Well, they may have created the Israeli state. Back in the day they may have picked the wrong piece of real estate. It looked like a cheap fixer-upper but it’s really been causing the world a lot a lot of shekels in urban renewal. I support and I have been there, but the world may be a lot better off if you picked a piece of real estate in the middle of the mediterranean. I know the ancient traditions of the holy land but the guys who are coming back have been away for over 1900 years. Not the same people. When the Soviet union imploded and Israel took in 2 million Russians, they had to teach them how to be Jewish. That’s only after 80 years.
Well, Nehemiah and Ezra had to do the same thing after the approximately 66-year Babylonian exile, when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem. Thusly, Judaism survived.
Of course, in Biblical times the ruling power could do things we can't do today. After reading the law of Moses to the Israelites, Ezra reminded them that the Torah forbid intermarriage and made them divorce their pagan spouses and either Judaize the children or give them up.