I am sure many people wonder why there is so much fuss about the goings on in a tiny sliver of land on the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Why are the deaths of hundreds of thousands of genuine civilians in Africa (eg Sudan) and a massive Turkish invasion of Syria and attacks on Kurdish civilians ignored while far smaller numbers of deaths of terrorists and their logistical support personnel (wrongly called Gazan "civilians" by the media) made such a fuss of.
Why is "No Jews, No News" so true?
Well part of this is obviously anti-semitism and huge amounts have been written about this.
Philo-semitism also plays a role.
Judaism is also the source of much of "Western" morality, culture and civilisations - Judeo-Christian civilisation etc.
But I want to talk about why The Land of Israel is actually very important geo-strategically, and the modern State of Israel is a very special development in history.
1. Geography Matters.
Ancient maps placed Jerusalem at the center of the world for more than spiritual reasons.
The Land of Israel is the ONLY land route from Africa to Eurasia.
It also dominates crucial land routes from Asia to Europe like the Silk Road and related routes.
These routes are all season, all weather routes, unlike more northerly routes that can be impassable in winter.
Equally naval control of the Eastern Mediterranean was and still is extremely important for trade between Africa, Europe and Asia.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 made this even more important.
The location of Israel between Africa, Europe and Asia also puts it at the economic center of the world - the hub of Mackinder's World Island. In modern times the vast majority of the world's oil production is located in the Middle East, within a short distance of Israel.
[UPDATE]: A few days after making this post I discovered that Israel is very close to the center of the smallest circle that can be drawn containing 99.9% of the world's population. Thus it is at the center of the world from a population distribution perspective as well as geographically.
https://x.com/Saul_Sadka/status/1869785190098243997
2. Coveted by Empires
It is for these reasons, that historically, it has been strategically crucial for Empires, whether arising in Africa, Europe or Asia to control the Land of Israel.
No Empire could be secure if it did not control this crucial piece of land.
This is why the Jewish People have endured so many invasions and occupations of their historic homeland by Empire after Empire throughout history. Here is a list of the main ones with the invasion date generally being when Jerusalem was taken by the invader.
- 1 Assyrian (722 BCE)
- 2 Babylonian (586 BCE)
- 3 Persian (539 BCE)
Source for first 3 invasions - 4 Greek (Macedonian) (331 BCE)
- 5 Roman / Byzantine (63 BCE)
- 6 Muslim (637 CE)
- 7 Crusader (1099 CE)
- 8 Ottoman Muslim (1517 CE)
- 9 British (1917 CE)
3. Periods of Jewish Sovereignty and Autonomy
During this long history of Imperial dominance, the Jewish People have had periods of sovereignty or extensive autonomy in their historic homeland:
- a) The Ancient Israelites / Davidic Kingdoms (1406 BCE - 772/586 BCE) Full sovereignty
- b) The Early 2nd Temple Period (538 BCE - 331 BCE) Autonomy
- c) The Maccabean Period (167 - 63 BCE) Full sovereignty
- d) The early Roman Period (63 BCE - 66 CE) Autonomy
4. Modern Israel - an inherently anti-Imperial development
Some may see the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel in 1948 as just another inter-Imperial period, destined to end at the hands of some upcoming Empire or other.
I beg to differ.
Modern Israel is something unique in history - an indigenous Jewish State that is more powerful than nascent Empires - a permanent block to Imperial ambitions of other nations.
Modern Israel has already defeated multiple attempts by Imperial or nascent Imperial powers to dominate the region.
Multiple Egypt led attempts to create an Arab secular Empire, backed by the Soviet Empire AKA "The Arab - Israeli Conflict", which finally ended last week with the total defeat and demilitarisation of Syria, the last Arab combatant still standing.
Islamist Sunni (ISIS, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood) attempts to create a new Islamic Arab Caliphate.
Islamist Shiite Iran's attempts re-create the Persian Empire.
The expulsion of the Russian Empire from the Middle East, also enabled by Israel's destruction of Hizbollah which led to the fall of Assad.
Now Turkey's Erdogan seeks to re-create the Ottoman Empire, but Israel's massive military superiority and alliances with the Greeks, Cypriots , Druze and Kurds stands in his way. Also Turkey is highly dependant on the US for arms (more so than Israel) and the US will not allow Erdogan's Imperial ambitions.
Some may say that the US is an Imperial power and Israel acts as its lackey.
However neither is the case. The US has not sought overseas conquest and certainly not to occupy the whole Middle East. Where it has invaded and occupied it has quickly withdrawn because it is very bad at Imperial administration. It is contrary to America's DNA.
