Fadi Bayoud, PhD, MBA
A Personal Preface
Fifty years ago, I was born in the town of Jdeidet Marjeyoun – in South Lebanon – at the tri-border point where Lebanon, Syria, and occupied Palestine converge. From the balcony of my family home, I can still see the triangular intersection of those lands, a region once traversed freely by native Christians, Muslims, and Jews. For centuries, my ancestors moved across this terrain for trade, kinship, and cultural exchange, long before it was fractured by colonial borders, settler militarism, and apocalyptic mythologies. This analysis is offered not as provocation, but as an act of decolonial truth-telling, using the tools of Futures Thinking to name what is hidden and imagine what has been deemed impossible.
Introduction: Stating the Argument
The world was watching a genocide unfold in Palestine in real time, yet the United States continues to fund, arm, and defend the Israeli state without pause. The dominant justifications (“shared values,” “strategic partnership,” or “defense against terrorism”) are insufficient surface narratives. The central argument of this article is that unwavering U.S. support for Israel is not a foreign policy choice but a crystallization of an imperial logic that fuses geopolitics with a specific and powerful religious eschatology, among others.
This article is situated within critical and decolonial futures traditions, which challenge hegemonic forecasts and open the spaces for transformative narratives grounded in the global South. Drawing from the methodology of Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) (Inayatullah, 1998; 2004) and its later evolutions (Inayatullah & Milojević, 2015; Inayatullah et al., 2022), the article engages certain eschatological narratives not as theology with the purpose of spiritual enlightenment, but as a mythic operating system that shapes political imaginaries, legitimates imperial action, and suppresses life and freedoms. In doing so, the article contributes to the decolonial approaches to Futures Thinking by placing diverse Arab perspectives at the center of the analysis and situating the argument within broader critiques of U.S. imperial power. Following Sardar (1999) and other scholars of Islamic and non-Western futures, the sacred is treated not as prophecy to be fulfilled, but as narrative power that can be reclaimed for liberation. This orientation is reflected in the alternative future advanced later in the article.
Although this article examines the eschatological narratives present in Christian Zionism in particular and the narratives that drive Zionism in general, there are other lenses through which one can look at the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its outcomes: Arab governing elite; lay Arabic public; European new awakening; other Christian non-Zionist eschatology; non-Zionist Jewish narratives; Islamic eschatology that has two arms, the Sunni’s and the Shi’a’s; the Palestinian resistance in its two forms, the western-pleasing and the likes of Hamas and Jihad; the Lebanese resistance that has two arms, that against Israel and Western colonialist, and that welcomes the Western colonialism; Syria; Iran; Russia; Egypt, Turkey, etc.
While Islamic eschatology (especially in Shi’a traditions) offers a powerful lens, it is not the focus here. Moreover, although the Palestinian population is predominantly Sunni, resistance is typically framed as a religious duty rather than an end-times prophecy realization. Shi’a eschatological thought, particularly in Iran, plays a role in the regional dynamics but falls outside the scope of this article and warrants its own dedicated analysis. On the other hand, the Lebanese Hezbollah (Shi’a, supported by Iran) that is heavily involved in the fight with Israel, its literature does not mention Islamic/Shi’a eschatology as a reason for this involvement, but as a way of life to fight injustice; their public narrative is heavily anchored around anti-imperial resistance, territorial defense, and Islamic pride and the need for unity (amongst Arabs and Muslims) to fight current U.S. hegemony – that manifests itself by Israeli presence, occupation, brutality, and evil – as a way to prepare for the coming of the Mehdi. This topic warrants a standalone article.
Christian Zionist end-times theology and eschatological strands within Zionism, far from being a fringe belief system, provides the essential moral and mythological foundation for a U.S. hegemonic project in the Middle East. It transforms colonial domination into a divine mandate, laundering geopolitical violence through the language of sacred destiny. This article applies Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) and its subsequent iterations (CLA 2.0 and CLA 3.0) to examine how eschatological narratives operate across litany, system, worldview, and myth in the case of U.S. support for Israel, moving from surface discourse to the deeper civilizational stories that animate imperial power. By making these layers visible, the article opens space for constructing alternative futures rooted not in domination, but in dignity and shared stewardship.
