Thanks for that context Rask, I think his evangelical conversion (wiki says late 70s, somewhat cooling off by the time Infidels comes out in '83) marks the point where I completely lose interest in his music and/or lyrics. Blood on the Tracks is the last decent album for me.

I found this 1984 Rolling Stone interview where he makes the absurd statement that Neighborhood Bully isn't a political song because it's not party political, as well as being all coy about his stance on Israel/Palestine ... right until he talks about it being the stage for End Times Armageddon. Mental... they ate his brain, it seems.

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https://web.archive.org/web/20071001200332/https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938701/bob_dylan_the_rolling_stone_interview/

RS: Your latest album, Infidels, is hardly subteen fodder. Some critics have even detected a new note of conservatism in some of the songs -- even outright jingoism in "Neighborhood Bully" in which the metaphorical subject is said to be "just one man" whose "enemies say he's on their land." That's clearly a strong Zionist political statement, is it not?

BD: You'd have to point that out to me, you know, what line is in it that spells that out. I'm not a political songwriter. Joe Hill was a political songwriter; uh, Merle Travis wrote some political songs. "Which Side Are You On?" is a political song. And "Neighborhood Bully," to me, is not a political song, because if it were, it would fall into a certain political party. If you're talkin' about it as an Israeli political song - in Isreal alone, there's maybe twenty political parties. I don't know where that would fall, what party.

RS: Well, would it be fair to call that song a heartfelt statement of belief?

BD: Maybe it is, yeah. But just because somebody feels a certain way, you can't come around and stick some political-party slogan on it. If you listen closely, it really could be about other things. It's simple and easy to define it, so you got it pegged, and you can deal with it in that certain kinda way. However, I wouldn't do that. 'Cause I don't know what the politics of Israel is. I just don't know.

RS: So you haven't resolved for yourself, for instance, the Palestinian question?

BD: Not really, because I live here.

RS: Would you ever live in Israel?

BD: I don't know. It's hard to speculate what tomorrow may bring. I kinda live where I find myself.

RS: At another point in the song, you say, "He got no allies to really speak of," and while "he buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied...no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side." Do you feel that America should send troops over there?

BD: No. The song doesn't say that. Who should, who shouldn't -- who am I to say?

RS: Well, do you think Israel should get more help from the American Jewish community? I don't want to push this so far, but it just seems so...

BD: Well, you're not pushing it too far, you're just making it specific. And you're making it specific to what's going on today. But what's going on today isn't gonna last, you know? The battle of Armageddon is specifically spelled out: where it will be fought, and if you wanna get technical, when it will be fought. And the battle of the Armageddon definitely will be fought in the Middle East.

RS: Do you follow the political scene, or have any kinda of fix on what the politicians are talking about this year?

BD: I think politics is an instrument of the Devil. Just that clear. I think politics is what kills; it doesn't bring anything alive. Politics is corrupt; I mean, anybody knows that.