Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Monday to cast Israel’s war as a broader struggle for civilization rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Speaking alongside Israel Defense Forces soldiers at the site, Netanyahu said the ancient Maccabees’ revolt ensured the survival of the Jewish people and laid the groundwork for Western democracy.
“If the Maccabees had failed, there would be no Huckabees,” he said, referring to visiting U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee. “There would be no Judeo-Christian civilization. There would be no United States,” he continued.
Israel is “fighting the battle that the Maccabees fought,” against enemies who seek “to extinguish us, wipe us out from the face of the earth,” said Netanyahu. He described the war as both a fight for Israel’s survival and a defense of “the civilization of freedom” and “our common traditions, our common values,” crediting “five brave brothers”—the Maccabees—with having “made the whole difference.”
That same spirit, he said, now motivates Israeli troops “fighting in Gaza or in Lebanon or Iran—wherever is necessary—not only to preserve the Jewish nation and the Jewish state, but to preserve civilization against the barbarians.”
“The barbarians are out there. They did a horrible thing to us on Oct. 7, they’ll never do it again. But they’re doing it against Jews in Sydney and Jews elsewhere in America and elsewhere. This is our common battle against the barbarians,” he said.
“We won it here. We’re winning here. We’ll win it everywhere,” he added.
Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, lit the second Chanukah candle together with IDF soldiers.
They were joined by Western Wall Rabbi and custodian of the holy sites Shmuel Rabinowitz and his wife, Western Wall Heritage Foundation director Mordechai (Soli) Eliav, and Huckabee and his wife, Janet.
Netanyahu and his wife placed a note between the stones of the wall, praying for the success of IDF soldiers and Israel’s security forces. Sara Netanyahu dedicated her prayer to the return of the fallen abducted soldier, “Israel’s hero,” Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last hostage still held in the Gaza Strip.
“Dear friends, Sara and I are very moved to be here with you, the brave soldiers of Israel,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew at the ceremony. “When I look into your eyes, I see the determination, the courage and the heroism of the Maccabees. You are the Maccabees of our time.”
Israeli troops were “bringing about the same miracles” as those attributed to the Maccabees some 2,200 years ago, facing enemies who sought “to erase the people of Israel, the Jews and Judaism from the face of the earth,” he said. “In that war, we first and foremost saved our nation, but we also fought the battle of the people of light and culture against the people of darkness,” he continued.
“We are winning. You are winning,” he told the troops, praising their “supreme bravery” and saying they were “truly performing miracles.”
Netanyahu also referred to President Donald Trump, calling him “a great friend,” and quoted Trump as asking how Israel manages to prevail despite its small size. Netanyahu said Israel’s strength “comes from the heritage of Israel, from our faith, from our understanding that we will never allow anyone to sever the lifeline of the Jewish people.”
He added: “You are performing miracles in our times, in this season as in those days, and I salute you here by the Western Wall, where the Temple once stood, our heroic Maccabees.”
