CHANUKAH 2005 ­ HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF!

CHANUKAH 2005 ­ HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF!

LETTER FROM RUTH MATAR ( WOMEN IN GREEN ) JERUSALEM
Sunday, December 25, 2005
(The Eve of Chanukah)


Dear Friends,

This Sunday night, we are lighting the first candle of the Chanukah Holiday. What exactly is this holiday all about, besides eating potato latkes and donuts, spinning the "dreidel", and lighting one additional candle for eight days?

We tell our children the story of that bad wicked king, Antiochus, who captured the land of the Jews, and ordered them to give up their religion, and to worship his Greek gods. We make our children proud that a small band of courageous Jews, the Maccabees, defeated the mighty Syrian-Greek army of King Antiochus, and rededicated the Temple, which had been desecrated. And we explain to our children the reason for lighting an additional candle each day ­ that a small vial of oil, miraculously lasted for eight days in the rededicated Jewish Temple.

The real Chanukah story is not so simple. Some years ago I interviewed a prominent Hebrew University professor of Jewish History, Isaiah Gafni, on my weekly Arutz 7 English Program.

Professor Gafni gave me invaluable background material concerning this period in Jewish History. He explained the internal conflict between the Jews who wanted to remain Jews, and the Jews who wanted to be like all the other nations, and to adopt their customs, their dress, and their religion, the Hellenists. The real battle of the Maccabees was not only against the Syrian-Greek army of Antiochus. It was also against their fellow Jews, who were willing to sell out their identity, the Holy Temple, and to allow Jerusalem to become a Greek City. All this in order to obtain for themselves "the good life", and to become "enlightened citizens of the world."

Some background history is important.

The cultural and political elites of the Jewish Community in Judea in the early 2nd Century B.C.E., that is the vast majority of the priests and nobility, drew their power and hopes for advancement from the ruling Syrian-Greek Empire. They adopted Greek culture, imitated Greek customs, and abandoned their Jewish Heritage. Some of them even went so far as to attempt to remove the marks of their circumcision.

When Antiochus IV came to power in 175 B.C.E., the brother of the reigning High Priest Onias III, a man by the name of Jason, offered the new Greek King many times the tribute that his brother paid. The office of High Priest was actually the most powerful position in Judea at that time. He also made the king an offer to establish within Jerusalem a city-state called Antiochia. He erected a gymnasium in Jerusalem, and other Greek institutions. His actions led to a strengthening of Hellenistic Culture, and to a weakening of traditional Jewish life and religious worship.

Three years later, another leader of the Hellenists, a priest named Menelaus, outdid the corrupt Jason, by offering Antiochus even greater tribute and even more Hellenizing measures.

Menelaus, in order to keep his promises to King Antiochus, plundered the Holy Jewish Temple of its gold vessels, provoking rebellion among his fellow Jews.

These policies of the corrupt High Priests, Jason and Menelaus, were the chief causes of the Jewish rebellion.

When Antiochus IV brutally suppressed this rebellion, he began an official persecution of the Jewish religion in Judea, outlawing the Sabbath, Torah studies, and circumcision. He instituted pagan idolatry in the Holy Temple all this with the advice and connivance of Menelaus and his supporters, the Jewish Hellenists.

It is probably not widely known that Antiochus did not issue anti-religious decrees against any other people than the Jews. He simply conquered many nations politically, but did not attack their religion in any way. It was only against the Jews that he instituted anti-religious decrees.

Why just against the Jews? Historians say that Antiochus IV had no intention of issuing anti-religious decrees against the Jews, but his Jewish friends and collaborators, the Hellenists, advised him to do so.

Today, Israel's modern politicians are very much like the Hellenists of old. We have our own version of disloyal High Priests, and our own Hellenizers, the Sharons, the Peres's , the Beilins and others.

A striking example of Sharon's Hellenistic behavior is the sending of his personal advisor, Dov Weisslass on a secret mission to Washington, to promise U.S. Secretary Rice that Israel will give the Arabs Jewish Gaza as a down-payment on the Saudi Road Map plan. Sharon did this to take away the attention of the Israeli people from the corruption of his self and his sons.

