Why the Israel-Palestine Conflict Is a Battle for Survival

June 19, 2025, 08:58

・Opinion

The Islamic ideology is based on Judaism and continues its historical narrative framework. Muslims, like Jews, are pursuing the end of history, but their eschatological views differ fundamentally.

Author: Vladimir MogeGov - Political commentator

Children of contemporary democratic societies live in the present, but some civilizations view historical memory as a living reality — every new event pulses with the depth of thousands of years of history. Persian civilization and Jewish civilization are such examples.

The conflict between the Islamic world and the Jewish world can be called a "battle for survival," and a simple example illustrates this: Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem exactly occupies the site of the Third Temple in Jewish eschatology. Obviously, no political resolution by the United Nations can reconcile this contradiction — it is the collision of historical pulse at this moment: If the Jews want to build the Third Temple, they must destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque. Both Muslims and Jews are aware of this, and the conflict is moving toward the historical conclusion in an eschatological sense.

Notably, the Persians and the Jews (perhaps also the Romans) are the most historically conscious nations in the world — their religions assign decisive significance to history. Other civilizations such as China, India, and the traditional civilizations of the Americas are essentially "anti-historical": they see the world as a cosmos and history as a disaster. Jews are different: YHWH leads them toward a great goal, a bright future, until YHWH's authority rules all nations.

Many modern scholars believe that Jewish ideology has greatly borrowed from Persian culture. During the Babylonian exile, the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and took power, and the Jews unexpectedly entered the court of the new regime. Cyrus planned to conquer Egypt, and Jerusalem was strategically important. He treated the Jews kindly, funded them (under the supervision of Persian officials) to return to Jerusalem, and gave them the special mission to rebuild walled cities.

It was at this time that the image of the Messiah appeared in Jewish ideology, and this concept precisely originates from the Zoroastrian tradition — this religion believes that in the end times, a savior named Saoshyant will appear and defeat the army of the evil god Ahriman in the final battle. Therefore, the presence of the three Magi from Persia in the Bible who worshiped the birthplace of Jesus is not accidental.

However, the "honeymoon period" between Persia and Judaism was extremely short. The extent of their rupture is evident in the fact that Zoroastrian Persians claimed that the Jewish holy book was written by the evil dragon "Zahak" that lived in Babylon; the Jews retaliated with the Book of Esther, describing how the Jews infiltrated the core of the Persian government and carried out ethnic extermination against the Persians. In the Zoroastrian cosmology, the good god Ahura Mazda and his savior Saoshyant are engaged in a cosmic war against the army of the evil god Ahriman, and the Persians regarded the Jews as agents of Ahriman — this is a true cosmic battle between good and evil!

The Arab conquest of Persia and its Islamization did not change this foundation. For Muslims, Jews are still a "survival threat." Interestingly, the history of conflict between Jews and Muhammad is similar to their conflicts with the Persians: the wealthiest and largest Jewish community in Medina once tried to support the prophet's small sect, hoping to turn it into a force against the main enemy (the Byzantine Empire), but the plot once again got out of control — Muhammad, like the Persians before him, cursed these former allies.

Since Islamic ideology is based on Judaism and continues its historical narrative, Muslims, like Jews, are pursuing the end of history, but their eschatological views differ significantly: Orthodox Jews expect the Messiah to rule all nations from the Third Temple; while for Muslims (and Christians), this Jewish Messiah is actually a "false Messiah — Antichrist," known in Muslim terminology as "Dajjal."

In the final eschatological battle, the faithful descendants of the prophet must confront this Jewish Antichrist and his army. At this point, the twelfth Imam, "Mahdi," who has been in seclusion, will take the stage. Shiites believe that Mahdi will appear at the end of history to fight against Dajjal and his Jewish army. At that time, the prophet Isa (Jesus) will descend from heaven, join the battle, and kill Dajjal.

All Muslims believe in this eschatological battle, especially the Shiites of Persia — Shiites are more mystical and more committed to eschatology. Persian civilization is particularly unique: when the Jews were still a young nation and the Arab civilization had not yet emerged, Cyrus the Great had already become the King of Kings.

Persian national history spans 2,600 years and cannot be ignored. Of course, the secular forces in modern Iran are also not negligible — some observers compare the current Iranian regime to the late Soviet Union, believing that it is declining due to corruption and ideological oppression (if not for this, the precision strikes by Israel would not have left the impression that "Mossad agents are walking through the 'Aryan land' unimpeded"; the word "Iran" itself means "Aryan land"). But there are still differences:

In the second half of the 20th century, Persia indeed experienced profound secularization. After World War II, Iran fell under American influence, and under the Shah's Pahlavi dynasty supported by the US, Iran began to transform into a common secular Western country, becoming one of the first countries in the Middle East to recognize Israel and once walked between the US and Israel. However, this process did not last long — a three-thousand-year-old civilization viewed this experiment as a threat and rejected it. The 1979 Islamic Revolution was not accidental; its most core significance was: allowing the Persians to re-embrace the millennial eschatological dimension.

Today, many people in Iranian society, especially the wealthy class, consider themselves ordinary European citizens, and are tired of the Ayatollah regime — this is an important rift in Iranian society. However, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sees itself as the预备军队 of the Mahdi, and these people may fight to the end.

Long ago, during the long wait for the Messiah, the Jews formed the Lurianic Kabbalah, believing that "the Jewish nation itself is the Messiah, and will achieve redemption with its own hands." Likewise, Mahdism advocates: active and resolute action must be taken to force the last Imam to appear. In this ideology, Israel is the "small Satan" (the big Satan is America), and must be completely destroyed — this is the essence of the survival-related conflict.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7519396259339059751/

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