Hanukka Revisited

WHY NO EQUIVALENT MOSLEM HOLIDAY?
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Why was there no Islamic presence in Jerusalem at this time? No mention of the Islamic conquerors of the Greeks in Judea? Well, guess what: the events described in the "hanukkah story" took place in 124 B.C.E., that is some 700 years before there was such a thing as a "Moslem," an "Islam," an Arab "prophet" that called himself "Mohammed."
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BUT . . . BUT. . .
AREN'T MOSLEMS PART OF THE FABRIC OF AMERICAN LIFE?

AND IF NOT, WHY ARE THE JEWS PART OF IT (those "apes and pigs" as they are called by the Moslem's koran in 2:62-65, 5:59-60, 7:166)?

BECAUSE JEWS HAVE BEEN PART OF AMERICAN LIFE SINCE LONG BEFORE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

They were not always accepted or liked, even hated, but despite all that they did their part to build the American nation. And they never wanted to impose their religion on the American population nor put anything above the Constitution (such a the Islamics want to do with their shariah). Islamics want to make the United States into an Islamic nation--no matter what we, the citizens, want.

The following is from http://www.jewishmag.com/80mag/usa3/usa3.htm

Jews traced their earliest participation in Virginia's life from the 16th century with Sir Walter Raleigh through Jamestown and the revolution. The first permanent synagogue community Kehilah ha Kadosh Beth Shalome, was founded in 1789 in Richmond, Va.. Beth Shalome built its first permanent building in 1820 in Richmond. The president of the congregation at the time of dedication was Jacob Mordecai, born in 1762 in Philadelphia. His mother Elizabeth (Esther) Whitlock had been a Christian convert to Judaism.

***
Oct. 25. 1765, a group of Philadelphia merchants gathered in the State House to sign the non-importation agreement to fight the hated Stamp Tax of the British government. The first man to step forward to sign his name was the president of Mikve Israel Congregation, Philadelphia's only synagogue, Mathias Bush.

As the tensions between Britain and the American Colonies increased and finally erupted into war the American Colonial population was split almost into thirds; one third supported the war, one third was neutral and one third was pro British. The small Jewish population of America was also divided – the choice though was very heavily and disproportionaly in favor and support of the American Revolution. Not only did the Jews pledge their fortunes and sacred honor for America but their very lives.

A few days later in Philadelphia, July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was written. A copy was sent to Amsterdam via the small Dutch Caribbean Island of St. Eustatius. The Declaration was intercepted by the British at sea. An accompanying letter with the Declaration of Independence was also intercepted and sent to London as being a secret code about the document that needed to be deciphered - the letter was written in Yiddish.

Jews stood and fought along with their neighbors. Into the terrible dark cold winter at Valley Forge, Abraham Levy and Phillip Russell stood their watch. Joseph Simon from his frontier forge at Lancaster, Pa. supplied the Army with the famous Henry Rifles. Jewish trading merchants, peaceful before the war, outfitted their ships to become privateers and ravage the British at sea. The cost to many was great, the great merchant traders of Newport, Rhode Island saw their fortunes lost.

Men such as Aaron Lopez were bankrupted supporting the Revolution when their ships were lost to the British. In the area of finance the young American government might have foundered too except for the financial genius and personal financial risk and support taken on by Hayim Solomon. Solomon was to die bankrupted by his total support of the American cause. Though small in number the Jews chose to caste their fate with America.

But how did the Jews save the American Revolution? As late as 1781 the war had not been won by the Americans nor was it lost by the British. Arms were being funneled into the Colonies by arms merchants running the British blockade primarily from the tiny free trading Island of Dutch St. Eustatius. Jewish merchants and arms traders were a major presence on the island.

In 1781, the British realized they had to cut off the open door of arms shipments to the rebels through St. Eustatius. Admiral Sir George Rodney was sent to capture the island. His goal was to destroy the supplies and destroy the island's commercial and merchant class so they could not provide any more aide to the rebels. Early in 1781 the lightly defended island fell to the heavy presence of the main British battle fleet. Rodney in his vehemence destroyed the warehouses and the supplies. He burnt every home. He paid particular venomous attention to the Jews of St. Eustatius. The British burnt their homes and the synagogue, Honen Dalim, "She Who is Charitable to the Poor" – built 1739. Jewish property was confiscated and the men imprisoned with particular cruelty. Rodney spent months directing half his fleet to convey much of the stolen treasure back to England.

While Rodney was engaged in St. Eustatius, Lord Cornwallis and his army of British regulars were forced out of the Carolinas and retreated to the small port of Yorktown, Virginia on the James Peninsula. He needed to await critical reprovisioning and fresh reinforcements being brought by the British fleet. The weakened British fleet, with Cornwallis's reinforcements, was intercepted at sea by the French fleet under Admiral DeGrasse and soundly defeated. Degrasse took up positions at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay blockading Yorktown from the Sea.
General George Washington saw his chance. Washington trapped and besieged Cornwallis. In short course Cornwallis surrendered. The war was over. The Americans had won with the help of the French.

But how did the Jews save the American Revolution? If the Jews had not helped turn St. Eustatius into a major arms center for the Revolution and if Admiral Rodney had not spent so much time destroying St. Eustatius and particularly the Jews, the war might have ended differently. There is little doubt that Admiral Rodney's anti-Semitism helped squander his time and played a role in delaying and weakening the British fleet. Ironically it was the Jews of St. Eustatius who helped win the American Revolution.
http://www.jewishmag.com/80mag/usa3/usa3.htm


JEWS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

By 1776 and the War of Independence, there were an estimated 2,000 Jews (men, women and children) living in America, yet their contribution to the cause was significant. For example, in Charleston, South Carolina, almost every adult Jewish male fought on the side of freedom. In Georgia, the first patriot to be killed was a Jew (Francis Salvador). And additionally, the Jews provided significant financing for the patriots.
http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History_Part_55_-_Jews_and_the_Founding_of_America.asp


The Truth About George Washington's Hanukkah
http://blog.beliefnet.com/virtualtalmud/2007/12/the-truth-about-george-washing.html


An Amerian Naval Commodore

Uriah P. Levy (1792-1862)

Forty years before French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was court-martialed, convicted and eventually exonerated in trials based on anti-Semitism, an American naval officer was facing similar tribulations. The American court's verdict was unanimous for the 63 year old defendant: "Urah P. Levy is morally, mentally, physically and professionally fit for the Naval Service and ought to be restored to the active list of the Navy." Within five years this court-martial, Levy was placed in command of the entire Mediterranean Fleet and was elevated to the Navy's highest rank - Commodore.

Uriah Phillips Levy was born in 1792 in Philadelphia; he was barely 14 years old when he embarked on his naval career by signing on as a cabin boy. Seven years later he volunteered for service in the United States Navy during the War of 1812, as "proof of love to my country." The next year Uriah was captured and imprisoned by the British until the end of the war. In the years following, he faced persecution from many naval officers, he had to defend himself in a duel, and was subjected to a total of six courts-martial ... all instigated by anti-Semitism.
Throughout his life, Uriah P. Levy, was active in religious life; he was the first president of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, and in 1854 he sponsored the new Seminary of the Bnai Jesherun Educational Institute in New York.

It was Levy's wish that he be remembered for his singular efforts to abolish the barbarous punishment of flogging in the U.S. Navy, which resulted in Congressional approval of an anti-flogging bill in 1850.

Preserver of Jefferson's Monticello

Uriah P. Levy regarded Thomas Jefferson as "one of the greatest men in history, who did much to mold the Republic in a form in which man's religion does not make him ineligible for political or governmental life." Thus, about 10 years after the former President's death in 1826, Levy purchased Jefferson's run down estate, that was virtually in ruin. He began a long and costly program of renovation and restoration, including the purchase of an additional 2,500 acres adjoining the historic property. After Levy's death in 1862, his will directed that Monticello - the house and property - be left "to the people of the United States."

The song "God Bless America" was written by a Jew, Irving Berlin.
http://www.amuseum.org/jahf/virtour/index.html

More about Hanukkah:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah#Origins_of_the_holiday
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
http://www3.telus.net/public/kstam/en/temple/details/hanukkah.htm
http://www.ort.org/ort/edu/festivals/hanukkah/index.html

AND ISLAM? DIDN'T MOSLEMS FIGURE SOMEWHERE IN ALL THAT?

Yep, they sure did.

Just look at this. Moslems doing what they do best

Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror 1801–1805

[title of a book by Joseph Wheelan (2003)]

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-thomas_jefferson.html

and the following elaboration on that theme:


[quote]

One immediate effect of the American Revolution . . . was to strengthen the hand of those very same North African potentates: roughly speaking, the Maghrebian provinces of the Ottoman Empire that conform to today’s Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. Deprived of Royal Navy protection, American shipping became even more subject than before to the depredations of those who controlled the Strait of Gibraltar. The infant United States had therefore to decide not just upon a question of national honor but upon whether it would stand or fall by free navigation of the seas.
* * *
Linda Colley’s excellent book Captives . . . shows the reaction of the English and American publics to a [white] slave trade of which they were victims rather than perpetrators. How many know that perhaps 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were enslaved in Islamic North Africa between 1530 and 1780?
* * *
But one cannot get around what Jefferson heard when he went with John Adams to wait upon Tripoli’s ambassador to London in March 1785. When they inquired by what right the Barbary states preyed upon American shipping, enslaving both crews and passengers, America’s two foremost envoys were informed that “it was written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” (It is worth noting that the United States played no part in the Crusades, or in the Catholic reconquista of Andalusia.)


