The propensity of politicians to misuse the seasonal Menorah lighting to propound liberal messages greatly irritates Josh Hammer. Writing for Jewish World Review, Hammer reminds readers that Chanukah commemorates a historical triumph: the Jewish Maccabees’ military revolt against their Greek Seleucid overlords, regaining self-rule and reclaiming the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. And that, Hammer writes, carries a universal message: love your people and your country – and fight for them when they’re threatened.
Blueprint for Alberta?
Writing in Jewish World Review, Frederic Fransen reminds Americans of a key lesson from Revolutionary War-era pamphleteer Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. “The colonies need to declare independence,” Fransen summarizes Paine, “because so long as their goal was seen as reconciliation, foreign governments would consider the Americans as rebels and the conflict an internal affair.” But a unilateral declaration of independence, Fransen notes, instantly converts mere complaints from an aggrieved group into a negotiation between sovereign states.
