International Business Development Consultant
Hanukkah – The Battle Is Not Yet Over
Tonight, Sunday, Jews around the world will once again light the 1st candle of Hanukkah, the holiday that marks the victory 2,200 years ago of the Jewish Maccabees against the Selucid Greeks. Each evening, we will add one more candle during the eight-day holiday to remember, according to tradition, the flask of oil found in the Temple which was only sufficient for one day’s burning but burned for eight days.
As in every battle we Jews have won throughout our history, the battle 2,200 years ago was not the last one. It appears that even the victories we have won more recently are also not the last battles we will have to fight to retain our right to live and worship as we please in our own land. It certainly seems as if the battle never ends.
Just today, as I write this blog, reports have come in from Bondy Beach in Sydney, Australia about another attack against Jews participating in a community Hanukkah event 14,000 kilometers from Jerusalem. Current data shows 10 people killed, including one of the shooters, as well as 10 more injured, some seriously and fighting for their lives.
Why? Because people there don’t like what’s happening here in Israel so Jews become the local target. Does this occur with any other ethnic group? For sure not.
For example, reports this morning indicate that Iran has executed over 1,000 people for political reasons since the beginning of this year. Are Iranians living abroad being attacked anywhere because of the policies of the Iranian government. Of course not, because it makes no sense to do so.
Last week in Sudan, the Arab Rapid Support Force killed thousands of African tribal Sudanese in the town of Al Fasher, an event glorified by the marauders in videos they themselves took. (By the way we saw the same thing on October 7th here in Israel when the Gazan infiltrators themselves recorded the event for posterity, as it were.) And, of course, there have been no mass demonstrations against Sudanese living abroad because of what happens regularly in Sudan. Of course not, because it makes no sense to do so.
In the year’s long civil war in Myanmar, 3 million people have been displaced as a result of the action of the controlling junta. Last week a new attack on a hospital there killed 31 people and injured 68 others in what locals described as an inhumane attack with little regard for the fact that the victims were medical patients. Yet there are no demonstrations anywhere in the world against citizens of Myanmar who live abroad because of the strife going on in that country. Of course not, because it makes no sense to do so.
It is only what goes on here in Israel and our relationship with the Palestinians in Gaza and Judea and Samaria (often referred to as the West Bank) that causes people worldwide to go after the Jews. That’s the proof statement that there is no difference between anti Zionism and anti Semitism, they are one and the same. Those who parade about calling for globalizing the intifada, or calling for Palestine to be free from the river to the see are, plain and simple, advocating the eradication of Israel and the destruction of the Jewish people.
So, the battles continue, one may end but another begins and this has been the story of our existence from time immemorial.
Will it ever end? Probably not, but we continue to believe that the One above wants us to prevail, and wants us to survive in spite of all the obstacles in our collective paths.
Thus, we remain steadfast in our desire to move forward and effectuate the biblical charge to be a light unto the nations as we have done since the days of Abraham.
Towards that end we will add one light each night until the full illumination of the eight branches of the menorah are fully lit, as testimony to our continued belief in our mission, our God, our tradition and our capability to bring light unto the nations of the world…our eternal goal. May we continue to have the strength to meet the challenges in the future as we have in the past. Hanukkah Sameah….a happy Hanukkah to all.
