Hanukkah – The Battle That Never Ended

Hanukkah is the story of a time in Jewish history when the world was covered in darkness. When the joy of a people was snuffed out. When the dreams of a nation had been squashed. And when the hopes of all of us were suffocated under the weight of oppression.

But from the darkest moments in our history, comes our greatest light.

More than 2000 years ago, the Land of Israel was under Syrian-Greek occupation and Antiochus, the Greek ruler of the time had declared war against the Jewish people. 
He wanted to destroy the individuality of the Jews, who stubbornly refused to give up their ways and traditions by outlawing all Jewish religious traditions and rites. He replaced the righteous High Priest in the Jewish Temple with a Hellenistic Jew, which was basically an assimilated Jew who had rejected his own culture to embrace the Greek one. He then enacted a series of harsh decrees against the Jewish people by making it illegal to keep the Sabbath, perform circumcisions and keep kosher dietary laws. His servants even tried to force a 90 year old man, Rabbi Eliezer, to eat pork and when he refused, was put to death.

Thousands of others were murdered when they too refused to abandon their traditions.

Antiochus’s servants went from town to town, village to village, forcing the Jewish population to worship their false idols.

There was only one area that remained a refuge, an area in the Judean hills – the same area today which the world likes to call ‘occupied palestinian territory.’

Here, the Jews refused to bow down to the false gods of Antiochus – and so they revolted, started by a man called Mattityahu and then continued by his son, Judah Maccabee.
The line had been drawn, and loyal and courageous Jews fell in behind the Maccabees, determined to keep their way of life alive.

Antiochus was enraged and sent in his generals with tens of thousands of men to wipe out Judah and his Maccabean followers and although the Maccabees were vastly outnumbered, they succeeded in defeating the army, armed by a strong spirit of faith and belief.

But despite this unbelievable military victory, this wasn’t even the miracle of Hanukkah.

The miracle occurred later when they managed to liberate the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and after clearing out all the idols, and cleaning up all the destruction and the vandalism that had occurred, they wanted to rededicate the Temple, but the golden menorah had already been stolen by the Syrians, so they built a cheap metal one instead.
With a small vial of oil that they had discovered, enough for just one day, they lit the menorah.

Except instead of flickering out in the morning light, it continued to burn for a further seven more, until more oil could be produced.

The darkness of the time has been vanquished and replaced by the simple light of a flickering flame that wouldn’t die.

So too are the Jewish people, who somehow fight against a world in which many want to snuff out their light as well, want to vanquish them from their land, want to remove them from history and somehow pretend they didn’t exist.

Just like that flickering flame, they too refuse to die, refuse to lie down, refuse to be defeated and refuse to succumb to harsh dictators who want to destroy them.
We fight back not simply to survive, but to live as Jews in our own land, carrying out our own traditions and our own ways of life, allowing our one small light to illuminate the world.

The story of Hanukkah may have taken place over 2000 years ago, but that wasn’t the end of the story. 

It was only the beginning.

Because the same fight led by a bunch of crazy zealots in the Judean hills is happening today. And every time we stand up for our way of life, for our land, for our people and for our freedom, the spirit of the Maccabees lives on in all of us.

Israel's "risks for peace"