Sharon told the Jewish People that in return for the abandonment of Biblical Gaza, President Bush was going to insure the safety and integrity of Jewish settlement blocs. Just another one of Sharon's lies! There never was any such promise. In fact, President Bush insists that the Arabs need to approve each of Israel's borders!

Since the disengagement from Gaza on August 15, Arab missiles continue to be fired, and specifically on Ashkelon, which was previously not within range. The Arab terrorists are trying to immobilize Israel's most sensitive installations ­ such as the Rothenberg power plant and an oil pipe line from Eilat. These rockets are fired regularly from the former Jewish Communities in Gaza, which Sharon destroyed and leveled in order to obtain his make believe "peace".

The rockets are also continually directed at army bases. The Zikim Army Base just south of Ashkelon was targeted and five Israeli soldiers were wounded in this recent attack.

Former Southern District Commander Tzvi Fogel asked on Israel Radio, "Why can't the IDF display the kind of determination it used in the disengagement, in its efforts to stop the rockets?"

WHY INDEED?

A brilliant analysis of Israel's situation can be found in Caroline Glick's December 23, 2005 op-ed article in the Jerusalem Post. I am quoting from her article verbatim:

"Since he took office, Sharon and his advisers have portrayed the status of Israel's relations with the US as one of unprecedented harmony. On a superficial level, this is in fact the case. But this surface tranquility masks its problematic cause. The appearance of smooth sailing in Israel's relations with Washington is the result of the unprecedented weakness of Israel's position in Washington.

This week Ma'ariv reported that IDF commanders are becoming increasingly disturbed by the Bush administration's meddling in the minutiae of the operation of Israel's passages with Gaza. The State Department consistently brushes off Israel's growing security concerns and intervenes on the Palestinians' behalf. This American interference not only constitutes a political blow to Israel's sovereignty, it also manifests a military blow to Israel's national security.

But there is nothing new here. Since taking office five years ago, Sharon has received Washington's support - such as it is - by abandoning Israel's national interests every time that they are challenged by the institutionally anti-Israel State Department. In every single dispute that has arisen over the past five years - from the Mitchell Report in 2001 to the road map in 2003 to the passages agreement Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rammed down our throats last month - Sharon has abandoned Israel's national security interests at every turn in exchange for public declarations of support for him personally by central Bush administration figures.

Sharon has succeeded in the domestic political arena by presenting the support he has received on a personal level to the public as if it were a national achievement. Israelis have been duped into believing that the trust Sharon demands of them has actually conferred some advantage on the nation when in fact, Israel has never been weaker than it has become under his leadership.

And as with the Americans, so too with the Palestinians. Sharon's success in basing his political fortunes on consolidating his image as a strongman has made it impossible for anyone to impugn his withdrawal from Gaza in spite of the fact that it has been a colossal disaster for Israel's national security. The Kassam missiles that now fall on Ashkelon meet with what can effectively be considered no Israeli response. The seeding of al-Qaida cells in Gaza has been strenuously ignored. And the Hamas takeover of key Palestinian institutions has been greeted by yawns all around."

Was King Antiochus IV such a bad guy after all? According to Professor Gafni, we have to hold the Jewish Hellenists just as responsible as Antiochus, and perhaps even more. After all, Antiochus IV was the head of the Syrian-Greek Empire, the mighty super-power of that age. Possibly, he just wanted to protect his strategic interests by subjugating the Jews. Also, Professor Gafni says the Maccabean revolt came at a most inconvenient time for Antiochus IV, as he was then at war with Egypt.

Sharon and his band of Jewish Hellenists are definitely responsible for the dangerous situation in which Israel now finds itself.

President Bush heads today's greatest superpower. If he feels that America's strategic interests lie with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arabs, and is therefore willing to sacrifice the Jewish State, he is making a giant mistake. Bush should not exclude the enemies of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah, and Hamas from his global war on terror.

America is a Christian country. Don't forget that the most popular graffiti in all the Arab countries remains unchanged: "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people." As it goes with Israel, so will it ultimately go with the United States.

The great tragedy of Israel's present situation, is that the War of the Maccabees continues to this very day. The Hellenist Jews, Sharon and company, have joined the Arab enemy against their Jewish brethren. Please, dear G-d, send us another Judah Maccabee!

With Blessings and Love for Israel,

Ruth Matar

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Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
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