From Rome to America — Why Empires Fight Over Israel | Prof Jiang Xueqin

00:00:00.240 Okay. So, what I want to explain to you

00:00:02.639 today is something that almost nobody in

00:00:05.200 modern politics fully understands. And

00:00:07.759 that is why every major empire in human

00:00:10.320 history eventually becomes obsessed with

00:00:12.960 Israel. Okay? Why Rome cared about it,

00:00:16.000 why the Persians cared about it, why the

00:00:18.240 Ottomans cared about it, why the British

00:00:20.320 cared about it, why America still cares

00:00:22.320 about it right now. Because if you

00:00:23.840 listen to most explanations today,

00:00:25.519 people will tell you this is about

00:00:27.039 religion or oil or morality or

00:00:29.599 democracy. Okay? But my argument to you

00:00:32.320 is this. Those things matter, but they

00:00:34.480 are not the core reason. The real reason

00:00:36.640 empires fight over Israel is because

00:00:38.719 Israel sits at the center of one of the

00:00:40.960 most strategically important corridors

00:00:43.360 in human history. Okay? And once you

00:00:46.160 understand the geography, once you

00:00:47.920 understand how empires actually think,

00:00:49.920 you realize something extraordinary. The

00:00:52.160 modern conflict over Israel is not new

00:00:53.920 at all. It is the continuation of a

00:00:56.160 geopolitical struggle that has existed

00:00:58.239 for over 3,000 years. The empires

00:01:00.960 changed, the flags changed, the weapons

00:01:03.280 changed, but the strategic logic never

00:01:05.438 changed. Okay, does that make sense? So,

00:01:07.680 the first thing I need you to appreciate

00:01:09.439 is this. The ancient world was not

00:01:11.760 organized the way the modern world is

00:01:13.600 organized today. Today, power is global.

00:01:16.080 But in the ancient world, power

00:01:17.840 clustered around a few major centers of

00:01:20.400 civilization. Okay? And the two greatest

00:01:23.600 wealth centers of the ancient near east

00:01:25.920 were Egypt and Mesopotamia. Egypt in the

00:01:28.560 southwest, Mesopotamia in the east, and

00:01:30.960 between them sits the Levant. Present

00:01:33.200 day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan.

00:01:35.439 Okay? This territory acts as a bridge

00:01:38.320 connecting Africa, Asia, and eventually

00:01:41.360 Europe through Anatolia and the

00:01:43.520 Mediterranean world. Now think about

00:01:45.600 what that means strategically. If you

00:01:47.680 are Egypt and you want to project power

00:01:49.840 eastward, you must move through the

00:01:51.920 Levant. If you are Babylon or Persia and

00:01:55.119 you want to project power westward

00:01:57.280 toward Egypt or the Mediterranean coast,

00:02:00.000 you must move through the Levant. There

00:02:02.240 is no alternative corridor that offers

00:02:04.240 the same access. The desert blocks

00:02:06.399 movement to the south. The mountains

00:02:08.160 complicate movement to the north. The

00:02:10.080 Levant becomes the natural hinge of the

00:02:11.840 ancient world. Okay. Geography creates a

00:02:14.879 bottleneck and whoever controls the

00:02:16.879 bottleneck controls movement itself.

00:02:18.879 That is why the region never remains

00:02:20.720 politically irrelevant for long. Every

00:02:22.959 rising power eventually discovers the

00:02:24.959 same thing. If you want influence over

00:02:27.120 trade, armies, migration, religion or

00:02:29.680 commerce between continents, you need

00:02:31.760 leverage over the Levant. Okay? This is

00:02:34.800 not ideology. This is not prophecy. This

00:02:37.280 is not coincidence. This is geography.

00:02:39.599 And geography does not negotiate.

00:02:41.519 Geography shapes the behavior of

00:02:43.280 civilizations whether people recognize

00:02:45.280 it or not. Now here is where it becomes

00:02:47.440 even more interesting because the Levant

00:02:49.440 is not only a land corridor. It is also

00:02:52.160 connected directly to the eastern

00:02:53.840 Mediterranean. Okay. And the

00:02:56.000 Mediterranean Sea was effectively the

00:02:57.920 economic superighway of the ancient

00:02:59.920 world. Grain from Egypt moved through

00:03:02.239 it. Timber from Lebanon moved through

00:03:04.080 it. Metals, spices, textiles, armies,

00:03:06.879 merchants, information, everything moved

00:03:08.640 through Mediterranean trade networks.