I am sooooo tired of hearing how Israel must "take risks for peace." Israel is a tiny little country surrounded by countries hundreds of times bigger with some of the most despicable regimes in history. Around them are dictatorships that have ethnically cleansed Jews and Christians from among their population. The palestinian authority tortures its own people and puts them in jail if they don't like what they say about their corrupt criminal leader Abbas. Hamas executes people through their fake inJustice system, uses women and children as human shields, and then complains about being labelled as a terrorist organiation. Saudi Arabia chops off womens heads in the streets, makes all other religions illegal, denies entry to non-Muslims, funds fascists mosques who preach hatred around the world, and then somehow convenes a commitee to fight terrorism. Seriously?? Lebanon is run by a terrorist entity called Hezbollah, which has built up its arsenal to higher levels than before the last war with Israel, despite the UN resolution that was supposed to make this illegal. And the UN forces on the ground... well... they kind of just drive around in their jeeps "keeping the peace" by doing what they are very good at doing: nothing. Egypt kicks people out of their homes to declare a 2 kilometer security buffer zone with Gaza, builds walls - and then still leads the UN in resolutions condemning Israel for anything that can come up with. Jordan, the hypocritical fake regime, goes on about being the custodian of religous freedom in Jerusalem, yet ethnically cleansed Jews from the Old city of Jerusalem and destroyed and desecrated all the Jewish religious institutions, including tombstones. How low and sick can you go? Arab countries have kept the so-called Palestinian refugees in camps, denying them access to healthcare and employment while still bleating on about "justice for the palestinians." There is no justice in these countries. There is no freedom. There are no rights. Gays are thrown off buildings. Women have minimal rights - if any. There is zero democracy and zero accountability. And you know what the crazy thing is... these are considered the 'moderate' Arab countries!! Meanwhile, despite all these nightmarish countries, who salivate at the thought of carrying out another genocide against the Jews if given half a chance, Israel remains a country that is vibrant with freedom and democracy. Israel contributes so much to the world, while these fascist entities around it contribute nothing. So I don't think Israel should take any "risks for peace" at all. I don't think they should take one single risk that endangers one single citizen. If the Arab world want to benefit from the success Israel has, it is THEY who should take 'risks' - 'risks' that cost them nothing, it is THEY who should make peace, the way Israel has tried for almost 70 years. It is THEY who should give up on their dream of destroying the Jewish state, whose history goes back further than any of theirs. The world has confused itself in thinking Israel is the heart of the problems in the Middle East. It is the exact opposite, Israel is the only beacon of stability there.

Because the problems of the Middle East is not caused by Israel, but by the multitude of fascist Arab countries around it.

The Star of David is Burning Once Again

The Star of David is burning in the streets of Europe once again. In Berlin, Israeli flags are set alight. And in Sweden, synagogues are attacked by mobs, while children hide inside in fear. Outside the US embassy in London, there are protests calling for "Death to Jews.' They are shouting “Jews, remember Khaybar the army of Muhammad is returning” referring to the battle of Khaybar in the year 628, in which a Muslim army massacred Jews in the town of the same name in what is now modern day Saudi Arabia. Now people will tell you, it's because America recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital. They'll tell you that this recognition has inflamed the world! They'll say Trump wants war! But they'd be wrong. Because there is a reason they call antisemitism the oldest hatred of all. And well before Donald Trump's announcement, antisemitism had already risen to levels not seen since before World War 2. In France, Jews cannot walk openly wearing religious garb without fear of attack. And in Germany, Jewish community leaders tell their people to remove their kippot and avoid any signs that show they are Jewish. In America, Jewish college students cannot openly support Israel for fear of being violently attacked by anti-Israel student mobs, who tell you they are liberal and believe in freedom. These violent groups are supported by professors who espouse the same hatred of Israel in their lectures. Jerusalem is just another excuse in a long line of excuses for anti-semitic violence. Two weeks ago ‘Death to the kikes’ was painted on a Jewish charity in Ukraine. French synagogues have been attacked and Jews have been murdered at a Jewish school in Toulouse, including young children. In many parts of the Arabic world and the Muslim world, Israeli flags are constantly burnt, the holocaust denied, and antisemitic television shows is commonplace. There is no corner in the world safe from the long reaching tentacles of antisemitism. And yet, we are told it's because Israel exists - THAT is the reason. The world was fine before then. But you see...before there was such a thing as the State of Israel, Jews were being burnt in the ovens of Europe. Jews were being massacred by people who they used to live with in peace as neighbours. Jewish men, women and children were shot down in ditches, while many local people stood by, quite satisified to have their "Jewish problem" solved. People are quite happy to ignore the inconvenient fact that the leader of the Arabs of palestine worked quite openly with Hitler to carry out his "Final Solution" hoping to replicate the 'success' of Europe against the Jews in the Holy Land too. Countries who could have saved their lives, shut their doors to these desperate people trying to flee Europe, saying they didn't want an 'alien element' that would cause trouble. "Jews get out!" they shouted in the streets of Europe. "Go to palestine" they sceeched, laughing as they were driven from their homes. It's because of Israel that antisemitism exists. That's what people say. That's what they want you to believe. That's what they tell each other to make themselves feel better. It's just another excuse in a long line of neverending excuses. The Star of David is burning in the streets of Europe once more. Except it's not 1938 or 1940 or 1942. It's 2017 and the oldest hatred of all is alive and well.

A diaspora Jew

There's something that needs to be said about Jews in the diaspora, of which I'm one. In America, there are many Jews, mainly from the conservative or reform movements, who seem to be demanding that Israel must do certain things to keep them happy, such as recognising certain laws that are not part of Jewish halachic law, or opening up the Kotel to mixed prayer areas - even though they already exist!! Some of them even embrace anti-semities because they misguidedly say that social justice somehow means they need to criticise Israel. They say Israel is insulting them, but I think it's the opposite - it is THEY who are insulting Israel. For Israel is a Jewish country, not a religious one, but one whose principles are undoubtedly Jewish. In Israel, you can live any kind of life you like and how observant or non observant you are is totally up to you, yet it is has to be within the Jewish nature of the country. However, for those who demand that Israel must be exactly like every other country such as America or Australia or Britain are missing the point entirely. I think the vast majority of Jews in the world do not want Israel to be carbon copies of other countries. They want Shabbat to mean something special, even if they don't celebrate it. They want to hear the sirens on Yom Hazikaron and Yom Hashoa as everyone stops to observe those special moments. They want to celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut with street parties. They want the country to go quiet during Yom Kippur even if they don't fast themselves. And these are things that are unique in Israel - no other country in the world can celebrate Jewish joy so fully or reflect on Jewish sadness with such depth as they do in Israel. Israel is the centralising figure of the Jewish world - it's where we turn in prayer, where we look to for inspiration, where we beam with pride and honour. For Jews, Israel is our home, spiritual at this point, maybe physical at a later point, but it is the centre of the Jewish world. And outside Israel, our job is to support that country and that spirit and to respect how lucky we are in the world - not just the Jews in Israel, but outside Israel too, for our lives would not be our lives without Israel there to protect us. Without the shield of Israel existing for us, I shudder at what our fates could be. All we need to do is look around the world with its growing anti-semitism to realise that. But it's more than that - for Israel will always be the place where we can truly flourish as a people. And even if there are problems there, it's no different to any other country, except that it remains the place we Jews can truly call home. Our job in the diaspora is to support that vision and if we are so upset at what the Israeli government is doing, and if we can't sleep at night because we don't like the way they are going, then the only place to change that is from within, not spitting from the sidelines like some spoilt kid. The reality of today is that the Jewish population in America will diminish over the next few decades as they forget what being Jewish means, their intermarriage rates increase and they gradually forget the importance of Israel to their Jewish world. Israel remains our hope that the Jewish future will be bright and strong. It is the land of our past but more importantly, the land of our future.

A promise that will hold forever

4000 years ago, one man changed the world. He looked around him and saw a world he could not believe in. He saw a world he could not relate to. He saw a world he didn't believe in. And rather than be a part of it, he decided to stand separately. He decided to stand independently. He decided to stand alone. He believed in a single God, rather than the multitude of idols around him.

That man was Abraham and his covenant with God made him the first Jew - our original forefather. And in the same covenant, God promised him a land of milk and honey, a land in which the Jews would be able to call their own. It was a belief so strong that it caused Abraham to leave everything he ever knew and his whole life behind him and journey to a strange new land, a strange new world, and a whole new begining.

He was a simple man with a simple belief - a belief that changed everything we thought we knew.

One man.

And on that journey he began - a journey we still carry on today - he met many people and travelled to many places and had many adventures. But most importantly, he became the father of a people that still exist today. A people who still live in that same land promised 4000 years ago. A people who still believe in that promise, eventhough the world doesn't.

