There’s a real combo this year as Chanukah and Xmas fall on the same day. These winter holidays have so much in common, you could combine the Chanukah lights with the fairy lights and the world would be a brighter place. Chanukah gelt for the Jewish children and beautifully wrapped Xmas pressies for everyone else.
Chanukah celebrates the miracle of the oil lasting eight days and Xmas encompasses both religious and secularly celebrations with both holidays seeing families gathering together with the unhealthiest of food you can imagine. I think Chanukah takes the biscuit or doughnut to be more precise to send the cholesterol and sugar flying high, while roast turkey and goose isn’t too bad, all those extras are sure to leave people with an extra tyre around the belly and no sooner is the food digested than the diet season begins.
However, although there is much to celebrate and we are taught to still be joyful, the situation in Israel is not one of joy. With 100 hostages still not returned home, no one is free.
The dead cannot be laid to rest and the living are still enduring hellish conditions, while the families’ wait is unbearable. Individually we pray to see the hostages returned, but the government is still not prepared to risk Hamas re-arming and the terms of their release is as yet not agreed.
The cost to Israel of a premature cease fire is still too high for the government to agree, as they learnt a sorry lesson by all the murders that were the direct result of the prisoner exchange that facilitated the release of Gilad Shalit.
We do know that Hamas do not want to release anyone who could or might be a solider and Israel is holding out for the release of all the hostages in exchange for the release of convicted killers and terrorists who should be released to a third country, perhaps Qatar.
Qatar have been posing as an honest broker and were very much involved in the original hostage release but they are a threat to the free world supporting ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and Hezbollah ! They have been safe haven for extremism and have exported terror around the world, hence they have a direct line to both Hamas and Hezbollah and are playing a double game.
A few weeks ago the red carpet was rolled out in London for the Emir of Qatar with King Charles quoting words from the Talmud , “he who saves one life , is as if he saves the whole world”(written several centuries before the Koran was even thought of) and attributed them to Emir’s holy book , but conveniently left out the qualifying get-out clause that allows death to all who oppose “the religion of peace “.
And the UK are supposedly one of Israel’s greatest allies . Well, at least Israel found the guts to send Ireland , who is backing South Africa’s genocide claim, a message and shut the embassy in Dublin, leaving Ireland fuming.
So many of Israel haters are trying to widen the interpretation of genocide to fit the Gaza war, despite that Israel is possibly the only country ever having been brutally attacked by a declared death cult to be forced by international opinion to then feed the enemy. Ahh, they say but its not the people of Gaza that are the enemy, just Hamas and conveniently put aside the fact that the Gazans support Hamas fully and gathered screaming for blood when the hostages were released being protected only by the Red Cross, as the crowd tried to attack them while spitting and cursing . Not propaganda , but caught and recorded on camera.
Even the Pope is talking genocide, but takes no account that in every Islamic country in the world the Christians have been driven out . Where are the Christians in Bethlehem this year ? It has no Xmas tree, no parade and you can hardly blame the war as everywhere else in Israel people are continuing and Haifa has its usual Christmas tree and Chanukia.
Still after nearly 15 months, not one word has been whispered by the innocent civilians about the whereabouts of the hostages, despite huge rewards and promise of a safe passage out of the hell that is Gaza. Such is the total commitment and support that Hamas has from within. So sadly , the truth should have been faced that Israel was at war with Gaza and not only some undefinable groups called Hamas whose membership percolates into every family in Gaza one way or another. If that had been made clear day one then Israel should never have been forced to feed and enable the enemy and the war would have come to a close with a total surrender much sooner.
The world forgets that there is border with Egypt and the responsibility to feed their Muslim brothers should have fallen to the Egyptians who refused to take back Gaza during the peace talks but left it like a grenade to explode in Israel’s face.
It would serve the west well to recognise also that this is not a war against Israel but a war against the west and Israel just happens to sit on the fault line of jihadism and if Israel is defeated the world will herald in a new era of global Islamic domination. So much is at stake.
Meanwhile, in Israel the centre of the country is suffering nightly sirens with ballistic missiles being sent from Yemen, who are the last standing proxy of Iran.
Last week a missile got through the defence and destroyed a school in Ramat Gan, ( no children were present ) and besides sending millions to the shelters it did a lot of damage to the surrounding area.The following night shrapnel and debris destroyed apartments in Jaffa, South Tel Aviv, injuring 16 people from glass shards and killing one from a heart attack. These are huge missiles and even the debris and the noise of the destruction is enough to give anyone a heart attack, especially they are always in the middle of the night, sent indiscriminately on sleeping innocent civilians. This is a war crime. The Houthi have fired more 200 ballistic missiles and 170 suicide drones. This from a country that cannot feed its people and lays 2000 miles from Israel !
Since then the Houthi continue firing and there are sirens nightly, but the arrow system is so far, managing to intercept the missiles before they reach Israel.
The IDF have struck back destroying fuel and oil tanks and boats used for terror activities. It is reported that the US has also been striking Yemen. No doubt Israel will be intensifying the strikes and we expect more attacks as The Houthi have declared they are not afraid of the US, so it is clear we are dealing with a bunch of armed lunatics.
Tragically, we have lost 3 soldiers in the last few days and the IDF continue to find and destroy tunnels in Gaza. Despite reports to the contrary Israel still controls the Philadelphi corridor and doesn’t seem to have any plans to evacuate yet.
There continues to be unrest in Judea and Samaria especially in Jenin where Hamas have embedded themselves.
There is no fire from the north as Syria undergoes a transition to a new government, but the IDF are entering Syria to destroy weapons so they do not fall into the hands of what may become a new enemy.
Iraq has sensibly declared it will stop the fire on Israel , so if the new Syrian administration takes the same lead Israel will be fighting on at least 2 or 3 less fronts.
Hezbollah in Lebanon have pulled back and are not firing on Israel . Turkey are still trying to establish themselves in Syria and it would be very worrying to have Turkey closer to us while they are ruled by the unstable Erdogan .
The Prime Minister Netanyahu is both fighting a war and facing a trial for corruption which leaves a stain on the face of Israel as at this time. We should be only united in the fight to survive.
Israeli Defence Minister Katz said “Anyone who raises his hand to Israel will have his hand cut off by the long arm of the Israeli army “.
We will see if anyone is listening or if they wish to go the same way as Hamas and Hezbollah as the smell of victory is certainly in the air.
Whether it is with mince pies, latkes or both here’s wishing everyone a happy and peaceful holiday.
Kind Regards
Carolyne Davis