Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the World’s Addiction to Theocracy

Power in the twenty-first century is not where we pretend to measure it. We speak of nuclear arsenals, GDP growth, global alliances, and trade routes. We count divisions of tanks, stockpiles of missiles, and the number of seats at the United Nations. Yet the most potent leverage in today’s world lies not in the realm of material force, but in metaphysical illusion. Israel and Saudi Arabia, two small states in a desert corridor, wield disproportionate influence over global politics not because of armies or industry, but because of theology.

They are not superpowers by conventional metrics. Israel is smaller than New Jersey, and Saudi Arabia depends on American military contractors for its survival. Yet both command the world’s deference. Their legitimacy rests not on constitutions, but on scripture. Their authority is not natural, but supernatural. Their strength is not empirical, but metaphysical. And as long as humanity treats theology as sovereignty, these two states will continue to hold the global system hostage.

Israel: A Biblical State Armed by NATO

Israel is unique among modern nations: it owes its existence not only to political deals and wars, but to a sacred story. Its most reliable patron, the United States, does not simply see it as an ally — it sees it as a covenantal obligation. The Bible is America’s shadow constitution. Jesus was a Jew; the New Testament presupposes the Old. Israel thus becomes more than a state — it becomes the stage of salvation history.

This theological foundation explains why Israel receives treatment unlike any other ally. During the 2023–24 Gaza war, when Israeli forces killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, displaced millions, and reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble, the United States did not sanction Israel. It increased weapons shipments. It vetoed every critical UN resolution. It shielded Israel not only militarily but morally, justifying its bombardments as self-defense even as the humanitarian catastrophe mounted.

Europe followed suit. NATO, which wraps itself in the rhetoric of democracy and human rights, became complicit. European governments that sanction Russia for invading Ukraine refused to sanction Israel for bombing Gaza. Western media amplified Israel’s narratives while smearing critics as anti-Semites. The hypocrisy was glaring, but it was also predictable. Israel is not judged as a state; it is judged as scripture.

Saudi Arabia: The Custodian of Global Islam

If Israel commands the West through biblical memory, Saudi Arabia commands the Muslim world through ritual. Its GDP is modest compared to global giants, its military is a paper tiger without American trainers, its monarchy is authoritarian and corrupt. And yet it enjoys near-total immunity from Muslim criticism. Why? Because it is the custodian of Mecca and Medina.

Every Muslim, from Indonesia to Nigeria, bows toward Arabia five times a day. The pilgrimage, the Hajj, cements the Hijaz as sacred geography. Saudi kings are not just monarchs; they are guardians of Islam’s beating heart. The result is a power no empire in history has ever enjoyed: a standing army of the imagination, two billion strong, unpaid, and self-mobilizing. A Pakistani may riot against Islamabad, but he will not deny Mecca. An Iranian cleric may curse Riyadh, but he will still send pilgrims. The OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) functions less as a coalition of sovereign nations and more as a vassal of Saudi religious legitimacy.

Saudi Arabia has exported Wahhabi dogma across the globe, funded madrassas from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur, and used oil wealth to launder its theocracy. Yet Muslim states bow in silence. When the Saudi regime executed dissidents, bombed Yemen, or strangled its own women’s rights activists, the OIC barely protested. The sanctity of Mecca outweighs the sanctity of reason.

Rivals and Twins

Israel and Saudi Arabia appear to be rivals, but they are also twins. Both claim descent from Abraham — Isaac versus Ishmael, Sarah versus Hagar. Both circumcise, both ban pork, both despise idols. Hebrew and Arabic are as close as Italian and Spanish. Both worship a transcendent God removed from nature. Both enshrine law as supreme: Halakha and Sharia are mirrors of one another. They are legalistic civilizations that regulate, restrict, and command.

Their rivalry, then, is fratricidal. Gaza is not just a war zone; it is a battlefield of theology. Yemen is not just a proxy war; it is a struggle of sacred legitimacy. Every missile doubles as a sermon. Every refugee camp doubles as a footnote to scripture. Humanity bleeds for the quarrels of Sarah and Hagar.

