Of all the Jewish holidays, the one that best captures the contemporary Jewish Zeitgeist, the one that is the most relevant to the current and possibly the last chapter in Jewish history, is Hannuka. Hannuka is of course the story of Jewish national liberation. It is the story of the military victory of the few against the many, of the champions of Judaism against the pagan barbarians. But more than this, it is the saga of the heroic struggle of Jewish survivalists (those you would today label "Zionists") against the assimilationists and self-hating Hellenists of the second century BCE. Hannuka is less about the battle against the Greeks than it is about the battle against the predominant assimilationist paradigm at the time among the Jews. It is about the battle against the anti-survivalists, those who hated themselves for being Jews and so sought to be progressive and modern and "in", by rejecting and disgracing and degrading themselves in their struggling AGAINST Jewish survival. In other words, it is about the battle against the Oslo of Hannuka Past.

At this stage in Jewish history a convergence has occurred between the main Diaspora Jewish community (in the US) and the Jews of Israel. It is a convergence towards self-destruction and self-elimination. While it takes different forms, in both cases it is about Jews who are embarrassed by their being associated and identified as such by the barbarians. They are ashamed of themselves and seek to gain acceptance in the Greek world by overtaking the anti-Semites in attacking their own people. They grovel before the enemies of their people. They demand that their people abandon their archaic and backward religion and traditions and values.

History books will recall the second half of the twentieth century as that era in which the Jews lost their will to survive. Both in the Diaspora and now in Israel. Whether or not Jewish history ends in the next decade or so depends on the unlikely proposition that the small numbers of Maccabees still fighting against Hellenism will triumph. They appear to be losing this war. It is not 200 BCE. One should not take a miraculous intervention for granted.

The next decade will see whether the Hellenists are successful and Israel collapses. If it does, Jewish history will effectively end. All that will be left will be some Orthodox pockets in the Diaspora and these will become small quaint curiosities for the nations, something like the "Pennsylvania Dutch" or the Shakers.

In the United States, the dominance of the Jewish Hellenists is in the form of the assimilationist liberals. These are the Jewish leaders and organizations who dominate the non-Orthodox segments of American Jewry and promote the view that all of Judaism can be reduced to the pursuing of this week’s liberal political fads. They practice the "Political Liberalism as Judaism" form of Hellenistic paganism. They reduce all of Jewishness to the support for the "progressive" agenda of the left wing of the Democrat Party. They even endorse all forms of politically correct wackiness - from radical feminism to extremist environmentalism to affirmative apartheid to militant heterophobia. They will only support Israel as long as it is pursuing self-destruction, lest it embarrass them in front of their progressive gentile friends by defending itself.

In Israel, the country’s politics - particularly its cultural/educational elite and its chattering classes - are now almost entirely dominated by those motivated by the desire to commit national suicide. These are people who despise their country and despise their own people. They scorn themselves the same way that the Hellenised Jews did at the time of the Maccabees. Like the Hellenised Jews, they are convinced that traditionalist Jews are reactionary and primitive, and that the greatest priority is renunciation of Jewish peculiarity and the striving to assimilate amongst the cosmopolitan progressive Greeks of the world. They are ashamed of their Jewishness and convinced that the only path to peace is to renounce their Jewishness. They insist that a Seleucid "narrative" should replace their own reactionary national one.

Israel’s universities are by and large the Occupied Territories of these Hellenists. The Israeli media is to almost the same extent. Hellenists dominate the Israeli military and intelligence services. Hellenists are rewriting the school curriculum to teach Israeli Jewish children to despise themselves. Their message is that Jews must feel ashamed because they are evil and immoral people, while the truly superior people are the barbarian anti-Semites. Their aim is to convince the Jews that the only way they may become accepted in the world is to adapt to paganism, to turn the Temple Mount over to the barbarians, to stop seeking to exist as a separate national entity, and to commit national suicide.

Moreover, their campaign is aimed at challenging the moral existence of the Jews. They realize this is the weakest chink in the armor of the Jews. If Jews can be convinced that they are morally in the wrong, then no Maccabees will arise. The aim of the Hellenists is the delegitimization of the Jews as a nation, discrediting the moral position of Jewish survivalism. They insist over and over that Jews are evil, immoral, brutal people who must cease to exist as Jews if they want peace.

At the head of the Hellenists is the Israeli Left, led by the Israeli Labor Party, which continues to dominate the country and would continue to maintain its power bases even if the Likud were to hold office for a fleeting period under Arik Sharon. They are led by the Chief Hellenist himself, Ehud Barak. Like in the Torah portion of this week, his national policy is to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. He quite literally did so a few weeks ago when he agreed to allow the Palestinian barbarians to destroy the shrine of Joseph’s Tomb. He is just as willing to abandon all other emblems of Jewishness to the Ishmaelites. Including the sacred areas of Jerusalem. They mean nothing to the Hellenists. Indeed, the Jews are better off without them. Abandoning them will accelerate the Jewish adoption of cosmopolitan Hellenism.

The message of the contemporary Hellenists is unambiguous: Those who wish to purify the Temple, who seek pure oil for the Temple lamp, who wish to evict the barbarians from Jerusalem, are the enemies of peace. The Maccabees must be arrested for incitement. The Jews must provide Antiochus with concessions and arms and funds. Under no circumstances should the Jews seek to defend themselves from the Seleucids. If the barbarians murder the Jews it is because the Jews are evil people and because they have been too reluctant to abandon their primitive survivalism. The era of national separateness is over; all must join in the great Hellenistic politically correct pagan enterprise. The Post-Hasmonean era is upon us. Dip the latkes in lard.

Copyright © 2000 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission