Who are the Chosen?

One of the questions I receive most often when I teach the Old Testament is, "Why did God choose the Israelites?" In other words, why are they the ones, out of all the people on the earth, chosen to represent God? Why does God let the Israelites defeat all those other people when they cross into the Promised Land? There is no satisfactory way to answer these related questions. I could say that the Bible doesn't tell us. As one progresses from Genesis to Exodus, it seems as if the patriarchs were chosen at random, particularly Abraham. At least the others come from his family. I could also say that when the ancestors were chosen, they weren't yet "Israelites;" they were only a random group of people from a small village in what is now western Asia. So, in fact, God didn't really choose the Israelites, God created the Israelites to be God's people, based on God's promises to Abraham in Genesis 15 & 17. Still, neither of these answers is truly satisfactory.

Even though the Bible doesn't really give a satisfactory answer to the question, this issue of chosenness or "election" as we call it in scholarship has caused a great deal of conflict in our world. The Jews believe they are the chosen, so they want to have their own state, without any other inhabitants. The Christians believe they are chosen because Christ's sacrifice on the cross superceded the law of Moses (which the Jews follow), so they damn everyone else to hell. The whites believe they are chosen, so they have initiated all sorts of atrocities against people of other ethnicities. The USA believes it is chosen, so "God Bless America" became the battle cry for the war on terrorism after 9/11.

In the Bible, the elect are given great responsibility. Yes, they are chosen by God. No, we don't know the exact reasons. Nevertheless, it is up to them to walk in God's ways, even when their neighbors don't. It is up to them to show justice and kindness to the poor, even when they don't really feel like it. It is up to them to convert the Gentiles, though this is such a difficult task. And, when the Israelites fail to fulfill these responsibilities terrible things happen. In the Bible, being chosen does not mean being powerful; in fact, just the opposite. The chosen ones are often at the mercy of other, bigger nations.

In a recent speech at Columbia University in New York, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that "[ruling powers] try to eliminate these cultures in order to separate the people from their identity and cut their bonds with their own history and values. they prepare the ground for stirpping people from their spiritual and material wealth by instilling in them feelings of intimidation, desire for imitation and mere consumption, submission to oppressive powers, and disability" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092401042.html [retreived Oct. 1, 2007]). President Ahmadinejad implicitly accused the United States and other "ruling powers" of using their wealth to brainwash and control scientists and researchers, as well as to oppress smaller, weaker countries.

Does he have a point? Do the "ruling powers," in our case, those who believe they are the chosen, willingly oppress the "not chosen"? If so, are they acting with the responsibility given to the elect? Why or why not?