E. O. Wilson once warned that the crisis of humanity lies in the contradiction that we possess “a Paleolithic mind, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.”

The US-Iran asymmetric war and broader regional tensions surrounding it reflect this contradiction with striking clarity. Israel and Iran—and now the United States’ war planners—find refuge in divine symbolism for strategic behavior, rooted in religious tribalism, historical narratives, and sacred prophecies.

There is historical irony in watching a global superpower compress its perception of security under regional anxieties of a powerful yet smaller Middle Eastern ally, Israel. The most interesting theatricality of this war appeared in a medieval-like setting in the Oval Office, where Donald Trump was encircled by evangelical pastors praying for conviction and clarity during a modern military campaign conducted with satellites, precision missiles, and fighter jets taking off from two advance aircraft carriers. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the US is spending 890 million dollars a day on this war, while denying payment of $260m annual arrears to WHO last year. The Oval Office scene appeared days after he announced the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader in a U.S. strike. For millions of Twelver Shias, the killing carries emotional and spiritual shock comparable to what the assassination of the Pope would mean for Catholics, the Archbishop of Canterbury for the British Anglican world, or the head of the Orthodox Church for many Russians.

A few days before, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, endorsed Israel’s right to occupy five modern-day sovereign states, remarking that “it would be fine if they took it all.” His “advice” to religious nationalists within the Zionist movement aligns with the Covenant about the “Promised Land” in the Book of Genesis, granting Abraham’s descendants land “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates”—a stretch including parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. Benjamin Netanyahu frequently wraps modern strategic conflicts—including indiscriminate bombing in Gaza and state-driven land-grabbing campaigns in the West Bank—under ribbons of a long civilizational story. His political discourse carries the burden of a three-thousand-year saga........

© Pakistan Observer