But Abraham was a man of the future, not the past. So he decided to purchase a cave and the surrounding land from a guy called Ephron. He paid him 400 shekels of silver in a deal, complete with witnesses and documentation. And with this purchase, he established that Hebron would belong to the Jewish people forever and ever. It was a place that he and his family would be buried, to rest forever on Jewish land.

Yesterday, UNESCO, who is supposed to safeguard the cultural and historical heritage of people, decided to declare that deal and void. They decided to erase history. They decided, rather than safeguard the cultural integrity of the Jewish people, to destroy it instead.

Or attempt to.

Because a collection of countries, many which don't even give their citizens basic human rights, don't get to decide on this. They have no authority. They have no right. They have no integrity. And they have no shame.

The UNESCO vote is not about culture or history or freedom or democracy or safeguarding anything. It has nothing to do with Hebron or Jerusalem. It has only to do with destroying the Jewish people, their rights, their history, their culture, their link to a land promised to them 4000 years earlier.

But history is an old beast, and it remembers things, long after those who have passed through it have faded away.

The dream of UNESCO, the Arab world and all those others to destroy the Jewish people will fail.

For the covenant made by Abraham is eternal and still very much intact.

Our eternal city of Jerusalem

Once more UNESCO passed an anti-Israel resolution today, rejecting Israeli sovereignty and calling it an occupying power in Jerusalem. But you know what... as angry and annoyed as we might feel, this vote doesn't really make a difference, because Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish world for so so long, so much longer than any of the countries that voted against us today. For over 3000 years since King David first proclaimed it as our capital, it has never left our hearts. It has never left our minds. It has never left our prayers. It is so ingrained in us as a people that no force on earth will be able to change that - least of all an insignificant organisation dominated by Arab dictatorships and human rights violators who contribute nothing to the world, but continued fanaticism. I was there earlier this year, walking the streets of the Old City, feeling its smooth limestone under my fingertips. I walked in small alleyways, where stories from thousands of years ago were still being told. I walked in large plazas, where the din of Jewish spiritual awakening continues to this day. I gazed with wonder as ancient synagogues rose up again, after being destroyed by the Jordanian occupying forces, who still bleat on about being the custodians of the Old City and protecting its religious institutions. I climbed rooftops and walked upon ancient buildings, taking in the kaleidoscope of colours that greeted me in the most unique view on earth. I watched tourists from a thousand places mingle among my fellow Jews, walking in awe, walking in wonder, walking in the footsteps of history in the heart of the Jewish world. How lucky I was to be there in God's own city, and how lucky I was to be in a place that had dominated the dreams and hopes and aspiration of an ancient people - my people. So resolution after resolution may pass, and condemnation after condemnation may pass too. But they are like dust blowing through the winds of time. Long after those who want to rip Jerusalem away from us are gone, she will remain standing, shimmering in the morning sun, glistening in the evening dusk, glowing under the eternal heavens. And we, the Jewish people, will be standing right alongside her.

Children of Israel are never alone

There are songs in life that speak to us - speak in ways that only music can convey. Songs that reach into our hearts and touch our souls. Songs that make us feel empowered, songs that seem to speak to us in a way that expresses our emotions with more than mere words, and songs that make us feel unique as if it was written only for you, . One of those songs that have had an effect on me is Close Every Door, from the Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat musical. In the lyrics of the song there's a passage that says: Close every door to me, Keep those I love from me Children of Israel Are never alone For I know I shall find My own peace of mind For I have been promised A land of my own Whenever I hear that, I feel the calling of my people and I feel the pride of being part of that special people. It says to me that no matter how dark the world might become, or how horrid the outlook might be, or how hopeless times may appear, we are never alone in this world, because we are part of the Jewish people. It was then with absolute disgust that I read about the Artsplash festival in Wellington, New Zealand, where someone decided to unilaterally change a line from that famous song from: Children of Israel Are never alone to Children of kindness Are never alone Sadly, this is a part of the world we live in today - a world which is trying to ethnically cleanse the Jewish people from the history books. We see it everyday. From the UN which passes resolutions saying we have no history in Jerusalem, to the Palestinians who continually preach their false narative and deny there was even a Jewish temple, to the Arab world who refuse to acknowledge the existence of a Jewish state. We even see it in music festivals and arts festivals - small events and large ones. And while it is sad to see many in the world try to erase us from it, our response should not be one of sadness but one of defiance. We must never accept what the world wants us to meekly accept. We are here, living in the same world as everyone else, but we do not exist in this world to simply vanish from it. We have not been Jews for the last 5000 years to simply not be Jews anymore. We have not had 3000 continuous years in Israel to have it erased by silly resolutions and ignorant arts festivals. Once upon a time, being a Jew might have meant to keep to yourself and to keep your head down, lest we upset a hostile population that surrounded us. And I understand that - it was about being safe above all else. But those times are gone. We are no longer a dispersed people, even though many of us live all around the world. We are a proud people with a strong country, a strong history, a strong culture, and a record of trying to do the right thing for humanity. So despite the attacks on our culture and our history and our country and everything about us, we must continue to be proud and to remember that Children of Israel are never alone, for we have been promised a land of our own.