Clarificatory Note on Terminology (Judaism vs. Zionism)
In this article, Judaism refers to a religious tradition and the diverse beliefs and practices of Jewish communities. Zionism, by contrast, is treated as a modern political project that emerged in late-19th/early-20th century Europe and developed through colonial and imperial sponsorship, culminating in the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and continuing thereafter. The analysis does not attribute to Judaism or to Jews – as believers, many of whom are an intrinsic part of the peoples who lived on this land – collective responsibility for state policy or political violence.
Accordingly, references to “Zionism” in this article denote the hegemonic Zionist project and its state-aligned institutional forms, including the narratives and mechanisms through which European and USA powers enabled settler expansion and political consolidation before 1948 and after. The critique is directed at a political structure and its legitimating narratives, not at a faith or Jewish theological plurality.
A Causal Layered Analysis of U.S. Support for Israel
CLA, along with its expanded frameworks CLA 2.0 and CLA 3.0, enables a multi-layered analysis of the current crisis—encompassing litany, systems, worldviews, and myths, while also attending to emotional, embodied, and relational realities. To understand why the system operates as it does, we must begin with the deepest layers of myth and worldview.
Myth/Metaphor: Sacred Stories of Domination
At the level of myth and metaphor sit the deep emotional stories that give politics its moral datum and make violence seem the norm. Two powerful “sacred stories” still shape how some people defend displacement, genocide, and war in Palestine: a hegemonic Zionist story of survival turned into entitlement, and a Christian Zionist story that sees Palestine as part of a divine end-times plan. Both turn pain and religious beliefs into excuses for control.
The Zionist story has hijacked the phrase, “From ashes we rose… and we will never burn again.” It began as a promise of Jewish survival after the Holocaust, reflecting a moral promise that Jewish suffering would never be repeated. But when turned into political doctrine, that promise can become a claim to unconditional rights over land, history, and security, ignoring the Palestinians who were already there. The hidden rule in this story can sound like: “Our trauma frees us from responsibility for yours.” Yet it is crucial to note that this does not represent all Jewish voices. Many Jewish people and groups reject this logic and call instead for equality, justice, and shared existence, but their influence is often muted in mainstream politics.
The Christian Zionist story says, “Israel must rise for Christ to return.” In this view, Palestinian pain becomes part of a divine script leading to the Second Coming of Jesus. Here, prophecy comes before compassion (that is the foundation of Christianity): political events (oddly enough from a Christian believer perspective) are seen as necessary steps toward a sacred finale. Within this ‘moral’ frame, the suffering of others can be recast as part of God’s plan; it is a scary idea summed up by the sentiment, “Your death is our rapture.” Some versions predict temple rebuilding, a deceptive peacemaker (anti-Christ), and a final war that ushers in salvation. Whether spoken openly or quietly, these beliefs actively influence political stances and alliances today in the US.
From a subjective lens, such myths are not harmless stories. They act like moral firmware that tells societies which futures are possible, and which lives matter less. These beliefs (Zionists’ and Christian Zionists’) become the drivers for sacred common duties and make domination appear virtuous and more humane; they create a shared future (to a certain extent), which as we see resides at the heart of the ongoing tragedy in Palestine. This shared future, however, has an expiry date; the finale of the hegemonic Zionist project (the establishment of Israel) is only the beginning of the Christian Zionists (the trigger for the events that brings in the rapture). So, as it’s evident (but unspoken publicly), both the Zionists and Christian Zionists are using the same means for different, contradictory ends.
Worldview: Eschatology as a Political Framework
At the worldview layer, eschatology functions as more than personal belief; it becomes a force to design and build state ideology and geopolitical decision-making. In the context of the Palestinian genocide, the two eschatological frameworks translate theological convictions into political mandates, moralizing violence, and justifying domination as sacred duty. They also provide ideological scaffolding that makes military and economic interests appear inevitable, even righteous.
