Directions Needed: Navigating The True State of Israel

What happens when places meant for spiritual connection become tools of political power?

Aaron Scott takes listeners on a profound journey through the complex evolution of Israel from its original Zionist vision as a sanctuary for the persecuted Jewish people to its current role as a militarized extension of Western geopolitical interests. This exploration isn't about taking sides but understanding nuance – examining how terrorist organizations like Hamas exploit legitimate Palestinian grievances while committing unconscionable acts of violence, and how Israel's government actions often contradict Judaism's fundamental ethical imperatives.

Drawing from historical records, Aaron Scott reveals how Zionism began as a secular nationalist movement seeking liberation through sovereignty, not dominance through militarism. He examines Britain's imperial chess game that used the Balfour Declaration to secure strategic interests in the Middle East, creating contradictory promises that sowed lasting tensions. The conversation moves through Cold War dynamics, where Israel became a key U.S. ally against Soviet influence and Arab nationalism, forming a relationship that served American hegemonic aims while shaping Israel's military development.

Most powerfully, Aaron Scott explores the forgotten etymology of the name "Israel" itself – originally bestowed upon Jacob after wrestling with the divine, symbolizing transformation through spiritual struggle rather than territorial entitlement. This etymological journey reveals a profound irony: a name meant to honor inner awakening has become a nationalist symbol used to justify occupation and displacement. The episode concludes with a meditation on genuine peace requiring not military victory but collective transformation – recognizing our shared humanity beyond the boundaries of nationality, religion, or historical trauma.

Ready to challenge your understanding of this deeply consequential conflict? Subscribe now and join a growing community dedicated to elevating consciousness through unflinching examination of our most complex global challenges.

Chapters

• 0:00 A Sanctuary Weaponized
• 3:05 The Dual Threat: Hamas and Hezbollah
• 6:06 Origins of Zionism
• 9:30 Imperial Chess: Britain's Role
• 13:05 Post-WW2 Geopolitical Dynamics
• 16:35 Occupation and International Law
• 20:10 Judaism vs Israeli State Actions
• 22:25 The True Meaning of "Israel"
• 27:01 Closing Reflections on Transformation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Evolved Podcast. I'm here to ensure that all knowledge I give you finds meaning and a practical place in your everyday lives. It's only through properly digesting knowledge, in this case of ourselves and the world around us, that we see things clearly enough to break old patterns of behavior and begin a new path forward to a heightened state of consciousness. Today we confront a painful and urgent truth the land long revered as sacred, a place where prophets walked, where faiths converge and where the divine once touched the earth, has been weaponized. What was meant to be a sanctuary for the Jewish people and a spiritual homeland for humanity has, for decades, been systematically perverted into a militarized outpost serving geopolitical agendas that are far removed from its original purpose. Israel, founded on the trauma of persecution and the promise of refuge, now functions as an extension of Western power, fortified by arms surveillance and unchecked nationalism. In this episode, we examine how the present-day Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians not only betrays the foundational vision of Zionism, but also violates the core tenets of Judaism itself, turning a land of prophecy into a machine of control and persecution. This is not, however, an obvious black and white state of affairs Terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah have capitalized on the suffering of the Palestinian people, using Israel's prolonged occupation, blockade and repeated violations of international law as a rallying cry to consolidate power. But while they present themselves as resistance movements, their tactics reveal something far darker. These groups have committed gross violations of human rights and international norms, indiscriminately targeting civilians, using human shields and embedding military infrastructure within densely populated areas, all of which endanger the very people they claim to protect. Hamas has launched thousands of rockets into Israeli civilian areas without distinction, while Hezbollah has carried out assassinations, cross-border attacks and maintains a paramilitary infrastructure that undermines Lebanese sovereignty. These are not acts of principled resistance. They are acts of calculated violence rooted in ideology, never justice. Their actions are not just morally indefensible, they are outright evil. They exploit real grievances to pursue agendas that thrive on perpetual war, religious extremism and political chaos. In doing so, they not only sabotage the path to peace, but also perpetrate cycles of trauma and fear that fracture both Palestinian and Israeli societies from within. Let's look at how we got here.

