December 11, 2004
Happy Hanukkah...
I liked this piece by Dave Kopel, at glennreynolds.com: Armed Jews Week.
• December 10, 2004: Tonight is the fourth night of Armed Jews Week, or as it is more popularly known, Hanukkah. Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration of the Jewish revolution against Syria in the second century B.C. The Syrian government (a remnant of Alexander the Great’s empire) attempted to wipe out the Jewish religion by forcing the Jews to conform to Greek culture. Some of them refused, and a tiny militia, led by Judah the Maccabee (“the hammer”) began a guerilla war.
The Jewish militia grew in force, and repeatedly destroyed much larger Syrian armies which were sent to smash the revolution. Syria’s King Antiochus decided that the Jewish people were so much trouble that he would just get rid of them entirely—slaughtering as many as necessary, and selling all the rest into slavery. But his wicked plans failed, and after years of war, the Jews won their independence...
Woman of the Israel Defense force. Detail from a
picture by photographer Ashkan Sahihi.
We light the candles every year. For years, my young daughter has helped do the lighting. I have her do this because I want her to FEEL it is part of her heritage. She has heard me say many times that evil against Jews will never again go unresponded to because now Jews have guns and an army too.
I don't care what people say about Jews, as long as it stays at words. Whenever antisemitism turns into actions, we get to see how people like Jews who fight back (not very, as far as I can tell)
Armed Jews Week. I never realized I thought of it that way, but in a way, I suppose I always have...
-SangerM
Posted by: SangerM at December 12, 2004 05:18 PMFrom what I've gathered, Israel was fairly popular with lefty intellectual European types...until 1967.
Posted by: John Weidner at December 12, 2004 09:08 PM