00:03:10.640 And the ports along the Levventine coast

00:03:13.120 became critical connection points

00:03:15.040 linking continental trade routes with

00:03:17.360 maritime commerce. So now think about

00:03:19.599 the strategic equation that creates.

00:03:21.599 Whoever controls the Levant controls

00:03:23.440 both land routes and sea access

00:03:25.120 simultaneously. That is an extraordinary

00:03:28.080 concentration of geopolitical value

00:03:30.080 inside a relatively small territory.

00:03:32.799 Okay? And once empires recognize that

00:03:35.519 value, they begin competing over it

00:03:37.599 permanently because no empire wants a

00:03:40.080 rival controlling the center of regional

00:03:42.319 movement. Now the question becomes,

00:03:44.000 okay, but why Jerusalem specifically?

00:03:46.080 Why did Jerusalem become the focal point

00:03:48.319 rather than some other city in the

00:03:50.080 region? And the answer is because

00:03:52.400 Jerusalem sits on elevated terrain

00:03:54.879 overlooking critical movement corridors

00:03:57.680 connecting inland trade with the coastal

00:04:00.159 plains. Okay. High ground matters

00:04:02.799 enormously in ancient warfare. Before

00:04:05.040 satellites, before aircraft, before

00:04:06.799 modern surveillance, elevation was

00:04:08.560 power. Whoever controlled the heights

00:04:10.640 controlled visibility, defense, and

00:04:12.640 movement. Jerusalem becomes

00:04:14.879 strategically valuable because it

00:04:16.959 functions as a fortified command point

00:04:19.519 overlooking one of the most contested

00:04:21.680 crossroads on Earth. And over time that

00:04:24.479 military significance evolves into

00:04:26.400 something much larger because geography

00:04:28.400 eventually merges with religion,

00:04:30.639 identity and civilization itself. Okay?

00:04:33.840 And this is where the story changes

00:04:35.520 completely because into this strategic

00:04:37.680 corridor emerges the Jewish people. And

00:04:40.000 what makes Jewish history so unusual is

00:04:42.080 not simply survival. It is continuity.

00:04:44.960 Okay? Most conquered civilizations in

00:04:47.520 the ancient world disappeared

00:04:49.120 eventually. They were absorbed into

00:04:50.960 larger empires. Their languages

00:04:52.880 vanished. Their gods vanished. Their

00:04:55.360 identities dissolved into history. But

00:04:57.280 the Jewish people did something almost

00:04:58.880 unprecedented. They preserved identity

00:05:01.040 across conquest, exile, diaspora, and

00:05:03.680 dispersion for thousands of years. Now,

00:05:06.080 why does that matter geopolitically?

