ALBAWABA - On September 24, 2024, The Jerusalem Post published an editorial post that instantly sparked controversy as Lebanon's Ministry of Health revealed the growing number of casualties from Israeli airstrikes—558 killed and 1,835 wounded.
According to the essay, Lebanon is a portion of the "Promised Land of Israel," which will soon be restored to the Jewish state by divine intervention, in accordance with religious prophecy.
The piece, authored by Israeli writer Mark Fish, was taken down soon after it was published because of criticism, but its thesis had already generated intense discussions. The essay made the case that Israel had a divine mandate to retake Lebanon by using religious beliefs and passages from the Torah. Fish, a follower of "Shuva Israel," said that the current war in Lebanon may be seen as a component of a broader biblical story.
According to holy scriptures, Lebanon is included in Israel's northern boundaries, as stated by Rabbi Shay Tahan, who was cited in the article. Some far-right Israeli factions have come around to this idea, arguing that Israel must capture all of the promised regions, including Lebanon.
The concept of "Greater Israel," which encompasses the region between the Nile and the Euphrates rivers, has recently come up again in political and religious debate. This idea has been used by radical Israeli organizations to defend their territorial expansion outside of the occupied Palestinian territories, arguing that they have a divine claim to areas that include portions of Lebanon and other Arab nations.
Recent military operations by Israel, including as the high-profile killings of resistance figures like Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, have stoked religious and nationalist passions in the country. For many, these are the events that the Bible has predicted.
Some analysts speculate that Israel is getting closer to achieving far-right religious ideas, such as the foundation of a biblical monarchy and the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in charge of the nation's conservative administration. These objectives are closely linked to the radical notion that Israel would soon be led by the Messiah to recapture all of the promised lands.
