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Who Are The Maccabees Today?
O
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n Friday, the day
Israel, then you also lose the
before Chanukah,
moral ground to say that
the United Nations
Tel Aviv or Jerusalem are
Security Council voted on
part of the Jewish land. A
a resolution condemning
part of the University of Tel
Israeli settlements outside
Aviv was actually built on
the 1967 Green Line. The
an abandoned Palestinian
resolution passed thanks to
village called Sheikh Munis.
President Barack Obama’s
Even more interesting, the
Kobi Erez
decision to withhold veto
Israeli Supreme Court was
power.
constructed on an abandoned
This was a deliberate anti-
Palestinian village called
Israel push by the Obama administra- Sheikh Badr. So, in actuality, Israel is
tion and, according to Israeli officials, all one big Jewish settlement, and all
the U.S. actually helped create the
Israelis are settlers, whether some of
resolution in the first place. The only
them admit it or not.
thing the world can unite on is con-
Historically, when the world has
demning Israel.
praised Israel, it means that Israel
News of the resolution sent an
did something not in its own inter-
outcry through the pro-Israel com-
ests, like the Oslo Accord, which
munity around the world.
was followed by the Intifada, with
One prominent settler from Judea
“All Israelis are
and Samaria said, “It is not foreign
land we have taken, nor have we
settlers, whether
seized the property of others, but
only our ancestral heritage, which
some of them admit
for a time had been unjustly held by
our enemies. Now that we have the
it or not.”
opportunity, we are holding onto the
heritage of our ancestors.”
This political leader was Simon the
more than 1,000 Israelis murdered
Maccabee, about 2,000 years ago.
by Palestinian terrorists, or the dis-
Just a few days before the U.N.
engagement from Gaza, an event that
vote, President Obama hosted an
resulted in the expulsion of 8,000
early Chanukah celebration at the
Jews from their homes and rockets
White House, during which he
raining on Tel Aviv shortly thereafter.
praised the Maccabees for serving
When the world condemns Israel,
as forces of light who defeated evil.
it usually means that Israel did the
The irony here, of course, is that the
right thing, like when Israel bombed
Maccabees were actually Jewish set-
tlers, the same kind the U.N. has con- the Iraqi nuclear reactor or when
they annexed the Golan Heights in
demned. The Maccabees lived and
fought for the so-called “settlements” 1981.
Part of celebrating Chanukah is
of today. Indeed, their struggle never
remembering that the Maccabees
ended. The fight for our land today
stood up to condemnation by the
can be seen as a continued battle
Greeks, by the world empires and
between the Maccabees and their
even by Hellenistic Jews like J Street
oppressors.
in order to fight for our religious
This resolution should serve as a
wake-up call to those who still believe freedom and for our land.
It is time to follow in the footsteps
settlements are the main obstacle
of the Maccabees and reclaim what is
to peace. The U.N. resolution isn’t
rightfully ours by annexing Judea and
just condemning those Jews living
Samaria and thriving in this God-
in Judea and Samaria. World leaders
given land.
determined that Israel is an occupier
Yes, we may be few in number, but
of places you may have heard of —
when the Jewish people can unite in
like the Western Wall and the Jewish
Quarter — and that Israel should give the understanding that the entirety
of the land of Israel, including the
the Golan Heights, a strategic terri-
tory that is crucial to Israel’s security, settlements, belongs to us, the rest of
the world will follow suit.
back to Syria, a nation that is massa-
cring its own people.
Kobi Erez is executive director of the Zionist
And if you still believe that the
Organization of America Michigan chapter.
settlements should not belong to
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8 January 5 • 2017