00:05:08.080 Because identity connected to territory

00:05:10.639 creates strategic permanence. Okay? Once

00:05:13.919 a people associates divine meaning with

00:05:15.759 a specific land, the struggle over that

00:05:17.840 land stops being temporary. It becomes

00:05:20.240 eternal. And the Hebrew Bible

00:05:22.080 transformed Jerusalem from merely a

00:05:24.320 strategic city into a sacred center tied

00:05:27.120 directly to covenant, destiny, memory,

00:05:29.600 and survival itself. That changes the

00:05:32.080 equation dramatically because now

00:05:33.759 empires are not merely managing

00:05:35.280 territory anymore. They are managing

00:05:37.360 belief. And belief behaves differently

00:05:39.759 than ordinary political loyalty. You can

00:05:42.080 defeat an army militarily. You can

00:05:44.160 overthrow a king. But it is much harder

00:05:46.479 to eliminate a population whose identity

00:05:48.960 survives psychologically across

00:05:51.039 generations through scripture, ritual,

00:05:53.360 and collective memory. Okay, does that

00:05:56.160 make sense? This is why the Jewish

00:05:58.000 revolts against Rome became so

00:05:59.680 historically significant. Rome could

00:06:02.080 conquer nations easily when those

00:06:04.160 nations accepted imperial integration

00:06:06.400 eventually. But Judea repeatedly

00:06:09.039 resisted assimilation because Jewish

00:06:11.440 identity was tied to covenant and sacred

00:06:13.600 geography rather than simple political

00:06:15.919 administration. Rome understood the

00:06:18.560 strategic importance of the region. But

00:06:21.039 Rome struggled to understand the

00:06:23.199 psychological durability of a people

00:06:25.440 whose identity transcended empire

00:06:28.080 itself. And this is the point most

00:06:30.080 people still misunderstand today. The

00:06:31.919 conflict over Israel has never been only

00:06:33.600 about land. It has always been about

00:06:35.919 what the land represents

00:06:37.520 psychologically, spiritually and

00:06:40.000 strategically to different civilizations

00:06:42.560 simultaneously. Now let us move forward

00:06:44.800 because this pattern repeats itself

00:06:46.479 again and again across history. The

00:06:48.560 Persians understand early that

00:06:50.319 supporting Jewish restoration in

00:06:52.240 Jerusalem can stabilize imperial

00:06:54.479 influence inside a critical corridor.

00:06:56.960 The Romans attempt direct domination and

00:06:59.440 encounter repeated revolt. The Bzantines

00:07:02.000 inherit the same geography. Then the

00:07:04.240 Islamic empires emerge from Arabia and

00:07:06.960 immediately recognize the significance

00:07:08.960 of controlling Jerusalem and the Levant

00:07:11.360 because whoever controls the Levant

00:07:13.280 controls access between Egypt, Syria and

00:07:16.160 Mesopotamia. This is why the Crusades

00:07:18.560 happen. Okay? And this is where many

00:07:21.120 people become confused because they

00:07:22.880 think the Crusades were simply

00:07:24.319 irrational religious fanaticism. But

00:07:26.720 that is not entirely correct. Religion

00:07:28.960 mattered enormously. Yes. But underneath

00:07:31.199 the religious language sat strategic

00:07:33.280 geography again. European powers

00:07:35.599 understood that controlling the eastern

00:07:37.440 Mediterranean altered trade access,

00:07:39.680 military projection, and influence over

00:07:42.080 pilgrimage routes simultaneously. The

00:07:44.319 crusader states become attempts to

00:07:46.160 implant European aligned political

00:07:48.160 entities directly inside the Levventine

00:07:50.479 corridor. Okay, same logic, different

00:07:53.680 empire. Then Saladin reconquers

00:07:55.840 Jerusalem because Muslim powers

00:07:57.599 understand the exact same thing. You

00:07:59.599 cannot allow a hostile force to dominate

00:08:01.759 the strategic hinge connecting Egypt and

00:08:04.240 Syria. Whoever controls Jerusalem gains

00:08:06.879 symbolic legitimacy and geographic

00:08:09.039 leverage simultaneously. Religion

00:08:11.440 amplifies the importance of the

00:08:13.199 territory, but geography sustains the

00:08:15.520 competition beneath it. Okay, now jump

00:08:17.599 forward again because the Ottoman Empire

00:08:19.440 eventually absorbs the Levant and

00:08:21.280 controls it for centuries. And what is

00:08:23.360 interesting about the Ottomans is that

00:08:25.120 they understand something many empires

00:08:27.599 before them failed to understand fully.

00:08:29.919 Total homogenization inside the Levant

00:08:32.240 is impossible. There are too many

00:08:34.159 identities, too many sacred claims, too

00:08:36.399 many overlapping civilizations

00:08:38.320 compressed into one corridor. So instead

00:08:40.719 of erasing identities completely, the

00:08:43.120 Ottomans manage them through imperial

00:08:45.040 administration. And for several

00:08:46.880 centuries, relative stability emerges

00:08:49.279 because one sufficiently strong empire

00:08:51.680 controls the strategic crossroads and

00:08:53.839 suppresses largecale competition between

00:08:56.480 rival powers. Okay? But eventually every

00:08:59.519 empire weakens and when empires weaken,

00:09:02.000 contested geography becomes unstable

00:09:04.000 again. This is exactly what happens in

00:09:06.320 the 19th and early 20th centuries. The

00:09:08.560 Ottoman Empire begins declining.

