Vilification, indoctrination, corroboration

As we ready to try to once again fill in some critical gaps that too many Jewish students–let alone others–have in preparation before to or during their years of anti-Israel aloft teaching and misrepresentation on many, if not most, campuses, Hanukkah 5779/2018 is customarily over and Christians are scheming for a Christmas holiday of Dec 25th.

This try will offer as a follow-up to my final research with this idea in mind. That progressing one dealt with, among other things, what maybe a biggest Muslim academician of all time, Ibn Khaldun, had to say about both a chronological Jew and the Jew of a Nations–Israel–some 6 centuries ago…  If we contend so myself, like this stream essay, a former is also customarily what a alloy systematic when opposed groups like SJP/Students for Justice in Palestine (which customarily had its annual hatred Israel fest discussion during UCLA as we write this), J Street U, and duplicitous “Progressive” professors who specialize in regulating one set of lenses to investigate Israel and Zionism, and an wholly opposite set with regard to a rest of a neighborhood.

With that said, what you’re about to examination is something changed to those  interested  in chronological truths–not customarily eremite and theological claims and inspiration…it is called corroboration.

Too many of a younger folks (not to discuss their parents) are simply genuine in these matters, and when confronted by antagonistic instructors and groups on campus, possibly quiver or join a increasingly renouned anti-Israel (and frequently anti-Semitic) chorus.

Let’s begin…

Hanukkah is a initial quarrel ever available that was fought over eremite autocracy and it was waged by a Jewish republic for leisure to use a possess sacrament – that’s a republic that Zionism’s opponents explain never existed.

One (very important) aspect of that nation–besides a singular culture, language, and so forth–indeed enclosed a eremite dimension, and there are distinguished professors, not customarily Arab ones, who explain that given Jews are customarily a eremite community, they do not merit to have a state of their own.+

So, what’s a story?

For millennia, Jews have had a really singular set of eremite beliefs and reliable standards that they are ostensible to belong to. One could join the nation of a people of Israel/Judah/Judea by acclimatisation to a religious faith of that people. 

“Jew” comes from a name Yehudah/Judah, creatively a Hebrew clan named after one of Jacob’s sons and after Judah/Judaea as a land was famous in a times of a southern dominion and a Greeks and Romans. 

Judaean equals “Jew.” 

When Rome suppressed a initial vital rebel of a Jews for their leisure and autonomy after 70 CE, it released thousands of “Judaea Capta” coins that can be seen in museums all over a universe today. Judaea was a land, Judaeans/Jews were a people of that land. Open a link to see a Roman china of defeat released after a initial vital rebel of a Jews (not “Palestinians”) for autonomy opposite a victor of many of a famous world.

Now here’s a rather treacherous part…As settled earlier, this particular people also had a rare set of eremite beliefs: They loved a totally devout G-d, with no earthy form, who demanded that male live by a clever dignified code. The contemporary Roman and Roman-sponsored historians–Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Pliny, Josephus, etc.–living during that time were amused and spoke of this peculiarity in their writings. They had lots some-more to contend about a Jews as a people as well. We’ll lapse to Tacitus after on. 

The story of Ruth and Naomi in a Hebrew Bible is a moving, pleasing instance that illustrates this tie nicely: “Whither thou goest, we shall go, your people will be my people, and their G-d, my G-d.”  Note that even here, in a eremite papers of a Jews, people/nationhood is mentioned before religion–perhaps a coincidence, substantially not.

Hanukkah began this year on a dusk of Dec 2nd. we will also remember this for a unhappy reason. It was on this night, twenty-six years ago on a Western calendar, that my Father, of sanctified memory, upheld away. The date changes any year given a Hebrew calendar is lunar. Additionally, a Bible tells us that  “the dusk and a morning were a initial day”–so Jews magnitude days from eve to eve in a 24-hour cycle.

Since, in America, we are all (regardless of opposite religions) familiar in a Christmas story, we feel that the Judeo portion of a nation’s Judeo-Christian birthright deserves some-more than customarily a common potato pancakes, spinning dreidel, oil, and menorah-treatment we customarily give to Hanukka–if that. 

Turn a time back…The year is 1887. An Egyptian lady discovers a treasure-trove of over 3 hundred clay cuneiform tablets that would shake a universe of sacrament and a investigate of ancient history.

Named for a internal Bedouin tribe, a Tel el-Amarna tablets (which can now be found mostly in a Berlin and British Museums) were mostly a central association between Pharaoh Amenhotep IV–Akhenaten–and his governors and vassals from places such as Canaan, Syria, Babylonia, etc. They date mostly from around 1380 B.C.E. and were created in Akkadian, a denunciation of tact of a era.

So, what does this have to do with a Jews? Patience, please… 

Now, theory what regularly comes out in this central association between Pharaoh and his vassals in Canaan and a surrounding areas?

Complaints about invasions of a “Habiru”…at slightest one bend of that many expected became compared with a Hebrews.

While some scholars discuss some details, many determine that a time–with even newer confirmations by excavations in Jericho–fits into a duration of Joshua’s conquests of Canaan.