The Global Complicity

But the scandal is not only Israel and Saudi Arabia themselves. The real scandal is the global system that enables them.

The United States funnels billions to Israel, not only out of strategy but out of biblical loyalty. Europe, though proudly secular at home, finds moral cover in the Old Testament. NATO, supposedly a military alliance of democracies, arms a theocratic state with impunity. Western politicians invoke Holocaust memory, but in practice they wield it as theological shield for occupation and apartheid.

On the other side, the OIC bends to Saudi Arabia’s will. Pakistan sends troops, Egypt sends loyalty, Indonesia sends silence. Even Iran, despite its rivalry with Riyadh, will not challenge Mecca’s centrality. China, brokering Saudi–Iran détente in 2023, bowed not to freedom or reason but to the pragmatic recognition of Arabia’s metaphysical leverage. Russia courts Riyadh for oil and pilgrimage legitimacy.

The result is a global addiction to theocracy. Every major bloc — NATO, the OIC, BRICS — is entangled in the desert’s metaphysics. None dares to treat Israel and Saudi Arabia as ordinary states. They are judged as sacred, and sacredness paralyzes critique.

The Illusions of Theology

The tragedy is that their sacred claims cannot withstand scrutiny. Archaeology has dismantled Israel’s conquest narratives, showing cultural continuity rather than divine invasion. Biblical scholarship reveals contradictions, redactions, interpolations. Qur’anic studies expose multiple recensions, borrowings, and layers of revision. Neither tradition emerges intact from rational analysis.

And yet politics pretends otherwise. Criticism of Israel is labeled anti-Semitism. Criticism of Saudi Arabia is branded Islamophobia. The sacred cannot be questioned; to do so is to risk exile from polite society or, in some Muslim lands, death for apostasy.

This is the deadlock of modern politics: secular democracies bowing before theology, Islamic republics bowing before Arabia, global institutions silenced by faith. Israel and Saudi Arabia wield disproportionate power because the rest of humanity lacks the courage to say the obvious: their legitimacy is myth.

Reason as Liberation

The solution is not military escalation. It is intellectual emancipation. Logical Empiricism and Dialectical Materialism offer the tools.

Logical Empiricism demands that all assertions be tested by evidence or discarded as nonsense. Dialectical Materialism unmasks religion as ideology, showing how contradictions sustain social domination. Together, they strip theology of political immunity. They remind us that holy books are human literature, not diplomatic charters; that prophets are historical figures, not legislators for eternity; that deserts are not destiny.

This does not mean abolishing faith. Prayer will continue, rituals will survive, communities will endure. But faith must lose its ability to command armies, veto criticism, and dictate statecraft. Israel must be judged as a state, not as a covenant. Saudi Arabia must be judged as a monarchy, not as a custodian of Mecca. NATO must stop hiding behind biblical loyalty. The OIC must stop pretending that piety is sovereignty.

The Task of Our Century

Israel and Saudi Arabia are indeed superpowers, but their superpower is illusion. They survive not by strength but by myth. And the world — the United States, Europe, NATO, the OIC, even secular China and cynical Russia — colludes in the illusion. Humanity remains hostage to theological empires.

The task of the twenty-first century is simple, if terrifying: to stop kneeling. Stop kneeling to covenants, to pilgrimages, to revelations. Stand up for reason. The true Holy Land is not Jerusalem or Mecca. It is the human mind, armed with skepticism and courage.

References

• Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Free Press, 2001.
• Davies, Philip R. In Search of Ancient Israel. Sheffield Academic Press, 1992.
• Crone, Patricia. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Princeton University Press, 1987.
• Wansbrough, John. Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation. Oxford University Press, 1977.
• Masuzawa, Tomoko. The Invention of World Religions. University of Chicago Press, 2005.
• BBC News. “Israel-Gaza war: Death toll and humanitarian crisis updates.” Sept. 2024.
• Al Jazeera. “Saudi Arabia, Iran restore ties in deal brokered by China.” March 10, 2023.