The state-aligned Zionist worldview is anchored in the vow: “Never again, for us… at any cost.” Initially framed as a post-Holocaust commitment to Jewish survival, this phrase has evolved into a nationalist doctrine that approves the Israeli state’s expansionist mandate. The “us” is narrowly defined, excluding Palestinians and even dissenting Jews, while the “cost” has come to include apartheid, occupation, and systemic violence. State-aligned Zionism reframes Jewish historical trauma (pogroms, ghettos, and the Holocaust) as political capital, a moral license to assert dominance. The land itself is sacralized, imagined as divine inheritance, thereby rebranding colonization as ‘return’. This narrative culminates in the expansionist vision of Eretz Yisrael, a biblical geography that extends beyond internationally recognized borders. Palestinian presence, in turn, is rendered an existential threat, erased through slogans like “a land without a people for a people without a land”, a phrase with Christian evangelical roots that continues to animate settler ideology despite being proved to be wrong.
The Christian Zionist worldview is shaped by the belief: “Israel must rise, for Christ to return.” Here, eschatology is prioritized over ethics (despite its contradiction with Christian teachings); it integrates religious fundamentalism within U.S. foreign policy. Within evangelical circles, support for the State of Israel is framed as obedience to God’s will and a prerequisite for the Second Coming. This theological logic justifies U.S. military and economic support (tax-payers money), not as a matter of diplomacy or realpolitik, but as divine mandate.
In this framework, war becomes a necessary route toward apocalyptic fulfillment. Palestinians, and others who obstruct this prophetic trajectory, are rendered invisible or expendable. Their erasure is not a tragic consequence but a Christian theological necessity. This worldview is comfortable with violence and normalizes imperial ambition, rendering opposition to Israeli state policy as not only political dissent but against the will of God. This eschatological alignment embeds theology into statecraft, blurring the line between national interest and divine mission (Spector, 2009).
Together, these eschatological worldviews produce a powerful moral justification for ongoing occupation, lies, and violence. They are not shallow beliefs but are embedded in the hegemonic mentality of both Israel and the United States. For U.S. hegemony in particular, Christian Zionism is an effective tool for mobilizing public support, directing resources, and neutralizing dissent … all under the pretext of divine purpose. Eschatology, in this sense, is not just belief; it is policy. Whether it’s a strategic or tactical policy that changes based on natural resources, only time will tell. (A hypothetical question often arises: If the Middle East had no natural resources and/or was not in the ‘middle’ of the World, would the U.S. even care about it?)
Systemic Causes: The Machinery of Empire
The eschatological worldviews explored earlier are not abstract beliefs alone; they build and drive systems of power. For centuries, we learnt that beneath the language of diplomacy lies a well-deep-rooted imperial architecture in which violence is not a failure of negotiation but a profitable and strategic outcome. At the center of this system is the U.S. military-industrial complex, where war becomes a business model in a resource-rich geography. Taxpayer-subsidized arms sales to Israel sustain an asymmetric battlefield and transform ongoing conflict into a mechanism of capital accumulation (Hartung, 2022).
This militarized economy intersects fossil fuel colonialism. West Asia’s energy corridors are vital not only for fueling global markets but for maintaining U.S. leverage over Europe, Asia, and geopolitical rivals like China and Russia. Here, geography becomes destiny: control over the region ensures imperial reach and economic advantage (Brzezinski, 1997).
Within this broader system, Israel functions as a regional enforcer, a subcontractor of the empire. Far from being a mere ally, Israel performs the strategic labor of containing Iran, shaking/weakening unwanted governments, crushing anti-colonialism resistance movements, and stabilizing zones of interest. This relationship reflects operational dependency more than equal partnership, where U.S. hegemony is extended through Israeli force, sparing direct American deployment. Here the US looks like the stabilizer and the controller of Israeli aggression, but the truth is already known to all.
These dynamics do not emerge in a vacuum. They are built on a colonial lineage, in which the U.S. has inherited Britain’s imperial use of Zionism, updating it for the age of surveillance capitalism, drone warfare, and neoliberal governance. The Balfour Declaration becomes, in this context, not just a historical artifact but a prototype of instrumentalized state formation (Hourani, 1991).
As already argued, what results is not a series of policy miscalculations, but a coherent imperial strategy. Yet, as global protest movements intensify, cracks appear in the official narrative, raising the possibility that what is currently managed in the West – mainly Europe – as disagreement (between the people and their governments) may evolve into structural challenge. Whether this marks the beginning of a change or an adaptation of policies remains an open question.