Like many other accounts in a Hebrew Bible, we indeed have good ancillary justification from elsewhere to support a Jews’ possess chronicle of these events. There’s no Hanukkah, for example, if Jews weren’t in Israel in a initial place. And what creates it even improved is that this justification mostly comes from those observation a events from a “other side” of a picture, mostly a Jews’ enemies.This is no little point…

Historical certification is really critical to any critical scholar. And not many religious texts can compare a chronological certification found for the Jews as a nation, with a possess land and religion.

Jumping forward about 8 centuries, Babylon became a powerhouse, and a Jews’ remaining southern kingdom, Judah (together with Benjamin), fell serf to a King Nebochadnezzar. After a genocide of King Solomon, his father, King David’s, joined dominion became divided about twenty-nine centuries ago.

Prior to a Babylonian ordeal, a dominion of a northern tribes, Israel, had depressed to a Assyrians a few centuries earlier, and many of a people became famous as “the 10 mislaid tribes of Israel.” There are now people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and elsewhere who snippet their origin behind to those progressing Israelis/Israelites.

Returning to a Babylonian ordeal, and relocating ahead, closer to a time of a Hanukkah story, a Jews would subsequent find a favourite in–hold onto your seats–an Iranian ruler, Cyrus a Great, who authorised their lapse to Judah in 539 B.C.E….not accurately a stream Iranian mullahs’ type, was he? And again, while a Hebrew Bible gives a Jews’ possess comment of this episode, we also have it from a “other side” as well.

Take a demeanour during this ancient quote from an Iranian source, The Kurash Prism (The Cyrus Cylinder), pleasantness of a Iran Chamber Society and other chronological sites…

“I am Kurash (Cyrus), King of a World, Great King, Legitimate King, King of Babilani, King of Kiengir and Akkade, King of a 4 rims of a earth, Son of Kanbujiya…I returned to these dedicated cities on a other side of a Tigris a sanctuaries of that have been hull for a prolonged time, a images that used to live therein and dynamic for them permanent sanctuaries. we also collected all their former inhabitants and returned them to their habitations.”

“Furthermore, we resettled on a authority of Marduk, a good lord, all a gods of Kiengir and Akkade whom Nabonidus had brought into Babilani to a annoy of a duke of a gods, unharmed, in their former temples, a places that make them happy..”

Now, check out a Jews’ possess chronicle of this in Ezra 1: 1-8 in a Hebrew Bible…

“In a initial year of Cyrus, aristocrat of Persia, in sequence to perform a word of a Lord oral by Jeremiah, a Lord desirous King Cyrus of Persia to emanate this commercial via his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, aristocrat of Persia: “All a kingdoms of a earth a Lord, a God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a residence in Jerusalem, that is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among we belongs to any partial of his people, let him go up, and might his God be with him! Let everybody who has survived, in whatever place he might have dwelt, be assisted by a people of that place with silver, gold, and goods, together with giveaway will offerings for a residence of God in Jerusalem.”

Corroboration…

The names of Israel, Judah/Judaea, Hebrew kings, etc. and so onward are also found in a annals of a Jews’ ancient neighbors. The Egyptian Pharaoh, Merneptah, left a initial non-Biblical record of Israel that has been detected so far.

There are indeed many examples of this, though a final one I’d like to examination for now before restraining all of this together is one of my favorites. It involves a Arab explain that they were a strange “Palestinians,” a things groups like a SJP declaim all a time, while their mostly Jewish useful idiots hearten them on.

Follow me carefully…

There was no republic nor republic famous as “Palestine” during a time of Jesus. The land was famous as Judaea and a inhabitants were Judaeans…Jews.

As mentioned above, Tacitus and Dio Cassius were famous Roman historians who wrote extensively about Judaea’s try to sojourn giveaway from a Soviet Union of a day, a conquering Roman Empire. In my final analysis, we saw a reputation Islamic scholar, Ibn Khaldun, do serve centuries later. They before dual historians lived and wrote during, or not prolonged after, a dual vital revolts of a Jews in 66-73 C.E. and 133-135 C.E. Note: They make no discuss of this land being called “Palestine” nor a people “Palestinians.” And they knew a differences between Jews and Arabs as well. (No Muslims of course, given Mohammed lived in a 7th century C.E.)

Listen to this quote from Vol. II, Book V, The Works of Tacitus: 

“It delirious Vespasian’s (the Emperor) madness that a Jews were a customarily republic that had not nonetheless submitted…Titus was allocated by his father to finish a confinement of Judaea… he ordered 3 legions in Judaea itself… To these he combined a twelfth from Syria and a third and twenty-second from Alexandria… among his allies were a rope of Arabs, challenging in themselves and harboring towards a Jews a sour passion customarily subsisting between adjacent nations…”

Observe that a Romans called their Arab allies Arabs, not “Palestinians.” And a Arabs mentioned by a Romans above were outside invaders from a Arabian Peninsula attacking a Jewish republic that was fighting for a leisure and autonomy opposite a victor of many of a famous world. Putting it bluntly, a Arabs were simply behaving like vultures relocating in for a apportionment of a especially Roman kill.

