I question whether this is relevant to modern-day Israel. The Zionist founders of Israel were secular. They did not establish a claim to the land as a consequence of obedience to God or on the presumption that God guaranteed their claim.
As I understand the history (somebody correct any significant errors or omissions here, please) the original early-20th-century Zionists bought land. In other words, they established ownership of properties the same as anybody else would.
Then after WWI, the British and the League of Nations came to have a role in administering the former Ottoman provinces. After WWII, the British decided to give these territories independence, so they divided up their Mandate territory into Israel and Jordan.
So the Jews got a right to Israel, first by purchase and then by the lawful British Mandate agreement. They got the right to be a nation a third way, too, by succesfully defending it and by developing it into a state where everybody (including Israeli Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs) could vote, serve in elected or appointed office, and take part in the benefits of civil society, all on an equal and secular basis.
Whatever the historic basis is for today's widespread antisemitism, it's ~not~ caused by Jews talking like or acting like they're an exclusive elite of God's Chosen People.
See what I mean?
Agreed. I wasn’t really referring to current hatred of them (which stems from lots of things, not the least of which is jealousy), but really offering an explanation for why—as Steyn claims—hatred of Jews may be the oldest hatred.
Agreed. I wasn’t really referring to current hatred of them (which stems from lots of things, not the least of which is jealousy), but really offering an explanation for why—as Steyn claims—hatred of Jews may be the oldest hatred.