Thursday, 14 December 2023, at sunset, is the 8th day of Hannukah, if we are counting right here at TPOL. The observance this year started two months after the Hamas attack.

This latest war in the Middle East – particularly in Canaan (often called “Palestine”) rages on, despite a temporary ceasefire. What we call the “Second Yom Kippur War” or the “Hamas-Israeli War” has seen thousands killed and tens of thousands – even hundreds of thousands wounded, beggared, driven from their homes (temporary or “permanent”). Billions of dollars – millions of ounces of gold – have been spent. The entire world seems to be divided – and the division extends deeply into American society and politics.

And public celebration of Hannukah seems to be limited, around the world. We are told it is due to “antisemitism.” That is hatred of Jews: racism with Jews as its target. The Jews are colonialists: “white Europeans” exercising white supremacy over the people of color and indigenous populations. So any public celebration of a Hebrew/Jewish holiday must be disapproved. Even canceled.

We disagree. Let us explain why, but…

Forgive us if we briefly restate what many – even most – readers of TPOL know.

Hannukah is a festival of the Hebrews or Jews. Like all the other festivals of the Law of Moses, it is scheduled according to the ancient Jewish calendar. It is celebrated in the State of Israel. And by Jews and others in the States and other countries. Around the world: it is a public and joyful celebration. Why?

Like all the old festivals of the Hebrew religion (the Law of Moses), there is a story. Unlike the others, Hannukah is not commanded by that Law. It was established in 163 BC (Jewish year 3599), after about four years of war, the Maccabean Revolt, against the Seleucid Empire and King Antiochus IV Epiphanes forced Hellenization of Judea. Antiochus had desecrated the Temple (triggering the revolt) but now Jerusalem had been liberated and the Temple was being cleansed. (The revolt would take another four years to finally win Jewish independence and allow the Kingdom of Judea to be established.)

The liberators and their priests only had a day’s supply of oil for the sacred menorah in the Temple, and it took eight days to produce more of the oil according to Moses’ law. But somehow, miraculously, the small amount of oil fueled the lamps for a full eight days. This encouraged the people of Judea to continue to fight for their faith and their independence against the tyranny of their Macedonian master and his armies. It would take that additional four years to be independent: a total of eight years of war.

The American founding fathers may have recognized the lesson to be learned from that heroic effort. And among other things, made their Declaration of Independence much earlier in the process of rebellion and revolution.

So it is not surprising that as anti-semitism seems to expand around the world, but especially in North America, Hannukah is a target. After all, if the Jews of AD 1948-2023 are colonial exploiters of indigenous populations (Arabs, the so-called Palestinians), then they must have also been that back in 163 BC. Celebrating such a victory is a deadly insult to the peace-loving and justice-seeking Palestinians who only want their own land back, “from the sea to the river.”

But why are the SJWs, the Woke, supporting the homophobic, totalitarian, butchering and raping Muslims of Gaza?

The short answer? In their eyes, the State of Israel is an evil colonial, ethnostate that practices apartheid and has occupied the open-air prison called the Gaza Strip – and the rest of Canaan/”Palestine.” They are evil Westerners who believe in a nonexistent God and not science and humanism. This situation demands that public expression of religion be prohibited.

So we see a direct connection between the war on Christmas, this year expanded to include Hanukkah. The very people/groups we list above: the Congress, the schools, and many local governments, seem to want to force Jews to hide their celebration of Hanukkah from the public. Their excuse is fear that Islamists will be offended by it and launch jihad attacks. Or so they claim: in reality, in the eyes of many? It seems just another way of attacking God and those who believe in Him.  Of course, the fact is that Hanukkah in a way is both a prophecy of Jesus coming as the Light of the world, and a way for the Judeans of the Maccabees’ time to declare independence and liberty from colonial oppression. But the “proper authorities” were the cultural Greeks of the Seleucid empire! And therefore, like Christmas, Hannukah is anti-government and must be suppressed, provided they can find an excuse to do so.

And government does need excuses. Lest they end up riling up people so much that they rebel. A lesson Antiochus learned a long time ago.