And again, after a 1st Revolt, Rome released thousands of Iudaea (Judaea) Capta coins to commemorate a victory. Notice, please… Iudaea Capta…not “Palaestina” Capta. Additionally, to applaud this victory, a Arch of Titus was erected and stands high in Rome to this really day. We saw a Judea Capta china in a couple above. Here’s one for a Arch of Titus.

When, some sixty years later, Hadrian motionless to serve ill-treat a site of a broken Temple of a Jews by manufacture a non-believer structure there, it was a grandchildren’s spin to take on their strong non-believer conquerors.

The outcome of a onslaught of this little republic for a leisure and autonomy was, perhaps, as predicted as that that would have occurred had Lithuania taken on a Soviet Union during a heyday of power. Unfortunately, dual thousand years later, a Jews are still in that same struggle.

Read this quote from Dio Cassius…

“580,000 group were slain, scarcely a whole of Judaea done desolate. Many Romans, moreover, perished in this quarrel (known as a Bar Kochba Revolt, 133-135 C.E., G.H.). Therefore, Hadrian, in essay to a senate, did not occupy a opening word ordinarily influenced by a emperors, ‘I and a legions are in health.’”

The Emperor was so barbarous that, in a difference of a late venerable complicated historian, Bernard Lewis… “Hadrian done a dynamic try to stamp out a embers not customarily of a rebel though also of Jewish nationhood and statehood… obliterating a Jewish identity.”

Wishing to end, once and for all, Jewish hopes, Hadrian renamed a land itself from Judaea to “Syria Palaestina”–Palestine–after a Jews’ ancestral enemies, a Philistines, a non-Semitic sea people from a islands nearby Crete. Prior to this time, a coastal segment around Gaza was also geographically referred to by a Greeks by that name. 

Corroboration…

And finally, let’s see what all of this has to do with Hanukkah.

Back in a ’70s, while doing doctoral studies during a Kevorkian Center For Near Eastern Studies (a consortium of Princeton, Columbia, and New York Universities during that time formed during N.Y.U’s Washington Square campus), we had a payoff of carrying Dr. F.E. Peters as one of my professors. A heading consultant of a ancient Near East (along with other associated subjects), one of his specialties was ancient Greece.

Fluent in a denunciation and enthralled in a primary sources, Peters’s The Harvest Of Hellenism largely supports a Jews’ possess accounts of their onslaught for autonomy opposite their latest conqueror, a Seleucid Greek successors to Alexander a Great formed in Syria. After a latter’s death, his generals fought for a pieces of a pie. Ptolemy wound adult with one of a other categorical prizes, Egypt.

Follow these sparse quotes from Professor Peters, who clinging a good apportionment of this over 800-page book to a same theme found in a Jews’ possess papers in a First and Second Books of Maccabees…

“The Seleucids, like all other Hellenistic monarchs, with a difference of a Macedonian Antigonids, were loved as gods…Jew and Hellene clashed on a emanate of conduct…Hellenism could concede roughly any oddity in private behavior…however…the polis found it formidable to accept a large-scale and open refusal to share in a life and rites.”

Whatever else might or might not have happened in Judaea during a time of Antiochus IV Epiphanies (“the God done manifest”), and while a good highbrow takes emanate with some aspects of a Jews’ possess accounts, both he and Jewish tradition determine that a strife he himself wrote about fundamentally led, as mentioned earlier, to a initial quarrel ever fought–at slightest in part–over eremite freedom.

Proclaiming yourself a God among pagans was one thing. They could customarily supplement Antiochus onto a prolonged list.

But to do this with Jews, whose sacrament teaches that no man–regardless of how great–could be divine, was explosive. Add to this his try during squashing their try to keep their possess approach of life and eremite practices, and a rebel of a Maccabees–the story of Hanukkah–became inevitable.

Here’s a Roman historian, Tacitus (Volume II, Book V), again, a few centuries after a Maccabean revolt, on a same subject, essay after a Jews subsequent took on a strong Roman Empire in a heyday of power…

“The Jews acknowledge one God only, and detect of him by a mind alone, condemning, as impious, all who, with perishable materials, wrought into a tellurian shape, form representations of a Deity. That Being, they say, is above all, and everlasting, conjunction receptive of correspondence nor theme to decay. In consequence, they concede no similarity of Him in their city, many reduction in their temples. In this approach they do not agree their kings, nor uncover their honour for their Caesars.”

That above passage, by a way, involving a emanate of a aggrandisement of man, explains the real schism between Judaism and Christianity currently as well.

Corroboration…

At a time when Israel, a Jew of a Nations (which was creation story and causing a series in religion, ethics, and probity millennia before many other peoples even done their chronological debuts), still has to quarrel for a right to take a place among those newcomers on a universe scene, a story of Hanukkah and a summary of re-dedication is as critical currently as it was when Judah a Hammer (the “Maccabee”) and his brothers took on their strong non-believer rulers over dual thousand years ago.

And so is a rest of Jewish history. Read about it and be unapproachable of how that story continues in a approved State of Israel.