Do you generally look favorably upon the current nation of Israel?

I voted other. I think they are “the best of the lot” in the Middle East but I disagree with some of their actions. Pragmatically I can agree to their approach to war but there are times that I cannot as a Christian support them. I do however agree with the last part of response 1. I believe the OT promises to Israel will be fulfilled in the nation of Israel.

With something like 80% of Israelis being secular, and with the nation being pervasively pro-homosexual and the like, I can't see modern Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy. Maybe I'm wrong. That noted, it is pretty much the only sane country in the region--at least the only one where I wouldn't risk a quick and painful death--so politically, I tend to support them for that reason.

Having been to Israel myself twice (for a total of 17 days) I wonder how visiting the nation impacts the answers to this question. Does having been to Israel lead to one viewing the nation more favorably, less favorably, or have little effect on one's response? What does anyone else here think?

Larry, I think that’s an interesting question. My wife and I were there in February of 2025 for about 9 days (including 3 days in the West Bank in and around Bethlehem). I think the experience did affect my views toward the positive, but of course, my experience is very limited.

We were only in Tel Aviv after landing at the airport, and otherwise didn’t go there. Some of the Jews in Jerusalem made it clear that they think of Tel Aviv the way many Americans see Las Vegas — as “sin city.” As a result, we weren’t really confronted with the more secular side of Israel in most of the places we went, with the exception of seeing soldiers everywhere. We did go to a number of locations of ארומה אספרסו בר (Aroma Espresso Bar) as most of us were coffee drinkers, so we did get a bit of a sense of “regular life” in the holy land. Because of the ongoing tension between Gaza and Israel, there weren’t many tourists there (we only saw a couple other groups the whole time were there), so we saw mostly locals.

We ran into one guy in the Kidron valley who was really unhappy to see Americans, but by and large, most were happy to see us, both in Israel and the West Bank. While I’m sure this opinion is not shared by all West Bank Palestinians (particularly near settlements, which we didn’t get near), one Palestinian we spoke to basically said that it was the governments that were fighting and not the people so much. It was very clear that many of the local Jews and Palestinians saw each other as neighbors and friends. Our guide was an Arab Israeli who spoke Hebrew, Arabic, French, and English, and it was clear he had friends everywhere, both in Israel proper and the West Bank.

All of the above definitely gave me a different picture of the situation there than I had ever seen in the news, but again, 9 days in limited areas doesn’t really give a complete picture, of course. Still, I was left with an overall favorable impression of the country and people, and as others have said, it may be the only sane country in the region. I would agree that secular Israel today is not itself the fulfillment of prophecy, but for many Israelis to turn to Jesus in the end times, it seems pretty obvious to me that the re-formation of that nation sure looks like one of the prerequisites for what will eventually become the restored Israel of prophecy.