...he went down to Ahab to Samaria

ב  וַיֵּרֶד לְקֵץ שָׁנִים אֶל-אַחְאָב, לְשֹׁמְרוֹן, וַיִּזְבַּח-לוֹ אַחְאָב צֹאן וּבָקָר לָרֹב, וְלָעָם אֲשֶׁר עִמּוֹ; וַיְסִיתֵהוּ, לַעֲלוֹת אֶל-רָמֹת גִּלְעָד.

2 And at the end of years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that were with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth-gilead.

What was will be.  We know that the two kingdoms are destined to be reunited at the end of days.  More so in the beginning of our return Beit Yisrael will rule.  We learn from Rav Kook that the secular Zionists were activating the aspect of Beit Yisrael led by Achav from Beit Efraim and although their clinging to the Land was not based on Torah, they were still involved with a lofty enterprise.  Like Achav they were focused on the National structure, the vessel of our return.  Beit Yehuda was at the time of Achav led by a righteous king Yehoshephat.  Achav had the stronger army and in fact the pasukim referred to Achav as Melech even when Yehoshephat was next to him, referring to the latter by only his first name.  All homage despite his evil actions was given to Achav. There for it said that Yehoshephat descended to Achav for Achav was at a lower place spiritually.  Yet Yehoshephat still saw the need to attempt to help the King of Israel.

The first pasuk in the chapter uses the word לְקֵץ or at the end.  Now this could be taken simply like after a long time or it is like many things in the Tanach be giving us a hint to something else.  We know that the Torah and Nach uses a vav to switch the future tense to past tense.  This is the style of the grammar, but this is not by accident.  HaShem and the Anshei Knesset Gedolah are doing this to relate to the timeless nature of the events in both the Torah and Nach.  At "the End"  means both the simple meaning and the future meaning of the end of days as it is used in the Navi'em.

We find ourselves now at the cusp of the switch between the Malchut Yisrael led by Beit Efraim (the current political structure of the State of Israel) to the Malchut Yisrael led by Beit Yehuda and ultimately David.  Like Achav before who fell in war leading to the final downward trend of the Northern Kingdom, so to now, with the weight of the world upon it, the only way forward for Medinat Yisrael is to go the way of Malchut Beit Yehuda by reuniting both Kingdoms under the Creator or face a disintegration so perilous that Beit David will be forced to rise to save us all.  I pray for the former.