00:09:10.560 European powers begin maneuvering

00:09:12.640 aggressively around the Eastern

00:09:14.320 Mediterranean. Britain becomes deeply

00:09:16.720 concerned about protecting routes to

00:09:18.560 India through the Suez Canal. France

00:09:21.040 seeks influence in the Levant. Russia

00:09:23.120 pushes southward constantly toward warm

00:09:25.120 water access. Suddenly, the entire

00:09:27.040 region becomes the focus of renewed

00:09:28.959 imperial competition again. Now, here is

00:09:31.040 where modern Israel enters the equation

00:09:32.800 directly. The British issue the Balffor

00:09:35.360 Declaration during World War I promising

00:09:37.839 support for a Jewish homeland in

00:09:39.519 Palestine. And most modern discussions

00:09:41.839 frame this either entirely morally or

00:09:44.000 entirely ideologically. But

00:09:46.000 geopolitically, Britain is doing

00:09:47.760 something empires have always done. It

00:09:50.080 is attempting to shape the demographic

00:09:52.080 and political structure of a

00:09:53.839 strategically critical corridor in ways

00:09:56.240 favorable to British imperial interests.

00:09:58.880 Okay, think carefully about the timing.

00:10:01.360 Britain controls Egypt. Britain controls

00:10:03.519 maritime routes through the Suez Canal.

00:10:05.839 Britain wants stable influence extending

00:10:08.720 across the eastern Mediterranean into

00:10:10.640 the Middle East. Supporting a

00:10:12.320 politically aligned population inside

00:10:14.560 Palestine potentially strengthens

00:10:16.560 imperial leverage over one of the most

00:10:18.560 important crossroads on Earth. This is

00:10:20.720 not a new imperial calculation. It is an

00:10:22.959 ancient calculation wearing modern

00:10:24.720 clothing. And then after World War II,

00:10:27.040 the United States gradually inherits

00:10:29.360 much of Britain's strategic position in

00:10:31.440 the Middle East. Okay? And this is where

00:10:33.920 people become emotional because they

00:10:35.519 think support for Israel emerged purely

00:10:37.760 from moral sympathy after the Holocaust

00:10:40.160 or purely from domestic politics. Those

00:10:42.640 factors absolutely matter, but they

00:10:44.480 exist alongside something much deeper

00:10:46.160 and older, strategic geography. The

00:10:48.480 United States emerges after 1945 as a

00:10:52.000 global maritime empire dependent on

00:10:54.480 stable trade routes, energy flows,

00:10:56.800 military projection, and influence

00:10:58.800 across Eurasia. The Middle East sits at

00:11:01.200 the center of global energy

00:11:02.640 infrastructure. The Eastern

00:11:04.240 Mediterranean becomes increasingly

00:11:06.000 important militarily and economically.

00:11:08.720 And Israel emerges as a technologically

00:11:11.360 advanced, militarily capable, highly

00:11:14.399 reliable regional ally positioned

00:11:17.120 directly inside one of the world's most

00:11:19.519 strategically sensitive regions. Okay.

00:11:22.399 So from Washington's perspective,

00:11:24.079 supporting Israel is not charity. It is

00:11:26.399 geopolitical architecture. Israel

00:11:28.560 becomes part of a broader American

00:11:30.560 system designed to maintain influence

00:11:32.640 across the Middle East during the Cold

00:11:34.560 War and after it. Now, notice something

00:11:36.880 important here because this is where the

00:11:39.279 continuity becomes extraordinary. Persia

00:11:41.519 supported Jewish restoration for

00:11:42.880 imperial reasons. Rome fought Jewish

00:11:45.279 revolts for imperial reasons. Britain

00:11:47.440 backed a Jewish homeland for imperial

00:11:49.440 reasons. America supports Israel for

00:11:51.440 imperial reasons. Different centuries,

00:11:53.680 different ideologies, same geographic

00:11:55.760 logic. Does that make sense? Now, here

00:11:58.000 is where the story becomes even more

00:12:00.000 complicated because we are currently

00:12:01.839 living through another imperial

00:12:04.240 transition. And imperial transitions are

00:12:06.959 historically the most dangerous periods

00:12:09.040 for contested territories like the

00:12:10.800 Levant. Okay? When one dominant power

00:12:13.920 weakens and multiple rising powers

00:12:16.320 compete simultaneously, strategic

00:12:18.480 corridors become unstable very quickly.

00:12:21.360 This is what we are seeing right now.

