Israel is a Relgious Nationality
Israel is a Relgious Nationality

Not long ago,  Newt Gingrich had the candor and courage to say the “Palestinians” are an “invented people.”  He understood that this invented people, or what Deuteronomy calls a “non-people,” was invented by the Arabs to supplant the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. 

What Mr. Gingrich may not have understood, however, is that all peoples are “inventions” whatever their ethnic or national identity. All are creations of the finite and fallible will of men except for the Chosen People, who were created by Almighty God at Mount Sinai.  

How might Plato and Machiavelli perceive this issue?

Plato is that most famous philosopher who discerned the artificiality of nations. All are governed by myths or opinions—the shadows appearing in the “Allegory of the Cave” in Book VIII of the Republic. The shadows are cast by men enchained to each on a wall behind which shines a light unseen by these cave-dwellers.

The task of the philosopher is to turn around and perceive that light and eventually leave the cave; for outside he will behold the ultimate source of light, the sun, the Truth that liberates us from the chains of myth or of mere opinions.

Machiavelli discerned as much in ThePrince, where he teaches that the “state” is merely a human construction, a product of human will—of a founder who creates “new modes and orders.”

But neither Plato, a most subtle and concealed atheist, nor Machiavelli, a subtle but virtually unconcealed atheist, had any profound knowledge of the modes and orders of the Jewish people, of the people, and not merely an individual philosopher, who beheld the light at Mount Sinai. No other people can make such a claim (which I elaborate elsewhere); and this has been the basic reason why all invented peoples are inclined to hate the Jewish people.    

Bear in mind that unlike Israel, neither Christianity nor Islam was founded as a nation, which means that Israel was founded as a religious nationality. Consistent with Plato, Christianity transcends nationhood—to which extent it is “cosmopolitan.” Analogously, Islam rejects the nation-state, to which extent it, too, is “cosmopolitan.”

Hence, until recently, Christianity has been imperialistic, and would be as imperialistic as Islam were it not for its Judaic recognition that a diversity of nations, governed by the Seven Noahide Laws of universal morality, manifest the infinite wisdom, power, and graciousness of God. It is the Seven Noahide Laws that can make an invented nation peace and friendly to the one and only non-invented nation, knowing that the Torah of that nation is the source of the Noahide laws.

What is remarkable is that America is the only nation that was founded precisely on the Noahide laws, as one may readily confirm in the writings of the Puritans and in the legislation of colonial America, especially New England. Therein is the source of American Exceptionalism. 

But this is not all.

Higher education in colonial America rejected European skepticism and atheism, which, consistent with Machiavelli, perceived all nations as products of the will of men. Free of that European mentality, America did not then succumb to the dichotomy of “ancients” versus “moderns,” or to the dichotomy of classical verses modern political science—or say the dichotomy of “virtue” verses “interests.”

This dichotomy has preoccupied and was made famous by the renowned Leo Strauss and his countless students. Alas, they have all gone astray on this most crucial issue, and primarily because they lacked an adequate understanding of the Torah, which transcends all dichotomies.

In other words, they did not possess an adequate understanding of Israel, the one nation whose laws were not invented by human beings.

Therein is the hitherto unknown secret of American Exceptionalism.

(For more by the writer, whose basic theme is “How to make Israel more democratic by means of Jewish principles, and how to make Israel more Jewish by means of democratic principles", see Israel-America Renaissance Institute.)