Speaker 1: 3:01

We need to ask what was the foundational ideology behind the Zionist movement and what was the geopolitical framework through which Zionism had to contort itself in order to make its dream of freedom from persecution a reality. Zionism was born in the late 19th century of a secular nationalist movement seeking to establish a homeland where Jews could live free from the relentless persecution they faced in Europe and Russia. Theodor Herzl, zionism's founding father, envisioned a modern, democratic and peaceful Jewish state, a haven in which Jews would be safe not only from external threats but also from the burden of being seen as foreign within other societies. In his 1896 Der Judenstaat, herzl wrote that the Jewish state should be morally exemplary. A quote light unto the nations. Zionist leaders like Ahad Ha'am also cautioned against a narrow, colonialist version of Jewish statehood, warning as early as 1891, of the mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs in arguing that a just Jewish homeland must respect its indigenous neighbors. The early Zionist ethos was about liberation through sovereignty, not dominance through militarism. We must remember that in the late 19th century, amid rising anti-Semitism in Europe, theodor Herzl convened the first Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basel, switzerland. Here he advocated for the establishment of a Jewish homeland. Another important historical fact not commonly known is that while Zionism emerged as a largely secular nationalist movement, it quickly became leveraged to pursue British imperial interests.

Speaker 1: 4:43

During World War I, the British Empire sought influence over the Middle East and issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, pledging support for a quote national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. This move served British strategic goals of securing control of the Suez Canal, limiting French influence and appealing to pro-Zionist sentiment in the US and Russia. Palestine was seen as a strategic land bridge between Europe and the Suez Canal, the gateway to British India, the jewel of the empire Supporting Zionism allowed Britain to establish a friendly population and a key location that could serve as a buffer between the Suez Canal and rising Arab nationalism. To many this fact will be a surprise. It was the British elite, including Balfour himself, who were influenced by Christian Zionism and biblical romanticism. You see, they saw a Jewish return to the Holy Land as a fulfillment of prophecy or part of a civilizing mission. The British Empire was also engaging in double-dealing by promising Arab independence in exchange for a revolt against the Ottomans. This we find out in the open through the McMahon-Hussein correspondence. Additionally, they were engaging in double-dealing by secretly agreeing with France to divide the Middle East between them after the war. This was discovered through the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. In fact, the Balfour Declaration added a third contradictory promise, creating lasting tensions between Jews and Arabs.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Historian James Renton describes the Balfour Declaration as a wartime propaganda tool cloaked in liberal ideals. This ultimately prioritized imperial leverage over indigenous rights. This is important to tie together. You see, britain's support was never singular. It was part of a larger imperial chess game. In fact, in showing its true secular colors, zionism was not geographically fixed to Palestine.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Herzl and other early Zionist leaders considered multiple sites, including Argentina, which had vast unpopulated land, cyprus and Uganda, which was put forth during the British East Africa proposal. Due to the emergency nature, however, of European anti-Semitism at the time, specifically the horrific pogroms in 1903, kishinev, russia, the British government offered Herzl land in British East Africa now Kenya and Uganda as a temporary Jewish homeland. The proposal split the Zionist movement. Herzl supported it as a temporary refuge. Many Eastern European Zionists, especially religious ones, opposed it, insisting that only the biblical land of Israel was legitimate. At the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903, the Uganda Plan was approved for exploration no-transcript. After the Ugandan plan was abandoned, the Zionist movement officially committed to Palestine as an acceptable location for a Jewish homeland.

Speaker 1: 7:44

The modern-day state of Israel finally became a physical reality in the aftermath of World War II, when new layers of support and opposition surfaced. After World War II and the Holocaust, global sympathy for the Jewish plight facilitated the 1947 UN Partition Plan and the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel. Interestingly, not all support came from within the Jewish community. Christian Zionism, particularly among American evangelicals, played a major role in political backing. Groups such as Christians United for Israel, which was founded in 2006 but rooted in 19th century dispensationalist theology, support Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that precedes the second coming of Christ narrative. Simultaneously, not all Jews supported the political state. Orthodox groups like Neturei Karta reject Zionism on theological grounds, citing Talmudic restrictions against forced return before the Messiah. This diversity illustrates that Zionism is a political ideology, not a monolithic Jewish consensus.

Speaker 1: 8:48

The realization of Zionist aspirations came at a significant human cost, one often marginalized than dominant narratives. In 1948, following the UN partition plan, over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced in what became known as the Nakba or catastrophe. Villages were depopulated, families exiled and generations rendered stateless. Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike traced deep ancestral and spiritual ties to the land. While the formation of Israel offered Jew statehood, it came at the cost of Palestinian sovereignty. Historian Rashid Khalidi has described this as a quote colonial encounter framed in nationalist language.

Speaker 1: 9:30

As we move forward across this timeline, we saw during the Cold War the US beginning to use Israel as a strategic extension of its own geopolitical interests in the Middle East, not the other way around. Israel served as a militarized ally in a region critical for oil, arms markets and the containment of Soviet influence. Far from being controlled by Israel, the US has often leveraged the alliance to justify military presence, arms sales and regime change, using Israel's position to advance Western hegemonic aims under the guise of mutual support. This reality is rarely acknowledged in mainstream narratives, which tend to invert the power dynamic for ideological convenience, oftentimes fueling misguided antisemitism. After World War II, israel became a key US ally in the Cold War.

