily.  There have been plenty of such artificially created nations during the hey-day of imperialism, as well as before and after.

However, the artificiality of the origins of a nation should not be an argument to obliterate it.  In the end, nation states exist and should be reckoned with accordingly.