It is already the happy 3rd night of Chanukah here in Israel (Image courtesy of rotter.net).
26 Kislev 5776
Tuesday, December 8 2015
UPDATES 8:00 AM
***Palestinian terrorism in the last 24 hours . . .
The 40-year-old Jewish worshiper, Ginadi Chaim Ben-Reiah, who was repeatedly stabbed in the chest at the Cave of Patriarchs in Hebron last night by a Palestinian terrorist remains in “extremely critical” condition this morning with wounds to the heart, lungs, and stomach. He needs your prayers.
Two more stabbings were thwarted by alert Israeli security personnel last night–one at Ma’aleh Adumim and the other in Eilat. In both cases, terrorists with knives were captured without any Israeli casualties.
More Palestinian terrorists were captured at about 9:30 pm last night as they were driving a car loaded full of explosives near Nili-Ofarim. It is not clear this morning what their intended target was.
“Rock” and Molotov firebomb attacks occurred at numerous locations across Judea and Samaria such as Al-Khader, Hebron Hills, Shuafat, Givat Assaf, Karmi, Adora, Oranit, Tulkarm, Mt. hebron, Ofra, Route 443 near Dor Alon, and Azzun. At Tursamayya, an Israeli bus was set on fire with Molotovs–and numerous passengers had to be treated for smoke inhalation and trauma.
TODAY’S BLOG:
It is always worthwhile remembering during Chanukah what the holiday is all about. So often we forget what the Maccabees were fighting for and how relevant they are to the situation today.
We can sum up what they were fighting for in one sentence.
The Maccabees were Jews who were fighting against the Greek Seleucid attempt to eradicate Judaism.
Was it a Zionist battle for national liberation? Yes.
Was it a battle for the Jewish soul? Yes.
Was it a battle against “reform” Jews? Obviously.
Was it a battle against assimilation? You bet it was.
Every year at this time, your humble servant always pauses to think about what would have happened if the Maccabees had lost. The answer is that in all likelihood Judaism would have eventually been diminished out of existence.
I was thinking about all of this while reading the report this morning in the Jerusalem Post of the debate last night in Tel Aviv between Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (on the Right) and Peter Beinart (on the Left), an “American Jewish writer” and a professor at City University of New York (CUNY).
Beinart, a darling of J Street, billed himself last night as “a staunch Zionist and defender of Israel.”
A staunch Zionist and defender of Israel.
A staunch Zionist and defender of Israel who began his spiel yesterday by faintly praising and then quickly attacking the Maccabees:
“The Maccabees were fighting for national liberation – no question about that, and it was an inspiring fight but they were not fighting for religious freedom for all people.”
Of course they were not fighting for religious freedom for all people. If they believed in that, they would not have been fighting at all. What they saw was a Judaism at the precipice, a Judaism that had to be fought for if it was to survive. It was not a time to be politically correct.
Beinart then went on to bizarrely compare the “corruption” of the Maccabees to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the ‘West Bank.’ To hear Beinart tell it, the poor Palestinians “lack citizenship, live under military law, and don’t have the right to vote in a government that controls their lives.”
Say what?
In the first place, your humble servant is not exactly sure where Beinart’s “Maccabeean corruption” comes from, but as for the Palestinians:
96% of them–those who live in Areas A and B in Judea and Samaria–have “Palestinian citizenship” and have a right to vote in elections that control their lives–namely elections for local and “national” Palestinian institutions. The only problem is that the PLO hasn’t permitted a national election for years. Mahmoud Abbas has been the “unelected” President of “Palestine” for the better part of a decade.
56% of them–those living in Area A–live under Palestinian (read PLO) security. They are not under Israeli military security.
Beinart then described that because he is a “staunch Zionist and defender of Israel,” he supports the BDS boycott against “settlement products.”
In other words, “Because I love Israel so much, I must travel the world delegitimizing Israel wherever and whenever I can.” Beinart is a perfect example of the “useful Jew” or as the Germans used to say, he is a member of the “Wertvolle Juden.”
It makes you want to throw up.
Malevolently, Beinart never mentions that Omar Barghouti, the head of the BDS Movement, says that BDS will never stop until Israel as a Jewish state no longer exists.
Suffice it to say, that Omar Barghouti and Peter Beinart represent exactly the kind of people that the Maccabees were fighting against some 2182 years ago–and would fight against again today.
We should too. We should all follow the Maccabees.
SPECIAL NOTICE:
Your humble servant will be making his annual sojourn out of Israel tonight. This israelstreet blog will be updated as possible during the next 48 hours–to return in full force on Friday morning PST. Thank you for your patience.
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A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.