This is an interesting book on Israel which attempts to merge the political and religious perspectives by exploring the story of the Jewish people from the time that the Roman emperor Titus destroyed Jerusalem (70 AD) all the way until the moment when President Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy to that city (2018).

No biblical perspective

The author asserts that the main reason why attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, and to Israel in particular, have repeatedly failed is the lack of a biblical point of view. This is a pattern of history from the time the Romans tried to bring an end to Jewish culture, religion and autonomy.

From a political perspective, their attempt made perfect sense, but it failed to take into account biblical prophecy. Continuing through to today, looking at the issue of a Jewish state in Israel as a solely political or territorial matter is flawed and can only lead to serious repercussions.

There is plenty of historical information and analysis in this book, including that of both America and the Middle East. Much of this will be familiar to those who read widely on this topic, but there is also a less well-known reference to an incident in Ukrainian history which resulted in a Jewish massacre in Eastern Europe.

The author explains how, together with a member of the Knesset, he established the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus within the legislature of the state of Israel.

Unique contribution

It is in chapter 4 that the book makes a unique contribution. The author explains how, together with a member of the Knesset, he established the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus within the legislature of the state of Israel. This Caucus “aimed to build direct lines of communication to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the leaders of Israel in parliament and Christian leaders around the world – church leaders, heads of organisations, and politicians.” (p.62).

The aim behind this was to develop faith-based diplomacy between the various parties and, according to the author, this has “created some of the most impressive successes in the history of US-Israel relations.” (p.66). Part of this success was to deal a blow to the anti-Semitic attempts of the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement.

This fightback via faith-based diplomacy spread across the globe, including Africa and Eastern Europe, indeed anywhere where there is a large enough population of Bible-believing Christians who are speaking out and persuading their leaders to support the Jewish state.

There is also an analysis of the often-made statement that Trump was a modern day Cyrus.

Further appeal

In the later part of the book there is an interesting few pages which outline the basic differences between the Obama and Trump presidencies regarding Israel and the Middle East, especially Iran. There is also an analysis of the often-made statement that Trump was a modern day Cyrus, someone who for all his faults looked at Israel from a biblical point of view and made his decisions accordingly.

Overall, this book is well written and packed with lots of information. It would make a welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone who likes to keep up to date with the political scene regarding America and the Middle East.

‘Titus, Trump and the Triumph of Israel’ (249pp) is published by Gefen Publishing and is available from Amazon.