Tel Aviv's Anti-Chanuka Movement

Yocheved Golani who visited
 Netivot with me.

Yesterday I spent a very special time in Netivot, which is a city more in the news as being targeted by Arab terrorists than anything else.  Residents of the Israeli south are among the Maccabees of today with their bravery in the face of dangers.  Even under the threat and danger is deadly missiles, life goes on, so friends from all over the country came to see real life.  That's the message of Chanukah.  We must continue to live as strong proud Jews, no matter what.  That's one of the messages of Chanukah.

I contrast that with the horrendously named Israel anti-chareidi movement,  "Camp Sucker."

Photo: Courtesy: The Campaign for the Struggle for Equality

The Camp Sucker movement in favor of universal army service will pitch its tents again at Tel Aviv's Arlozorov train station on Monday morning to protest government decision to draft 1,300 yeshiva students to civilian service instead of army service. (Jerusalem Post article)

The idea that they see being soldiers in the IDF as being "suckers" is very dangerous.  What's a "sucker?"

Informal. a person easily cheated, deceived, or imposed upon.  dictionary.com

Synonyms:

chump, clay pigeon, derision, dupe*, easy mark, fall guy, fool, goat, jestee, joke, laughingstock, mark, patsy, pigeon, sap, setup, sitting duck, softie, subject, sucker , target, turkey, victim

What a horrible and negative way to relate to our modern heroes!  Now, I also firmly believe that all Israelis must serve the country in one way or another.  My husband and sons all served in the army, the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces and my daughters all did two full and busy years in Sherut Le'umi, National Service.  Since I made aliyah already married I was completely exempt by law from serving.

A soldier who considers himself or herself as a "sucker," a fool or victim will not give the same high level of service as one who considers army service a privilege or mitzvah, Torah commandment.

That's most probably why a higher percentage of soldiers in elite units come from the Right and religious sectors of Israeli society. They are the soldiers who take very seriously the story of Chanukah, of the Maccabees of the on paper weak overcoming the seemingly stronger.

That's the על הניסים Al HaNissim Because of The Miracles prayer we say on Chanukah.

"We thank You also for the miraculous deeds and for the redemption and for the mighty deeds and the saving acts wrought by You, as well as for the wars which You waged for our ancestors in ancient days at this season. In the days of the Hasmonean Mattathias, son of Johanan the high priest, and his sons, when the iniquitous Greco-Syrian kingdom rose up against Your people Israel, to make them forget Your Torah and to turn them away from the ordinances of Your will, then You in your abundant mercy rose up for them in the time of their trouble, pled their cause, executed judgment, avenged their wrong, and delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and insolent ones into the hands of those occupied with Your Torah. Both unto Yourself did you make a great and holy name in Thy world, and unto Your people did You achieve a great deliverance and redemption. Whereupon your children entered the sanctuary of Your house, cleansed Your temple, purified Your sanctuary, kindled lights in Your holy courts, and appointed these eight days of Hanukkah in order to give thanks and praises unto Your holy name."

Translation of Al ha-Nissim

I just can't see the ancient Maccabees who so successfully fought the Greeks and the Hellenists as thinking themselves "suckers."  "Suckers" are losers and losers we aren't!