[italics and bold emphasis mine. lw]



* * *
It seems likely that Jefferson decided from that moment on that he would make war upon the Barbary kingdoms as soon as he commanded American forces. His two least favorite institutions—enthroned monarchy and state-sponsored religion—were embodied in one target, and it may even be that his famous ambivalences about slavery were resolved somewhat when he saw it practiced by the Muslims.
* * *
John Jay, in his letters, took a “bring-it-on” approach; he believed that “Algerian Corsairs and the Pirates of Tunis and Tripoli” would compel the feeble American states to unite, since “the more we are ill-treated abroad the more we shall unite and consolidate at home.” The eventual Constitution, which provides for an army only at two-year renewable intervals, imposes no such limitation on the navy.
* * *
[Jefferson] . . . when he was out of office and temporarily “retired” to Monticello. . . . could . . . watch . . . the construction of a fleet—and the forging of a permanent Marine Corps—that he

[w]ould one day use for his own ends.


At one point, Jefferson hoped that John Paul Jones, naval hero of the Revolution, might assume command of a squadron that would strike fear into the Barbary pirates. While ambassador in Paris, Jefferson had secured Jones a commission with Empress Catherine of Russia, who used him in the Black Sea to harry the Ottomans, the ultimate authority over Barbary. But Jones died before realizing his dream of going to the source and attacking Constantinople. The task of ordering war fell to Jefferson.
* * *
Yusuf Karamanli, the pasha of Tripoli, declared war on the United States in May 1801, in pursuit of his demand for more revenue. This earned him a heavy bombardment of Tripoli and the crippling of one of his most important ships. But the force of example was plainly not sufficient. In the altered mood that prevailed after the encouraging start in Tripoli, Congress passed an enabling act in February 1802 that, in its provision for a permanent Mediterranean presence and its language about the “Tripolitan Corsairs,” amounted to a declaration of war. The Barbary regimes continued to underestimate their new enemy, with Morocco declaring war in its turn and the others increasing their blackmail.


More at http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-thomas_jefferson.html


For another description of the Tripoli venture of the newly formed United States, see
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/2006/10/to-shores-of-tripoli.html
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/2007/01/defeating-islam_30.html

BOOKS ABOUT THE AMERICAN WAR AGAINST THE BARBARY PIRATES

The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World, by Frank Lambert (2005); Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror 1801–1805, by Joseph Wheelan (2003);

To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines, by A. B. C. Whipple (1991, republished 2001);

Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation, by Joshua E. London (2005).

Most recently, in his new general history, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, the Israeli scholar Michael Oren opens with a long chapter on the Barbary conflict.

As some of the subtitles—and some of the dates of publication—make plain, this new interest is largely occasioned by America’s latest round of confrontation in the Middle East, or the Arab sphere or Muslim world, if you prefer those expressions.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-thomas_jefferson.html


AND

from fjordman

Subject: MOSLEM ARGUMENT JUSTIFYING THEIR BEHAVIOR IN OUR--NON-MOSLEM FREE COUNTRIES

as is expounded at http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/2007/11/western-mores-offend-mos-its-not-matter.html

If you are Moslem . . .. . . when in Rome . . . do any damn thing you please and justify it by saying you didn't realize you were in Rome, or what the Romans did, and anyway, the Romans are Infidels so who cares what they do, or expect.

from fjordman via the Disease and the Cure . . . as is the following:

We Muslims are here, here to stay, and we have a right to take advantage of this situation. It is our view of the matter that should prevail. Western goods, like the land on which we now live, belong to Allah and to the best of men -- his Believers. Western women, too, essentially belong to us -- our future booty. Western laws may "apply" but not in any sense that really counts or that we reocgnize. We recognize Islamic law, the sharia, and according to that we are simply exhibiting the attiudes toward Infidels that are drummed into us, that are right and according to the laws of Allah. Why should we act differently? Oh, and if we happen to act, as some of the Islamic websites tell us we can act, in accordance with the local laws -- but only insofar as they do not contradict Islam -- that is only because of darura, the doctrine of necessity -- and that necessity, that darura, is of course only temporary.

fjordman