(Wall Street Journal) Ruth R. Wisse - Those who light the candles for Hanukkah beginning Sunday night are involved in a struggle for freedom. Today's defenders of Israel fight not only for their own restored political and religious freedom but for the right of all nations to freedom from increasingly violent and maddened enemies. Hanukkah celebrates not war but the self-rule that was unattainable without it. Arab and Muslim leaders who fomented anger, grievance, blame and aggression against the State of Israel unleashed a violence they can no longer contain, one that has spread across the globe. Israel applies its ingenuity and resources to helping to stave off the resulting carnage and safeguard the civilized world. The writer, a former professor of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard, is the author of Jews and Power (2007).
2015-12-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive