Old and busted: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
New hotness: The Israel Haters Who Stole Hanukkah (hat tip: Simone)
A couple of Israel haters (and, in the case of Martillo, an antisemite and Holocaust denier) have posted to Facebook claims that palestinians descend from the Maccabees.
Some people who seem to disagree with this claim are..the palestinians themselves. They have long denied the existence of the Temple and, given the whole story of Hanukkah revolves around the re-dedication of the Temple, Siddiqui and Martillo are contradicting their own heroes.
Talk about having your cake lattkes and eating it.
Update: Our own Judge Dan called it.
Honorary sarcastic RT for the first one to equate Maccabees to Palestinian Arabs #Hanukkah
— Judge Dan (@JudgeDan48) November 28, 2013
Update: And speaking of Israel haters and Hanukkah, this one refuses to celebrate it:
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/happy-hanukkah-thanks-but-not-for-me.html
Given the realities of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, I find the hypocrisy of Hanukkah intolerable. It’s OK for us Jews to celebrate (hugely and spectacularly) our efforts to liberate our own people from occupation, no matter the cost, no matter who lives or dies on our side or the other. But it is not OK for the Palestinians. No-one condemns Judas Maccabeus and his rebels as terrorists. They are revered as freedom fighters with a just and even divinely decreed cause regardless of their brutality. The Greek occupiers are despised venomously in the story of Hanukkah, but no-one thinks there’s a problem with Israel being an occupier.
Of course at this point supporters of Israel are likely to say that the comparison is unfair. Israel isn’t an empire like Greece was; it is only trying to be a safe haven for the long persecuted Jewish people. But do the reasons behind occupation and colonisation matter when their evils and crimes are the same?
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I used to like Hanukkah as a child because it’s fun for children. You get to light pretty candles, sing really nice, albeit gory, traditional songs (Maoz Tzur is positively shocking if you know what the words mean), and eat yummy sweet, fatty food, like fried potato patties (latkes) and jam doughnuts (sufganiot). (Both of these are traditional Eastern European dishes, not really Jewish as such, but Israel has always been dominated by Ashkenazi culture.) So when I gave up all of this years ago, it was a little sad, but it’s been a worthwhile sacrifice to make so I can live according to my ethics.
It’s time for Jewish supporters of Israel around the world, and in particular for Israeli Jews, to wake up and see the terrible irony of celebrating Hanukkah while Israel occupies the Palestinians. Why can’t they see that they are playing the part of the Greeks and that the Palestinians are responding the same way the Jewish rebels did back then? If Jewish culture glorifies and celebrates our rebellious and uncompromising spirit, why does it condemn that same spirit in others?
But shouldn’t she be celebrating it because the Maccabees were the ancestors of the palestinians, who managed to rededicate the “non-existent” Temple?
If your head is spinning like a dreidel right now, that is ok. These people just can’t make any sense.
Which happens when you lie and can’t synchronize your stories.
