Many right-wing Jews, who are now deeply religious, started as atheists. I’m not even talking of those Russian Jews who have a typically Slavic urge for a higher idea. Zealous communists before, they became equally zealous believers now.
Jewish patriots seek a firm ground for their ideology, thus Avraham Stern embraced Judaism. Those who didn’t, left shallow roots: children of Herzl, Ben Gurion, Zhabotinsky are assimilated.
Humans have a natural urge to believe in something; beliefs form societies. Pagan communists died for their deities, notably Stalin. Ancient Roman pagans fought for money. It isn’t easy to convince Jews to fight for the sake of glorious tradition or cultural heritage. After the wars of survival seemed over in 1973, it became very hard to build national consensus for subsequent military operations. Jews need a good reason to stay in Israel, a Hebrew-speaking Brooklyn, rather than move to America. Nothing but religion provides a sustainable answer.
Some patriots become religious because Judaism is the best, probably the only way to confirm their beliefs and intentions. Nationalists demand holding on to Jerusalem and Judea, but why? Judea’s only importance to us is religious. Arguments from military necessity are labored: as the missiles’ range increases, a few more miles of depth cease to protect. Judaism is the most straightforward way to answer the detractors: instead of writing the very dubious apologia such as the “Case for Israel,” it suffices to assert that God gave us this land and obligated us to conquer it upon the return from Exile (Deuteronomy 30).
In ancient times, there was a bandit named Yiphtah. A son of a Jewish father by concubine, he fled the family house and started a highly successful gang. At one point, Amonites issued ultimatum to his paternal tribe of Gilead: give us back our land which Jews have occupied and let’s live in peace – otherwise, war. Exactly the Israel’s choice now. Yiphtah offered several political justifications for holding onto the land, notably the expired statute of limitations, but recognizing the weakness of his arguments, finally resorted to a foolproof argument: whatever land God gave us will remain ours. Not because we have conquered this land, but because God gave it to us. In the logic terms, Yiphtah argued from the authority, the ultimate authority in this case. He went to war and won it. So it is today: whether the West Bank is liberated or occupied, Jewish rights there are open to legal debate. If God gave Judea to Jews in 1967, the argument is closed.
Religion cements Jewish identity like nothing else. Children of the most prominent Zionist patriots assimilated, but grandchildren of religious Jews remain Jewish.
Perhaps a few people were convinced by the miracles which God performed for Israel: salvation from Holocaust, escape from the Russian holocaust in 1953, UN vote for Israel, subsequent military victories, Arafat’s refusal to accept the Barak’s offer of Jerusalem, etc, etc.
Myself, I was more than convinced in theism by many miracles, down to magic and witchcraft which I observed during my years of interest in the occult.
Rational minds can come to the religion by properly studying Hebrew language. It is artificial, consciously designed rather than naturally evolved, as we can see from its mathematically precise grammar, the root cells, and other technical issues. Hardly a genius linguist went out of his cave on a sunny morning four thousand years ago and designed this wondrous language. The Hebrew they teach you in Israeli schools is an abominable slang.
The Torah lays out an astonishingly coherent moral and political theory (see my, The Ethics of Free Society). I’ve studied political philosophy and other religions, and none of them comes close to the Torah in coherence and subtlety. I know many editors, and Torah is not a product of editors; its meticulous wisdom, where disparate statements reinforce each other and never contradict, is beyond humans.
And on the top of it, the Pascal’s wager seems reasonable: Live as if God exists for if he doesn’t you lose nothing.
