1.
What a time the European Union found to leak a document about its plans for a Palestinian state and the transfer of land in Area C from Israeli control to the control of the Palestinian Authority. On Hanukkah of all times, on the holiday that marks the revolt to free our country from foreign occupiers. We should recall that the revolt began in 167 BCE in Modi'in and ended 25 years later in 142 BCE with the liberation of Judea and Jerusalem, along with large parts of the Judean foothills and the coastal region, and the establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom and the presidency of Simon, the only one of the five sons of Mattathias the Hasmonean to survive.
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Antiochus VII (the Antiochus of Hanukkah was Antiochus IV) sent Simon a demand that he return to Seleucid control lands he had occupied "outside of the borders of Judea" otherwise he would declare war. Simon calmly responded to the foreign ruler: "We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property but only the inheritance of our fathers, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies. Now that we have the opportunity, we are firmly holding the inheritance of our fathers" (Book of Maccabees 1:15:33-34). Later, he would go out and defend the borders of the Land and defeat the army of Antiochus.
Given the position of the European Union toward our ancient motherland, the document revealed by Moriah Asraf Wolberg on Channel 13 News was not an earth-shaking revelation. It was written prior to the Nov. 1 election and we have seen similar documents in the past. But just as the usual dog-whistle article in The New York Times about the recently elected incoming government warning that "the far-right government that will soon take power ... marks a qualitative and alarming break with all the other governments in Israel's 75-year history" (only right-wing government are alarming) – and thus resonated with American administration officials. The leak of the current document can be seen as a warning against steps to deepen our hold on the inheritance of our forefathers and strengthen the pioneers in the Samarian hills. It is not impossible that in both cases, Israeli elements stirred the pot in the United States and Europe. That too is something we are familiar with.
2.
One of the things that caught my eye in the document was the archaeological issue. The document calls on the European Union to monitor Israeli archaeological activities on the ground as these serve Israel to justify its hold on Judea and Samaria. The Palestinians have understood for a long time that the absence of historical and archaeological roots when compared to thousands of years of Jewish existence in the region puts them in a problematic position. Therefore, they wish to erase any Jewish vestige wherever they can. Thus, they are continuing from where the Roman Emperor Hadrian left off after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 BCE when he ordered that all Roman documents bearing the name of the province of Judaea be replaced by "Syria-Palaestina" or "Palaestina." Hadrian was familiar with this name from the books of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE and wrote of the seafaring nation the Philistines who lived in "Palaistinê" and fought the Kingdom of Israel for control of the land until they disappeared hundreds of years before.
The Romans used to do what they would call "Damnatio memoriae," the erasure of a person – in this instance a country – from historical memory. Following the many Jewish revolts during a period of some 300 years, from the Hasmonean Revolt through to the Bar Kokhba Revolt, Hadrian believed that if he changed the name of the Land, after a generation or two, the Jews would forget the Land and cease to fight for it. The Romans even changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. Like Antiochus and like other peoples through to this day, Hadrian was not familiar with our deep connection with the Land and the eternal vow of the exiles of Zion: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning" (Psalms 137:5).
3.
The Temple of Solomon and the Temple of the returnees to Zion, which was expanded in the days of Herod the Great, stood on the Temple Mount for a thousand years. Back in the 1920s, a pamphlet for tourists produced by the Muslim Waqf proudly stated that the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque stand on the site of Solomon's Temple and they even quoted the Bible as proof. Today, they deny any historical Jewish presence on the site and work to destroy any archaeological evidence. The European Union cooperates actively with this erasure of memory, to its disgrace. At this time of year, the United Nations usually votes on some 15 to 20 anti-Israel resolutions, which are basically nothing more than antisemitic resolutions that discriminate against Israel and exclude it from the family of nations. These resolutions are promoted by the Palestinians and their ilk. One regular resolution states that Israel violates the human rights of the Palestinians in east Jerusalem and on al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, which is the Muslim term for the Temple Mount. Incredibly the English equivalent for the Temple Mount does not appear. The Palestinians insist on this in order not to affiliate the Mount with the presence of the Jewish Temple.
Every year, Israeli ambassadors debate this with the foreign ministries of European countries – not to have this lie annulled, but just to get the English name included in the resolution. As ambassador to Italy, I did the same. Last year, I visited New York together with our ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in order to protest the vote. All in vain. They voted for the resolution as it was presented. I told my Italian interlocutor that for us, it is Har Habayit, while the English translation of the Hebrew, the Temple Mount is for them. If there are no Jewish roots on the Temple Mount, where did Jesus preach? On the moon? By not insisting on the inclusion of the term "Temple Mount" the Europeans are collaborating with the Palestinian "Damnatio memoriae," and for all intents and purposes are voting to deny the Christian world's roots in the Holy Land. That is not the way a civilization that wishes to live behaves.
4.
Both the United States and Europe constantly repeat their belief in the two-state solution. That too is the result of collaboration with the Palestinians who have erased the second part of the phrase: The complete phrase is "Two States for Two Peoples." To this day, the Palestinian Authority (and of course Hamas) do not recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Clause 20 of the Palestinian National Charter states that the Jews are not a people, just a religion. In other words, they are not eligible for self-determination as a people and therefore they have no rights in the Land of Israel. According to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which many western states have adopted, "Denying the rights of the Jewish people to serve to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor" is in itself antisemitic. We can see with our very eyes the struggle against the historical memory of the Jewish people in its land.
From the balcony of my home in Rehovot, I do not need binoculars to look out over the hills of Binyamin and at Jerusalem and Ramallah. From the disengagement from Gaza, we learned what happens to a region from which Jews are evacuated. It becomes a base for terrorism and its residents serve as human shields for the operations of the organizations of death and destruction against us. Withdrawal from the hills of Samaria will make Israel's central region hostage to gangs that have no control even over themselves. The European Union has difficulty learning from history, both distant and present. In the best case, this can be described as intellectual slough. In any event, as usual, everything depends on us: on deepening our roots and our historical consciousness. As we light the Hanukkah candles, we recall the words of Simon the Hasmonean, our ancient president. We also recall the blessing we recite as we light the Hanukkah candles: In those days, at this time.
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