Not long ago, referring to Jewish people, particularly Israelis, as “God’s chosen people” outside the context of the Hebrew Bible was considered something only “anti-Semites” would do, often as a way to insinuate that they hold a privileged position in society. Today, however, senior Western politicians do not hesitate to adopt this exact line, justifying, at best, censorship, and at worst, death and destruction. There is no need to list examples of the sinister use of the phrase here, not least because the list would stretch to the end of this article. What ought to be done, instead, is to understand what is really meant by it in the political context.
Criticism of this phrase has overwhelmingly focused on the inherent racism and sense of supremacy it implies, and it is sometimes argued that the contemporary Israeli ethos is rooted precisely in such an understanding, i.e., that since Jewish people are "chosen by God," they are "special" and must therefore be treated accordingly. What is missed in this reading, however, is the peculiarity of the notion, not of a chosen people, but of a God who supposedly chose a people. And for what purpose, exactly, would God do that? German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s recent comments on Israel’s unprovoked and vicious attack on Iran are instructive in this regard.
Merz argued that Israel was doing the “dirty work for us” in striking Iran, just like Ukraine, as it has been doing a similar deed over the past three years. This would, of course, be much welcomed by Germany, which has already been covered in enough dirt by the events of the last century; someone else assuming that “responsibility” would conveniently spare it further stain. So it is quite understandable why a state like Germany, joining the ranks of the collective West led by the American empire, would choose Israel to do their dirty work, fulfilling the prophecy of “God’s chosen people.” Of course, in this case, “God” refers not to the deity of religions, but to the coalition of the “masters of mankind” in Adam Smith’s words.
In fact, many foreign policy “recommendations” that have appeared over the years in the reports curated by respectable think tanks indicate that, perhaps not all Jewish people, but certainly Israelis, are at least one people among many who are chosen by that powerful coalition. As Brian Berletic pointed out, the Brookings Institution published in 2009 a report titled “Which Path to Persia,” which included a chapter with the heading “Leave It to Bibi: Allowing or Encouraging an Israeli Military Strike.” In that chapter, the authors described a central element of the recommended American strategy regarding Iran as follows: “The United States would encourage – and perhaps even assist – the Israelis in conducting the strikes themselves, in the expectation that both international criticism and Iranian retaliation would be deflected away from the United States and onto Israel.” In other words, the proposal was to let Israel do the “dirty work” for the American empire – the ultimate state representative of the “masters of mankind.” And what better opportunity could they ever find for this, when Israel had already been “dirtied” itself after almost two years of conducting a live-streamed genocide in Gaza?
This is not to say, however, that the chosen people would not have their own agenda, quite independently of what their “God” chose them for. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the report mentioned above was published by a division of the Brookings Institution called the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, affiliated with the Saban Family Foundation, whose senior vice president, Haim Saban, is known for being traditionally the biggest donor to Democratic Party presidential nominees. Saban once described himself as a “one-issue guy” whose issue was Israel. Thus, for lunatics like him, the "chosen people" really ought to be prioritized over the “God” who chose them. Yet, this is of no concern for this pretend “God” as long as its own interests are preserved.
Incidentally, when it comes to Iran, this pretend “God” may apparently choose others, too. On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee texted U.S. President Donald Trump, telling him that he would “hear from heaven” whether to get the U.S. directly involved in Israel’s illegal war against Iran. Here, it is safe to assume that it is the same pretend “God” whose voice Huckabee believes Trump would likely hear, and that voice would presumably declare that he chose Trump to do what “Truman in 1945” did in Japan. After all, did the same "God" not choose former U.S. President George W. Bush to “smite the enemy” in Iraq? These are all “God’s chosen people” in different forms, if we are prepared to accept that “God” could be defined in the way described.