Speaker 1: 10:21

The Middle East was strategically vital due to its oil reserves, proximity to the Soviet Union and instability that could invite foreign, especially communist, influence. Israel functioned as a Western military, intelligence and ideological stronghold in a region tilting toward pan-Arabism and socialism. Arab leaders like Nasser of Egypt promoted non-alignment in socialism, opposing both US and Soviet dominance. The US saw Arab nationalism as a threat to Western economic control, especially over oil. The US support for Israel ensured that Arab states remained fractured militarily, politically and diplomatically. Additionally, israel has acted as an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East, providing forward military presence without requiring US bases Even more.

Speaker 1: 11:09

Mossad and the CIA have worked together on numerous covert operations, including surveillance on Iran, iraq and Syria. Cyber espionage, with the Stuxnet virus targeting Iran's nuclear program, and targeted assassinations and black ops destabilization. Israel provides military and intelligence services that extend American reach without direct US involvement. In truth, israel is both a customer and a lab for US arms manufacturers. Billions in annual US military aid flow back to US defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Israel tests and develops weapons in real-world combat, making it a proving ground for Western militarization.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Now, while the Israeli lobby in Washington, particularly groups like AIPAC, is undoubtedly influential, it's essential to remember that the United States is the global superpower, not Israel. The US possesses unmatched military, economic and diplomatic leverage on the world stage, and its foreign policy is driven by its own strategic interests, not directives from a smaller ally. Israel benefits from American support, but this support is consistently aligned with US goals in the Middle East, such as maintaining regional stability, favorable to Western energy markets, countering rival powers and projecting influence through a reliable partner. It is important, however, to understand that Israel hasn't merely benefited from the West. It has shaped and manipulated that relationship to entrench its nationalist agenda securing territory, suppressing Palestinian sovereignty, projecting military strength and expanding regional influence. It has done so through a combination of fear-based diplomacy, narrative control, technological leverage and real politic alliances, proving itself to be not just a client state but a co-strategist in the architecture of Western power.

Speaker 1: 13:02

The fundamental tragedy is that the modern policies of the Israeli state, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, have abandoned the original Zionist ethos of coexistence and replaced it with containment, fragmentation and indefinite occupation. The Israeli state today exercises military control for millions of stateless Palestinians. In the occupied West Bank, palestinians live under military law, while Jewish settlers live under civil law, a form of dual legal systems described by major human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem as apartheid. In Gaza, human Rights Watch and B'Tselem as apartheid In Gaza. Israel enforces a 16-plus year blockade controlling borders, airspace, maritime access and the flow of food, fuel and medical supplies. This has resulted in a well-documented humanitarian catastrophe. To properly understand the present occupation and Israeli justification, we must look to what transpired in the region following the 1967 Six-Day War. At this time, israel seized control of the Gaza Strip, alongside the West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. While Israel claimed these acquisitions were the result of a defensive war.

Speaker 1: 14:17

The continued military occupation of Gaza has been widely regarded as a violation of international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention. This prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into occupied territories or imposing collective punishment. International legal consensus, including from the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and nearly every major human rights body, maintains that territory acquired through war, defensive or not, cannot be legally annexed or indefinitely occupied. This principle was applied globally in post-war contexts, from Kuwait to Crimea, and is a cornerstone of the international order. Yet Israeli's control over Gaza has been uniquely tolerated, despite violating the same rules every other state is expected to follow.

Speaker 1: 15:04

The main Israeli justification for its overt violation of international law is security, but this logic has evolved into a form of collective punishment. Homes are demolished not just for security threats but as punitive acts against entire families. Movement is restricted through a permit regime and hundreds of checkpoints. Civil infrastructure in Gaza is deliberately degraded. Water, electricity and sewage access fall well below humanitarian standards. Military operations frequently result in mass civilian casualties, especially in densely populated refugee zones. This approach is not protective. It's corrosive. It undermines regional stability, escalates hatred, radicalizes youth and fosters the very insecurity Zionism sought to escape. Rather than embodying Jewish safety, these policies perpetuate Jewish fear, locking both peoples into cycles of trauma.

