[ckilmer]

The prophets are not asking for the forgiveness of long dead Israelis.

Sorry, you are wrong.

Nehemiah 9:2 “And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.”

Daniel 9:16 “O LORD, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.”
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This is pretty good. Here’s the rub. The sins of the fathers went back three generations. Three generations was the maximum for which the sins of the fathers could go down;

In order for your analogy to hold true for current circumstances— Daniel and Nehemiah would have been apologizing for the sins of the Jews in Egypt—or those sins committed 1000 years earlier. (You can say they had already left egypt if you like.)

That’s not what they would have been apologizing for. Rather, the Jews had taken on the abominations of the Canaanites. They killed their children in the valley of Hinon. They had broken the contract that God made with them when they entered the promised land. God’s blessing on the Israelites was strictly conditional. They were allowed to conquer Canaan not because they were so good but rather because the Canaanites were so bad. (Even later the Romans were appalled by Carthaginians child sacrifice practices. The Cartheginians were a Canaanite people.) The abominations of the Caananites were child sacrifice and male & female temple prostitution. The Israelites where sacrificing their children in the valley of hinon when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 589 BC. The prophets believed that the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem not because they were so good but rather because the Israelites were so bad ie they had broken their covenant with God.

If, for example, the liberal theologians had apologized to God and then to the Moslems for supporting abortion and homosexuality—the apology would have been scriptural and understood by everyone—including the Moslems.

As it is, this sort of hokum the liberal theologians signed off on just promotes witchcraft.

[ConservativeMind]

But your references only mention they confessed their own sins. As for their fathers, they spoke of the sins of their fathers, but didn’t confess them as their own nor ask for forgiveness of their father’s sins. However, they would have likely asked for mercy for themselves for the failings their father’s sins had brought upon them.

[MEGoody]

The sins of the fathers went back three generations.

Scripture on that please.

[EBH]

New testament...the savior ...Jesus Christ...changed all that.

[aruanan]

As it is, this sort of hokum the liberal theologians signed off on just promotes witchcraft.

I don't think there's a single morally despicable act that some liberal theologian somewhere hasn't embraced for what he (or she) claims are godly reasons.