A few countries, despite their territorial size or youthfulness as geopolitical entities, exercise global power that is the envy of many. Two of them, Israel and Kenya, have a few things in common that influence their regions and the globe.

Both are relatively young as geopolitical entities, are creations of British imperialism, and are also products of post-World War II anti-colonial drive. They at times appear to be isolated by their neighbours and are attracted to each partly because of similarities in colonial experience, but more importantly because of geopolitical necessities. Of the two, Israel, took advantage of its Biblical territorial linkage to the spiritual past that colonised Kenyans identified with.

In contrast, Kenyans acquired emotional and inspirational attachment to Israel because of its colonial experience. Forced to change 'religion' and become Christians as part of colonial conquest, 'natives' noticed discrepancies between the preaching and cultural practices of the colonisers and what the Bible actually said. As part of the growing resistance to colonialism, they preferred the patriarchs of the Old Testament over European cultural baggage masquerading as Christianity. Old Testament names such as Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Esther, Jacob, Moses, and David reflected hope in colonial adversity. Subsequently, emerging anti-colonial champions like Jomo Kenyatta seemed, like 'Moses', to be leading Kenyans to the 'promised land' of independence. Jomo, the equivalent of David Ben-Gurion in Israel as founder of a real earthly post World War II state, was fond of referring to the Old Testament to drive home his messages.