Speaker 1: 15:58

It's important to understand, too, that the state of Israel in its current form is not only operating in direct contrast to Zionist ideals, but also to the fundamental tenets of Judaism. In fact, their actions stand in stark violation of Judaism's core ethical obligations, which are deeply rooted in Torah, talmudic tradition and centuries of prophetic teaching. A few core principles illustrating this disconnect In the Hebrew Bible we have the divine order quote you shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. End quote found in Exodus. This commandment is repeated more than 30 times in the Torah or the Hebrew Bible. More than any other moral imperative. It is not symbolic, it is foundational. It binds the Jewish people to a deep awareness of suffering and a sacred obligation to avoid replicating oppression. We have Tepikuach Nefesh, translated to the preservation of life, where Judaism prioritizes the preservation of life over virtually all other commandments.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Policies that result in civilian deaths, the denial of medical care or the destruction of basic infrastructure violate this core principle, especially when justified by political or territorial goals. And third, the Preservation of Life, where we have the tzelem elohim, or image of God. This states that every human being, regardless of race, religion or nationality, is made in the divine image. This belief demands that we treat every person with inherent dignity. To dehumanize Palestinians rhetorically, politically or militarily is to abandon the spiritual truth. Spiritual truth A growing number of Jews, especially in the diaspora, recognize that support for Judaism is not synonymous with support for the Israeli government.

Speaker 1: 17:48

In fact, to be truly faithful to Jewish values today often means opposing state violence. Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, if Not Now Rabbis for Human Rights, teruah, are part of a broader movement to reclaim Judaism from nationalism and restore it to its prophetic roots, where justice, compassion and humility before God are non-negotiable. Another of the most misguided and factually incorrect understandings stems from the belief that the state of Israel is divinely promised as a homeland to the Jewish people and that this reference is rampant throughout the Hebrew Bible. This, unfortunately, is just another half-baked understanding of the true origin of the promised land as divinely ordained, as well as with the origin of the literal name Israel itself. You see, in the Hebrew Bible's oral tradition, the name Israel is first used in the book of Genesis, with a traditional dating of around 1400 to 1000 BCE. It's given to the patriarch Jacob after he wrestles with the divine. So when he's renamed Israel, it's not a rebuke, it's a recognition. In Genesis it states, jacob was given this new name to honor the transformation he experiences through struggle.

Speaker 1: 19:16

In the Genesis story, jacob wrestles with the divine all night and refuses to let go until he receives a blessing. He is wounded in the process, but he holds on, showing tenacity and spiritual hunger. His renaming marks a turning point in his life. It honors his desire to confront God directly, his perseverance through hardship, his struggles to break through illusion, ego and worldly distractions and to return to God or the source. In a more complete sense, the name Israel becomes the archetype for a person or people who wrestle with life's hardest questions, face divine mystery head-on and emerge changed but faithful. At its core, israel is a recognition of enlightenment through struggle, awakening. The struggle isn't with God as a foe, but with perceiving and aligning with divinity, while being limited by the human condition, ego, fear, identity, history, trauma. It's an inner rustling to see clearly through the fog of illusion.

Speaker 1: 20:21

The great irony in naming the modern state Israel lies in the true meaning of the name itself. Israel is not one who wrestles with God in opposition, but one who struggles to recognize and align with the divine while trapped in the contradictions of human existence. And what greater metaphor is there for the struggle than the land where the descendants of Abraham Jews, christians and Muslims have waged war for centuries, each convinced that they alone carry divine truth? The soil is sacred, not because it belongs to one, but because it was meant to be shared by all. Yet history has carved it into blood-soaked borders, defined by conquest, terror, dispossession and cycles of revenge. Defined by conquest, terror, dispossession and cycles of revenge. In this, the land has truly become Israel, a place where humanity wrestles not with God but with its own inability to see the divine in the other.

Speaker 1: 21:12

But the deeper message has always been this Enlightenment doesn't arise from defeating one another. It arises from recognizing that the struggle itself is a mirror. When the leaders of these faiths and the nations that uphold them realize that peace is not the end of the struggle but the awakening from it, only then will Israel fulfill its name, not as a battleground for gods but as a living altar to our shared divinity. Israel, at its origin, is not a territory or nation. It is a metaphor for transcendence through struggle, a name bestowed not for dominance but for endurance, for the courage to engage with divine mystery and come out changed. But over time the meaning began to shift from inner awakening to outer entitlement. That shift can be traced historically to a particular moment the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE. This was a theological crisis. The temple was destroyed, the monarchy gone, the land lost. How could the Jewish people, exiled, without a king or country, still be chosen? Well, the answer was narrative.

Speaker 1: 22:19

It was during this period that the priestly source, one of the core textual contributors to the Hebrew Bible, began revising oral traditions to preserve national identity. In doing so, they introduced elements like genealogical lineages, temple-centric rituals and, most notably, land-grant language. Take Genesis 15.18. To your descendants I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. End quote. This phrasing is not unique to Hebrew scripture. No, no, it mirrors imperial claims found in Egyptian and Mesopotamian royal inscriptions. Babylonian kings, for instance, frequently described their domains as stretching from quote the great river to the river of Egypt. End quote.

