This night, Jews begin the celebration of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.***

But as we do, I am deeply troubled by the fact that the rights of Palestinians in Israel are still being swept under the carpet.

On an Amazon.co.uk religion discussion forum, someone sent me this website when I asked for a more comprehensive history of the Palestinians in Israel, besides what I’d gleaned from reading Leap of Faith by Queen Noor of Jordan.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/12/invented-people-in-18th-century.html

The name of the website threw me for a second, so I clicked to it with much trepidation; its name is the same as the fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion raised little red flags in my mind. Uh-oh, I thought – anti-Semitic ranting bullshit approaching…

But it’s just an encyclopedia entry from 1907 – or is it?

And yet I’m skeptical. The first line of that site does pigeon-hole people. They don’t say this directly, but they give me the impression that, “If you support Palestinians/Arabs, then that MUST mean, as a corollary, you absolutely HATE Israel.”

Wouldn't you be pissed off, too, if your government trampled on basic human rights and killed lots of people with impunity? "Amnesty International described the killing as an appalling act and called for an immediate, independent investigation. It said the Israeli investigation had been seriously inadequate and failed to meet international standards." (Source: Wikipedia "2006 Shelling of Beit Hanoun". Retrieved 20 December 2011.)

The BBC Article

“Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once said he wanted most of the world’s Jews in Israel by 2020.”

OK, that’s not going to happen because this world isn’t perfect. I’m going to take some words out of the sentence and let’s see if you can fill in the blanks.

_____ ______ said he wanted _____ of the world’s Jews in _____ by _____.

With me so far? I haven’t done anything yet. Watch this:

Let me jiggle the words in that sentence for you a bit.

Let’s change the preposition “in” to the prepositional phrase “out of”, and here’s what we get:

Adolf Hitler said he wanted all of the Jews out of Warsaw by his birthday (20 April 1943).† 

[I’m referring here to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Hitler didn’t get his birthday present.]

Catch my drift? Two leaders are each wanting to move a certain group of people, who have certain characteristics (usually imagined) from one place to another, by a certain date, in order to serve some imaginary, loftier purpose in the mind of the leader(s). That usually never comes to any good. The date may hold a mystical value in the minds of some.

Yes, I’m Godwinning. And this is a situation that calls for it.

It makes me feel ill. Kick someone out of their home, who have been living their for years. Why?? Because they believe differently than the people in power do, or look different, or, just because the people in power hate them.

Comments on the BBC Article

The comments on the BBC article are revealing. One commenter gained the impression from the article that Judaism was a nationality rather than a religion.

I am confused. I thought Judaism was a religion, now it seems it is a nationality? Do these people refuse to integrate in their national community and feel that they are British Jews? Should all Roman Catholics have to go and live in Italy? I think this mentality creates most of the friction in the modern world.
Stephen Nately, London

Judaism is a religion – not a race, and not a nationality – but it has come to mean a nationality to many people. It’s very confusing, and unfortunately this makes it so much harder for Palestinians to claim their equal rights as citizens of the country they were born in.

Indeed – should all Roman Catholics go and live in Italy? Why the fuck not?

As British born and bred, how can anyone call another country ‘my country’. Fundamentalism is prevalent on both sides of this issue and political emigrants such as these can only make things worse.
John Wyer, Bangor, North Wales UK

Agreed.

This is an example of why there is so much political unrest in the Middle East. Just because you are of Jewish decent does not give you the right to go back home to the ‘Motherland’. Do these people seriously think they have more right to move back to a country they may have never been to without considering the rights of native Israelis or Palestinians – to not consider this is both ignorant and selfish.
Paul, Manchester UK

Well said, Paul!

I’m probably not going to try and make latkes this year, they didn’t turn out so well last year.

***My husband and I also commemorate our first Hanukkah together three years ago, when our cat, Smokey, set herself on fire. (She’s fine, really! Her fluffy grey tail just got a little singed. Now, we are always careful to shut both cats out before we light the candles.) 

"Sweetie, the cat's on fire..." "Uh-huh, that's nice..." "Sweetie, the cat's on fire..." "Hmmhmm..." "HEY!!!!" Husband threw a towel over her and extinguished the flames.

** I’ll write another post about the other meanings of Aliyah, later on this Hanukkah week.

† This is a hypothetical sentence. It’s drawn from a real-life event, but the sentence itself is made up by me; Hitler may or may not have actually said this, but it’s just for illustrative purposes. Jurgen Stroop (played by Jon Voight) says that “Hitler was promised a Jew-free Warsaw by his birthday in 1943”,  in the 2001 movie “Uprising”.