A Just War of Survival

50 years ago this week, we remember the Six Day War – a war that changed the face of the Middle East in ways that continue to reverberate to this day. In just six days, Israel decimated the entire Arab military forces and expanded her size by 3 times.

There are those who say the war was a Pyrrhic victory – a battle that Israel won, but would ultimately lead to her having more losses in the long run, due to the increased administration of territories in which a largely hostile Palestinian population exists.

It’s true that Israel faces many challenges today, including the almost insurmountable one of trying to make peace with a Palestinian leadership whose goal has never been about peace, but rather the destruction of the Jewish State.

But when we think back to that time leading up to the Six Day War, we can never forget that the victory was anything, but empty.

Israel stood alone in the world, besieged by Arab States who had openly stated their intention of wiping out the country, including the annihilation of its citizens. There may have been some demonstrations of support in Europe, and the American government was ‘sympathetic’ to their plight, but no country was prepared to lift their finger to help her. The Egyptians blockaded the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, which was considered an act of war, yet America refused to respond to it, despite the assurances it gave Israel in 1956. The Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser had demanded the UN leave the Sinai, to which the UN complied meekly, proving how ineffective they were as a ‘peace’ keeping force.

Israel was abandoned, surrounded by bloodthirsty Arab regimes intent on committing another Holocaust on the Jewish people a mere 22 years after the previous one had been carried out. And now, just as then in those dark years of the 1930s and 1940s, the world was silent to the cries of Jewish anguish. No one was going to save the Jews this time, just as they didn’t save them last time.

Her people were fearful. The country was isolated. The army was outnumbered.

But unlike before, Israel was not a powerless people anymore. Backed by a population who knew what would happen if they lost, and buoyed by the support of so many Jews who flocked to the country to help, and backed by the solidarity of a people who had vowed ‘Never Again,’ they struck back and carried out one of the greatest military victories in history.

However, it was not a victory that could be classified in military terms alone, for it was a victory of life itself.  It was the victory of the enduring Jewish spirit to fight for life, no matter how bleak the prospects are and no matter how overwhelming the odds may be. It was an announcement not only to her own people, but to the world at large. The Jews were back in their ancestral land, and the era of countries and regimes being able to do with them as they please, had ended.

With the liberation of Jerusalem, it had also ended the reign of ethnic cleansing the Jordanians had carried out in the Jewish Quarter, where they had destroyed ancient Jewish synagogues, expelled the Jewish population, desecrated the graveyards, and denied access to the Western Wall in violation of the Armistice Accords of 1949 – a violation that the world also ignored.

Looking back, there is some thought that because of the war of 1967, Israel inherited more problems, problems that haunt it to this day as it strives to make peace with the Palestinians. There is no doubt that Israel faces enormous challenges today; however we can never and should never lose sight of the alternative of those six fateful days in June for the alternative could well have been catastrophic.

Israel fought a just war against Arab regimes intent on their annihilation. Their victory led not just to their continued survival, but to their ability to live and breathe in their own country. Their victory led to the freedom to be able to walk and prayer in their ancient capital – a freedom previously illegally denied to them.

We should never underestimate the power of what that means.