Do the foregoing events bear any lessons for modern Israel? In one sense they do not, because never in the past did Israel or Judah have a powerful external ally that simply lost interest or patience with the region and withdrew from it; ancient centers of power based in modern-day Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey were all too much a part of the region to leave it. But, in another sense, these events might indeed offer some guidance for the future.
Dov S. Zakheim, “The Geopolitics of Scripture,” The American Interest (July/August 2012), 16.