00:12:23.200 The United States still possesses

00:12:25.040 enormous military power, but its

00:12:27.200 dominance is no longer uncontested

00:12:29.360 globally the way it appeared after the

00:12:31.519 Cold War. China is rising economically

00:12:34.160 and strategically. Russia is reasserting

00:12:36.720 military influence in parts of the

00:12:38.480 Middle East. Iran is expanding regional

00:12:40.880 influence westward through proxy

00:12:42.720 networks and political alliances. Turkey

00:12:45.360 increasingly pursues independent

00:12:47.360 regional ambitions rooted partly in

00:12:49.680 Ottoman memory. Gulf states are hedging

00:12:52.480 between competing great powers

00:12:54.240 simultaneously. Every major regional and

00:12:56.720 global actor is maneuvering around the

00:12:58.639 same corridor again. And this is why the

00:13:00.720 conflict surrounding Israel feels

00:13:02.639 permanent because in many ways it is

00:13:04.959 structurally permanent. The territory

00:13:06.880 sits at the intersection of continents,

00:13:09.279 religions, trade systems, military

00:13:11.360 corridors, energy routes and

00:13:13.120 civilizational identities

00:13:14.399 simultaneously. There are very few

00:13:16.399 places on Earth where so many strategic

00:13:18.639 variables overlap inside such a

00:13:20.800 compressed geographic space. Now, this

00:13:22.880 is the part people do not like hearing

00:13:24.800 because it challenges modern assumptions

00:13:27.120 about progress. Most people assume

00:13:29.279 history moves forward cleanly. They

00:13:31.279 assume ancient geopolitical struggles

00:13:33.279 disappear eventually. But many of the

00:13:35.519 deepest patterns in international

00:13:37.040 politics repeat because geography

00:13:38.720 repeats. Mountains remain where they

00:13:40.639 were. Seas remain where they were. Trade

00:13:43.279 routes evolve technologically, but they

00:13:45.920 still follow strategic corridors shaped

00:13:48.639 by geography. The Levant remains the

00:13:50.959 hinge between continents just as it was

00:13:53.279 thousands of years ago. The Eastern

00:13:55.360 Mediterranean remains strategically

00:13:57.279 important just as it was under Rome.

00:13:59.600 Jerusalem remains symbolically explosive

00:14:02.000 because billions of people still attach

00:14:04.240 sacred meaning to it simultaneously. And

00:14:06.880 once sacred identity overlaps with

00:14:08.880 strategic geography, conflict becomes

00:14:11.360 extraordinarily difficult to resolve

00:14:13.440 permanently. Okay? So when you watch

00:14:15.440 modern wars, negotiations, alliances,

00:14:18.560 missile strikes, or diplomatic crises

00:14:20.560 surrounding Israel and the Middle East,

00:14:22.560 understand what you are actually looking

00:14:24.240 at. You are not merely watching current

00:14:26.160 events. You are watching one of the

00:14:28.079 oldest geopolitical struggles in human

00:14:30.320 history continuing under modern

00:14:32.000 conditions. You are watching empires

00:14:34.399 attempting to stabilize, dominate or

00:14:37.199 influence the same strategic corridor

00:14:39.519 that every major civilization before

00:14:41.680 them also fought to control. The

00:14:43.920 technology changed. The strategic logic

00:14:46.160 did not. And this is why every empire

00:14:48.560 eventually becomes involved with Israel,

00:14:50.880 whether it intends to or not. Because

00:14:52.880 once a power expands deeply enough into

00:14:55.040 Eurasian politics, Middle Eastern energy

00:14:57.760 systems, Mediterranean security or

00:15:00.320 global trade architecture, the Levant

00:15:02.959 becomes unavoidable. The geography pulls

00:15:05.519 empires toward it again and again and

00:15:07.360 again. Okay? And until geography itself

00:15:10.639 stops mattering, which has never

00:15:13.120 happened in human history, Israel and

00:15:15.839 the surrounding region will remain one

00:15:18.320 of the central fault lines of global

00:15:20.560 power. Not because the people are

00:15:22.320 uniquely violent, not because the

00:15:24.160 religions are uniquely incompatible, but

00:15:26.800 because the territory itself sits at the

00:15:28.959 center of too many strategic systems

00:15:31.279 simultaneously for the world to ever

00:15:33.600 ignore it completely. And that is the

00:15:35.760 real story. From Rome to America,

00:15:37.920 empires fight over Israel for the same

00:15:39.839 reason they always have. Because whoever

00:15:41.920 influences the Levant influences the

00:15:43.760 crossroads of civilization itself. Okay.

00:15:46.720 Does that make sense?