Speaker 1: 23:02

This was theological propaganda, not divine command. The text was designed to comfort an exiled people, to promise restoration, to encode hope into law. But it was also the beginning of a new theological framework, one that would later be misinterpreted as literal legal title deed to land. This matters because many modern supporters of political Zionism cite these verses as justification for Israeli territorial expansion. But in doing so they ignore not only the historical context but the very nature of scripture itself A layered, redacted and evolving canon, not a monolith.

Speaker 1: 23:43

This is all well documented. There are multiple creation stories. Names for God change from Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh or Yahweh to Elohim. Timelines contradict these are not flaws. They are fingerprints of history revealing that the Bible is not a singular decree but a collective rustling. And therein lies the tragedy.

Speaker 1: 24:05

The archetype of Israel, a name meant to signify personal awakening through struggle, has become a nationalist slogan used to justify control, displacement and war. Only when we return to the original spirit of the name and recognize it not as property but as a path, can we begin to the original spirit of the name and recognize it not as property but as a path, can we begin to restore meaning to what has been defiled. In this sense, israel becomes a universal metaphor for what it means to reflect, take responsibility and awaken collectively. As we all know, to be human is to wrestle with doubt, with grief, with the past, with the illusion that we are separate from one another, from the earth from the source. This pulses through all things. We grasp, at identities, at borders, at narratives that make us feel safe. But the sacred does not emerge in the grasping. It reveals itself in the letting go of fear, of ego, of the delusional identity found in the material world.

Speaker 1: 25:00

And here lies the great and painful irony. The modern state of Israel bears a name that speaks to inner struggle and spiritual transformation. Yet it has become a place of endless external struggle, a land where the descendants of Abraham Jews, christians, muslims have battled for centuries over who owns what was always meant to be shared. The soil is stained with the blood of those who believed they carried the truth, while failing to see the same divinity they claimed for themselves existed in their so-called enemies. They didn't realize the one they were fighting was a mirror, a reflection of their own trauma, fears and forgotten holiness. And maybe, just maybe, these conflicts, as horrific as they are, have not been entirely in vain. Maybe they have served as a kind of cosmic alarm clock not ordained, not divinely justified, but usable, a wake-up call to the soul of humanity, telling us it's time to stop, time to see, time to change.

Speaker 1: 26:01

To be Israel is not to conquer, it is to transform. It is to face the darkest part of ourselves and emerge limping, yes, but blessed. It is to realize that God is not found in the conquest of land but in the conquest of illusion. Not in claiming divine favor, but in the surrender of the ego that demands it. The story of Jacob becoming Israel is one of the most profound allegories in all of spiritual literature.

Speaker 1: 26:26

But today, the state that bears that sacred name has forgotten that struggle. It operates not from humility but from hubris, not from reflection but from rigid certainty, not from sacred vulnerability but from political entitlement. The government wields the name Israel while ignoring its origin Not a throne but a limp, not a title of power but of process. The current conflict with Palestine, with its endless casualties and generational trauma, mirrors an inner war that so many of us have yet to face the struggle to forgive, to let go of ancestral pain, to recognize the other, not as obstacle but as a mirror. Because peace, real peace, does not come when one side wins. It comes when both sides awaken, when the battle shifts from the ground to the heart, when justice is not vengeance but restoration. And this is the invitation, not just for Israelis and Palestinians, but for all of us to recognize that Israel is not just a state. It is a state of being. It is a mirror, a reckoning, a choice to continue waging the same wars of identity, ego and separation, or to finally rustle towards something higher. And so we leave this conversation with an uncomfortable truth and an open door. This conflict is not our spiritual teacher, but it can be our mirror and how we respond, what we choose to see and who we choose to become in its wake. This is where the sacred begins.

Speaker 1: 27:56

I'm Aaron Scott. Until next time. Stay awake, stay free and stay rooted in what's real. As you continue listening to the Evolved Podcast, I'm going to unveil the true nature of the world that exists right under your nose. I'm going to analyze with you, out in the open, the systems at play here and the ways we can grow together and evolve. My aim To provide you with real ways to touch higher levels of awareness through truth and knowledge. Episodes are updated weekly. If you want to change your world for the better and support this evolution of consciousness, please show me by following, sharing this podcast with those you love and leaving a review. If you enjoyed our time today, please donate on BuyMeACoffee, linked in the show notes below Until next week, let's level up and master your universe.