Nor is Israel the US's proxy or vassal. Israel's extremely independent behaviour post Oct 7, going against the wishes of the Biden Administration and resisting its pressure showed that Israel is far more independent than any of the US's other Allies. Indeed most of Israel's great victories in the present Oct 7 War have resulted from doing the opposite of what Biden wanted.
5. Why Permanent?
You may ask: Why do I say this is a permanent situation?
There are four main components of national power in today's world:
- Demographic
- Economic
- Geographic
- Technological
5.1 Brains replace Brawn
In the ancient world technology was rarely a factor, as technology moved very slowly, but the physical strength of your people was a factor. In the ancient world physical strength was important, but today brains are far more important. This is an obvious advantage to the Jewish People and Israel in modern times.
Today Israel is the world leader in military (and other) technologies. Much of the United State's technological and economic success has derived from Jewish entrepreneurs. This has especially been so in the internet era.
Thus today Israel has a huge technological advantage over all nascent Empires in the broader region that is growing larger with each year.
Attempts by nascent Empires in the region to defeat this pesky impediment to their Imperial ambitions have left their countries extremely backward technologically.
5.2 The Holy Grail of High Fertility and Prosperity
In the ancient world Jews had high fertility, but so did many other far more numerous peoples.
Today, Jews in Israel and observantly Orthodox Jews in The Diaspora are the ONLY people in the entire world to have both high fertility AND modern technological economic prosperity. Israel is by far the top score on the Baby Money Index.
Here is the Top 10
The top 10:
Israel - 432 kiloChads
Qatar - 371 kC
Faroe Islands - 331 kC
Saudi Arabia - 313 kC
Kazakhstan - 302 kC
Kuwait - 281 kC
Ireland 278 kC
Oman - 262 kC
Norway - 255 kC
Brunei - 252 kC
Of this list, all other than Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan are either tiny or small nations with less population than Israel. The full list is here.
Note that this list is based on 2022 figures and there have been dramatic drops in fertility of most countries (but not Israel) in 2023-2024.
Thus Israel's lead in the Baby Money Index has further increased in the last 2 years.
Today, apart from Israel, the only places in the world with high fertility are 3rd world, poverty stricken, underdeveloped countries. And many of these are experiencing very rapid fertility drops as they become a bit more developed. African TFR has likely fallen below replacement.
Equally, highly developed high tech countries like Japan, S Korea, Italy and Germany have extremely low fertility.
5.3 High Fertility + High Technology = Strong Economy
In 1948 Israel was barely a 2nd world country. Today it is one of the economically strongest countries in the world and advancing quickly up the ladder of the wealthiest countries on a per capita basis.
Israel is in the Top 20 countries of GDP (nominal) per capita (IMF 2024 figures.
If countries with populations below 10M are excluded, then Israel takes 8th place with only the USA, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Canada ahead.
Yes, Israel now has more than 10 million people!
Israel has a proper population pyramid (far more young than old) rather than the reverse most other advanced countries have.
[Source: By Tweedle - Own work, data taken from the UN World Population Prospects, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121088332]
[Source: By Kaj Tallungs - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117982916]
With a young, highly educated, high tech population, Israel will continue to be an economic powerhouse for the next century at least. All other advanced countries suffer massive demographic headwinds from having their working age populations drop massively while their elderly dependent populations increase hugely. This ever increasing dependancy ratio is a huge drain on growth and creates a major risk of complete collapse as expensive infrastructure can no longer be maintained and suffers catastrophic cascading failure bringing down the ever more fragile civilisation.
Young people are the main source of the innovation and entrepreneurship which drives economic growth. They are also the consumers that build households, spend a lot and drive consumption. As people age, most become more set in their ways and find it harder to learn new things. They also spend less because they already have most of what they need. Technological innovation is predominantly driven by younger people.
6. A Very Special Historical Development
This unique combination of technological, demographic and economic strength combined with crucial geo-strategic location in the center of the world is a very special and unique historical development.
Some might say it is a fulfilment of Biblical Prophecy and presages an End of Times, Messianic Age or Singularity.
Alternatively if one believes in history as an ongoing or cyclical phenomenon, this is nonetheless something important and new.
Suffice to say Modern Israeli is not a normal country. It is Kryptonite to the Empires which have traditionally dominated the region.
It is very important to the future of humanity and occupies a unique and powerful position.
It may save human civilisation and technological progress from demographic catastrophe, like the Monasteries in the Dark Ages, but a lot more fun!
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