The Litany: Laundering Genocide Through Language
At the surface level of public discourse, the conflict in Palestine is framed through a repetitive litany of media soundbites and political slogans that obscure structural violence. These phrases: “Israel has the right to defend itself,” “Hamas uses civilians as human shields,” “The conflict is complex” flatten settler-colonialism and genocide into the language of equivalence, confusion, and moral ambiguity. They do not clarify but instead induce wrong information, confusion fatigue, desensitizing audiences, and concealing asymmetries of power.
This linguistic architecture is not accidental; it functions as part of a larger system of warfare, where the empire launders blood through language. The deliberate framing of genocide as “conflict,” and occupation as “self-defense,” reshapes historical memory and public understanding, often to the extent that Palestinians are portrayed as the aggressor and occupiers of the land.
While this litany has long dominated Western media landscapes (especially U.S. outlets that are closely aligned with state interests) it is beginning to fracture. The proliferation of decentralized information (especially during the most recent Israeli atrocities and brutal war against Gaza and Lebanon), particularly through social media, has disrupted the narrative monopoly once held by state-aligned broadcasters. In recent months, even mainstream networks like CNN have begun reporting on the starvation crisis in Gaza and have referenced potential Israeli war crimes, while the International Court of Justice has taken unprecedented steps to investigate state-led atrocities.
The picture is not uniform: networks like Fox News continue to ridicule or dismiss these charges, reflecting internal U.S. political cleavages. However, in Europe, public mobilization (that manifests in mass protests and civic pressure) has forced a shift in tone. Politicians once aligned with unconditional support for Israel are now publicly denouncing its actions, including within the halls of the European Parliament.
Still, a critical question remains: is this shift structural, or merely symbolic crisis management in the face of global outrage? Is Western discourse on Palestine undergoing a genuine transformation, or is it tactically adjusting to maintain legitimacy while preserving the core architecture of support to colonialism? We did see both sides of this coin manifesting during the last few months.
What is certain is that the cracks are visible. The once-stable litany is no longer uncontested, and that rupture, however small, signals the potential for a deeper narrative transformation.
Constructing a Post-Hegemonic Future – A 2070 Scenario
A Causal Layered Analysis is not merely a diagnostic tool; it is a platform for transformation. By identifying the deep stories that hold the problem in place, we can architect a new future. The scenario below is not a prediction, but an imaginative illustration of the new litany that becomes possible when the deeper layers of myth, worldview, and system are transformed.
At the end of October 2070, the olive annual harvest, Zahra stood under the shade of an olive tree near the ruins of what used to be the separation wall. Her granddaughter, Leila, was asking again.
“Is it true they used to bomb hospitals, kill children, and starve people to death?”
Zahra’s eyes froze while kneading the dough for mana’eesh. Her eyes drifted to the hilltop where the last surveillance and automatically right-to-kill machined tower had been taken decades earlier. Now it held a solar dome and a community astro-telescope with graffiti in Arabic and Hebrew.
“Yes, habibti. They did. And we buried our dead with no one watching but God. Many times, there were no bodies to bury; many evaporated and others were eaten by hungry animals; we prayed for their soles without bodies, hoping that their soles will pray for us in return.”
Leila was only 12, but she already carried the sharp questions of a new generation that was born after (what had seemed impossible) the end of the U.S. empire, after the fall of Zionist domination, after the leaders of the region were forced to answer to their people.
Zahra handed over the baked mana’eesh to Leila who was running toward the olive grove, where her classmates (Muslim, Jewish, Christian) were preparing for the annual harvest that became one of the symbols for collaborative harmony.
There were still conflicts and injustice in the world. But here, in the land they once called unfixable, a new story had taken root. Not a utopia, but a place where trauma no longer approved domination. A place where faith is no longer justified by war. A place where spiritual resistance had triumphed.
Zahra smiled.
“It’s not about forgetting what they did,” she told herself. “It’s about making sure we never become tyrants.”
“It’s also about being معاً دائماً أقوى – Together Always Stronger.”
