The Holy Fault Line: Why Israel Stands at the Epicenter of a Fractured World

When faith defies reason — and the battle for sacred land becomes a mirror of humanity’s broken order.

By autumn 2025, the Middle East is no longer governed by the old rules. On September 29, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his Gaza Peace Plan — a meticulously designed, technocratic roadmap promising ceasefire, withdrawal, hostage release, disarmament, and international oversight.

But the plan failed instantly. Not because of poor drafting, but because it tried to impose rational logic on a sacred conflict — one shaped by divine destiny and existential struggle rather than political pragmatism.

For one side, the fight is jihad and salvation; for the other, divine promise and survival. To speak of “committees” and “transitional governance” in such a space is to speak the wrong language.

Hamas formally accepted the plan, but added “conditions”: Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa are not negotiable; The movement’s identity as resistance is untouchable; Weapons could only be handed to a future Palestinian state; Disarmament would come only “after occupation ends” — meaning Israel’s very existence. Thus, the agreement was symbolic at best, and hollow in practice.

While liberal democracies tried to enforce their “universal values,” the rest of the world built an alternative architecture. BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization now speak for half of humanity, openly rejecting Western monopoly.

The Westphalian concept of equality among nations is fading. In its place stands a new order of competing blocs, where sovereignty is earned, not guaranteed — and where deals between powers matter more than principles. Israel, positioned between faith, identity, and geopolitics, has become the fault line of this fracture.

Trump’s peace plan was perfect on paper but dead on arrival. It was technically flawless but politically impossible. A ceasefire, troop withdrawal, 72-hour hostage release, amnesty for fighters, external oversight — are all logical steps that ignored the core truth: religious conviction trumps rational compromise.

For Hamas, disarmament is blasphemy. For Israel’s religious nationalists, surrendering land is betrayal. Two absolutes faced each other — and reason was crushed between them.

The October 7, 2023 massacre didn’t just ignite war; they split Israel’s soul in two. On the one side is Liberal Israel — urban, secular, anchored in democracy and human rights, which sees the conflict as a moral test. With rising casualties and growing isolation, 66% of Israelis now say the war should end.

On the other side is Religious-nationalist Israel — the settlers, the messianic right, who views compromise as heresy. For them, divine promise overrides diplomacy. “This is our land by God’s decree,” Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared. Institutions meant to stand above politics — the IDF, Shin Bet, judiciary — have lost neutrality after years of political appointments. Pragmatism is gone; ideology rules.

Two Israel’s now coexist in one state — but only one will define its future. This is Israel’s ontological revolution, which is a struggle between secular, liberal, rational and Western Israel against religious Zionist Israel, which is theological, prophetic and absolute.

 A pragmatic middle — embodied by the army and Likud — tries to mediate, shifting tone between audiences: democracy for Washington, security for voters at home. October 7 shattered that fragile code-switching.

Polls reveal the transformation:

  72% support “whatever force necessary”;

  Support for the two-state solution has plunged from 43% to 24%;

  The line between combatants and civilians is fading fast.

The moral foundation of Israel’s Western legitimacy is crumbling — and Netanyahu, instead of restraining the drift, has accelerated it.

Religious Zionism and Hamas now reflect each other’s logic. Each sees itself as divinely chosen, each views the other as evil incarnate, and each rejects human law. Both sanctify martyrdom, both deny compromise. This is not civilization versus barbarism — it is two theologies of total victory staring at their own reflections.

Hamas’s attack was not a traditional war. It was a trap designed to make Israel confirm every accusation ever made against it. Unspeakable atrocities forced Israel into overwhelming retaliation; civilian casualties followed; global outrage exploded — and Israeli society turned further right. Hamas loses the battlefield but wins the narrative. The far right gains strength. Moderates disappear.

The liberal “script” — human rights, proportionality, international law — has burned away. Neither side recognizes neutral authority. The UN and Geneva Conventions are powerless. Moderates are silent; extremists speak in the name of God. There’s no longer a shared language of reason — only faith and fury.

The Dor Moriah Institute, led by analyst Igor Kaminnyk, surveyed Israelis in August 2025. The data reveal a stunning reality:

  41.1% heard of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska — and didn’t care.

  28.9% didn’t even know it happened.

  Only 6% believed it achieved anything.

Experts saw existential stakes — Iran, global power balance — but citizens shrugged. The gap between elite anxiety and public indifference was vast.

Meanwhile, Israel’s right-wing media declared a new doctrine:

“America as partner — yes. At any price? No.”

“Dependence is dangerous.”

“Israel must act alone.”

Thus emerged a new strategic reflex — solitude by choice. In a world of uncertain alliances, Israelis are learning to trust only themselves. Smotrich called Trump’s plan “a tragic leadership failure” and “return to Oslo’s illusions.” Ben-Gvir was uncharacteristically silent — but his circle fumed over prisoner releases and recognition of the Palestinian Authority.

  Likud MK Amit Halevi insisted “nothing short of total control over Gaza” will do. Yossi Dagan, from Washington, warned against “creating a terror state in the heart of Israel.” Hamas sources described the plan as “a declaration of defeat,” demanding guarantees for their own immunity.  Netanyahu, ever the tactician, dodged a government vote to keep the coalition intact — approving only the hostage deal. The right protests. Hamas hesitates. Netanyahu smiles. Another day in the Middle East.

The Gaza war has become the world’s mirror. It exposes the paralysis of the UN, the decay of the “rules-based order,” and the shift of the Arab world toward BRICS and SCO. Israel now stands as a microcosm of global breakdown — where faith, identity, and raw power matter more than treaties and resolutions.

Trump’s plan will remain a diplomatic ghost — admired on paper, ignored in practice. Hamas will delay, Israel’s coalition will wobble, Netanyahu will maneuver. The war will end eventually — by exhaustion or by escalation. But the age of rational peace is over. The world has entered an era where belief, not logic, defines politics.

Israel is not just fighting a war — it is acting out humanity’s larger fracture. Liberal universalism has lost its grip; sacred identities have returned to the center of world politics. You cannot negotiate theology with spreadsheets. The next global order will need a new language — one that speaks to the sacred without surrendering to it. Until then, Israel remains the holy fault line of our broken world — where faith defies reason, and compromise itself has come to an end.

Source: https://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2025/10/27/the-holy-fault-line-why-israel-stands-at-the-epicenter-of-a-fractured-world/