"Israel, God's (suffering) Servant" (book by Torrance and Taylor, Paternoster, 2007)

My thoughts prompted by reading this book written by two Bible believing Christians, from a Jewish/Christian/Israeli point of view

It seems to me that Palestinians are the new Jews from the way they are so unpopular with some Arabs in this century and last and, yet again, by being killed and wiped off the face of the earth by the State of Israel in even larger numbers than the Ukrainian, pro-Russian separatists who very likely shot down the Malaysian airliner.  The Palestinians are the poor and oppressed, as Jews have been at times in their history.  Our good, upstanding Brits are still manufacturing armaments to fuel the killing of mainly Palestinian civilians and, killing almost, totally, IDF soldiers in God's suffering servant, Israel.

We are more agitated by the death of 298, almost all white European or Australian, than by three times as many Palestinians or, a similar number of Iranian's that our side shot down in 1988 in that air bus massacre.  As a result, we impose sanctions/penalties on our long time enemy, Russia ("Russia's leaders deny they are providing support to the separatists." - from 'i', 17 June 2014) but turn a blind eye to Israel's war crimes and the many fewer crimes of Hamas on Israeli civilians.

No Muslim nation has ever been a superpower.  Their empires were fewer and smaller than the Christian European ones.  Their slave trade was also smaller and, probably, shorter lasting than ours.  It was not the Muslims who brought humanity 10 years of world war or WMD.

We call Israel, God's Servant yet, she is a largely secular, Western, consumerist and capitalist nation that is even included in the Eurovision Song Contest, while all her surrounding Arab nations are excluded!

God's servant is one of the most military powerful nations on earth.  Very different from our Christian Messiah, Jesus Christ who is the suffering servant, who refused to save himself by using the sword.
God's suffering servant, Israel has a tiny minority of true Christians, who are Bible believing.  Yet, we insist she, Israel is God's servant who will play the major part when God winds things up and Christ returns at the end of the age.

We would say that God has blessed her servant with riches, skills and resources that have made the desert bloom.  We say that she alone is God's Chosen Nation that, with the Christians and Muslims, are all the children of Abraham.  From getting on for three thousand years ago, they were all meant to be a blessing to all the other nations, according to God's promise in Genesis 12 v 3.  "All the families of the earth will be blessed through you (Abraham)."  Again, "I will cause you (Abraham) to become the father of a great nation." (Genesis 12 v 2)  In other words, the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims are all meant to be one great nation, according to Yahweh, who will bless all other peoples on the earth.  This promise of God has never been fulfilled.

For many years, we have called Israel, God's suffering servant.  Yet, this is the same Israel that joined forces with the UK and France to attack Egypt during the Suez Crisis.  This is the same Israel that in the name of self-defence has warred in Lebanon and in the surrounding land off and on, over the last 66 years.  For years before 1948, God's servant was using revenge and violence that, finally, ended with the three Jewish terrorist gangs succeeding in bombing and shooting their way to getting the State of Israel.  The British had had enough of their mandate to rule the unruly and departed.  We have had decades of violence through most of the 20th century by God's servant, Israel - some initiated by her and some in revenge for Arab/British violence.

If we call Israel God's servant what do we call the USA?  She regards herself as the exceptional nation in being, uniquely, blessed by God.  It is sometimes called manifest destiny, I understand.

Is Israel, God's suffering servant, really behaving like God's true servant in the Gospels?  For me, Israel is far from Paradise and is nothing like the Kingdom of God from the teachings of Christ.