Summary Chart: From Hegemony to a Post-Hegemonic Future
Following the 2070 scenario, Table 1 summarizes the Causal Layered Analysis of the current problem and contrasts it with the layers of a transformative alternative future.
| CLA Layer | The Problem: Current Hegemonic Structure | The Alternative: A Post-Hegemonic Future |
|---|---|---|
| Litany (Headlines & Data) | Language of Obscuration: “Right to defend,” “complex conflict.” Headlines that normalize violence and asymmetry. | Narratives of Shared Life: Reports of joint harvest festivals, collaborative projects, and Truth & Reconciliation hearings. |
| System (Structures & Policies) | The Machinery of Empire: Military-Industrial Complex, fossil fuel colonialism, Israel as regional enforcer. | Systems of Structural Justice: Demilitarization, cooperative economics, Truth & Reconciliation Commission, confederation/binational state. |
| Worldview (Dominant Beliefs) | Ideologies of Domination & Prophecy: Zionist “Never again… at any cost” and Christian Zionist “Israel must rise for Christ to return.” | Worldview of Interdependence: Shared stewardship, collective liberation, and belief that holiness is found in acts of dignity, not war. |
| Myth & Metaphor (The Deep Story) | Sacred Stories of Domination: Zionist “From ashes we rose” and Christian Zionist “Your death is our rapture.” | A Myth of Radical Solidarity: “معاً دائماً أقوى / Together Always Stronger.” |
Table 1: A summary of the current situation’s CLA and its contrast with the transformative alternative future
In line with Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and other non-Western futures scholarship that approaches the sacred as a source of meaning whose interpretation and public use vary across traditions and contexts, the scenario imagines a reclaimed theology rooted in dignity, justice, and shared stewardship.
In the alternative future, the old frameworks had been softened and replaced by a theology rooted in compassion, not conquest. Religious scholars and activists from all faiths came together to declare that God’s justice was not reserved for one group or sealed by prophecy but reflected in the twinning of deeds and thoughts; in how we lived, how we resisted oppression, how we shared Earth’s resources, and how we loved.
A new eschatology emerged: one that didn’t demand war to fulfill holiness but insisted that every human act of dignity brought us closer to the sacred. Heaven was no longer a reward for tribal loyalty, but a horizon shaped by collective liberation. Heaven was no longer an ‘ethereal belief of afterlife’, but a tangible ‘nowlife’ on earth.
Conclusion
The persistent U.S. support for Israel (despite its documented violations of international law, war crimes, and systematic occupation) cannot be fully understood without unpacking its multi-layered justifications. This article applied the CLA framework to reveal how media headlines and public discourse are underpinned by deeper systemic structures, shaped by rooted worldviews, and legitimized by powerful myths – especially those drawn from eschatology and religions.
At the litany level, we still see Western media recycle slogans that deflect accountability – but signs of change in Europe and the U.S. are emerging. The structural layer exposes military-industrial entanglements, colonial borders, political complicity, and the strategic value of Israel as a U.S. largest battleship. The worldview layer illuminates the ideological scaffolding: Zionist trauma instrumentalized into supremacy; Christian Zionist prophecy supporting foreign policy. And beneath all, the mythic layer reveals theological and historical narratives that have been co-opted to make occupation feel sacred and genocide feel inevitable.
But these layers are disputable.
As demonstrated through scenario thinking and narrative reframing, both theology and geopolitics are contested terrains. Mythologies that once justified domination can be disrupted and rewritten. The symbolic power of eschatology is not inherently supremacist; it becomes so when hijacked. When reclaimed, it offers a deeply rooted, cross-cultural potential for shared accountability, moral awakening, and future-oriented action.
This’s not optimism, but strategic hope. Hope rooted in praxis, education, narrative disruption, theological reform, and political imagination. Hope that arises when Jewish anti-Zionists reject supremacist interpretations of history and when and love-bearing Christians expose and dispose of the Christian Zionists beliefs.
The future beyond U.S. hegemony is not guaranteed. But it’s possible if we’re willing to confront not just the politics of empire, but the myths that keep it alive.
The vision ahead is not one of naïve coexistence (La Vie en Rose!), but of structural justice, historical repair, and a new religion of solidarity.
معاً دائماً أقوى – Together Always Stronger
Not just a motto, but a strategy for surviving the present and building the world through a billion phenoxies rise together.
Acknowledgment: I thank Prof. Sohail Inayatullah for his insightful suggestion on restructuring the article midway through its development, which helped sharpen its narrative and improve its readability.
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