The Historical Roots of Israel

Israel was born of the Holocaust, but it was sired thousands of years before. For at least 2,000 years Jews prayed, "Next year in Jerusalem." And until the middle of the 20th century, such prayer was only a religious metaphor. Then, dramatically, in 1948, the possibility of "next year in Jerusalem" became a possibility for every Jew in the world. The political machinations of the Zionist State are testimony to the cohesive and pervasive Jewish power in the West. In its operation, Israel lives as testimony to the very supremacist nature of both Judaism and its partly secular son, Zionism.

Jewish messianic tradition goes back as far as their recorded history. Even when the Jews were one of the smallest tribes of the Middle East, they fashioned a faith that designated themselves a special people, a chosen people, a people who were promised to rule the world. These messianic intentions are not paranoid delusions of anti-Semites, they are written plainly in their own Hebraic scriptures, and since that time they have been dutifully appended all the way to the present. Compare the following Biblical quotation to the messianic words of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion.

     . . .and kings shall come from you and shall rule wherever the foot of the sons of man has trodden. I shall give to your seed all the earth which is under heaven, and they shall rule over all the nations according to their desire; and afterwards they shall draw the whole earth to themselves and shall inherit it for ever' (Jub. 32:18-19)

In Look magazine in 1962, Ben-Gurion stated his prediction for the next 25 years, a prediction of amazing prescience:

     The image of the world in 1987 as traced in my imagination: The Cold War will be a thing of the past. Internal pressure of the constantly growing intelligentsia in Russia . . . may lead to a gradual democratization of the Soviet Union. On the other hand . . . transform the United States into a welfare state with a planned economy. . .With the exception of the USSR as a federated Eurasian state, all other continents will become united in a world alliance, at whose disposal will be an international police force. All armies will be abolished, and there will be no more wars. In Jerusalem, the United Nations (a truly United Nations) will build a Shrine of the Prophets to serve the federated union of all continents; this will be the seat of the Supreme Court of Mankind. ¹

Many people are amazed to discover that most Jews in Israel are "non-religious," just as was their first great leader David Ben-Gurion. However, these mostly atheistic Jews tolerate a religious state. Apparently, Jews who have no belief in God support Judaism as a state-sponsored institution that preserves both Jewish culture and the Jewish genotype. Other than a few intolerant fanatics, the Jewish Orthodox institutions allow a wide range of religious belief, from atheism to forms of the occult called Kabbalism. Only the Talmud, could have a passage where a rabbi claims to have argued with God and defeated him. To Jewish orthodoxy, biblical and theological interpretations may vary greatly as long as Jewish tradition and Jewish heritage is scrupulously preserved.