President Barack Obama issued a Hanukkah greeting on Friday – one day ahead of the start of the Jewish holiday, and at about the same time his UN envoy abstained at a Security Council, throwing the Jewish State to the dogs for the first time since his spiritual predecessor President Jimmy Carter had done in it 1980. Obama explained that “the meaning of this holiday has inspired an American tradition of religious freedom.”
Happy Hanukkah and Chag Sameach from @POTUS and @FLOTUS! https://t.co/8rzvVCCXQR pic.twitter.com/TvGI6PuT4T — The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 24, 2016
Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in 165 BC by the Maccabees after it had been desecrated by Helenized Jews and their imperial patrons in Damascus. Obama, who hosted more than 1,000 people during two Hanukkah receptions at the White House last week, on Friday afternoon addressed how the values of the holiday apply to everyone, regardless of their faith.
He did not mention that, had the Maccabees redeemed the Holy Temple today, they would surely have been condemned by the UN Security Council, with the US abstaining, because said Holy Temple stood in “Occupied East Jerusalem.”
“For more than two millennia, the story of Hanukkah has reminded the world of the Jewish people’s perseverance and the persistence of faith, even against daunting odds,” the president said. “For more than two centuries, the meaning of this holiday has inspired an American tradition of religious freedom – one codified in the Bill of Rights and chronicled in the enduring promise President George Washington made in his letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island: that the United States ‘gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.’
“May the flicker of each flame in every Menorah remind us all of the profound miracles in our own lives. And may the light of hope we shed continue to drive out darkness and brighten the futures we build for our families, our neighbors, our communities, and our world.
“On behalf of Michelle and my family, Chanukah Sameach. Happy Hanukkah!”
It can be safely said, to paraphrase the late Winston Churchill, a man who never pretended to like Jews but nevertheless sacrificed tens of thousands of his countrymen’s lives to end their mass murder, Never has a smaller man said so much and meant so little.