~*~ The Chanukah War ~*~
Is Hamas like Amalek or the Philistines - or Both?
Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu told Ashdod students that Hamas is like the ancient Amalek, which attacked the children of Israel.

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Arutz Sheva
January 18, 2009

A reminder of the message of Amalek
 

Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu told Ashdod students last week that Hamas is like the ancient Amalek, which attacked the children of Israel right after the Exodus from Egypt, and then wrote in a weekly Torah leaflet that they are like the Philistines in the time of Samson (Shimshon). Whether one or the other, or both, the rabbi called on the government not to surrender to modern moral values "at the expense of Jewish lives."

Rabbi Eliyahu told the students at the Bnei Akiva high school that the war against Hamas is "a war of the people of Israel against Amalek, against those wishing to destroy Jews."

The People of Israel's first encounter with Amalek is recounted in the Book of Exodus. "Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim," the Torah relates in Exodus 17:6," and then continues, "So Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek." In the end, "Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword."

Amalek also appears in the Book of the prophet Samuel (Shmuel), where King Saul (Shaul) failed to obey the command to kill Agag, the king of Amalek, and paid the price of a kingdom ripped apart by disunity.

Jewish tradition states that the identity of the Amalek people today is not known, but Amalek's intention of exterminating the People of Israel is associated with several figures in Israel, from Agag descendant Haman in the Book of Esther to Hitler and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - and now, Hamas.

However, Rabbi Eliyahu also wrote in a weekly Torah bulletin this past Sabbath that the rulers of Gaza today are the same Philistines from the same Gaza area and with the same lack of morals as they displayed in the days of Samson.

"Learn from history," he wrote. Then, like today, they had no moral problem to burn the Philistine wife of Samson with her father's family.

"Then, like today, the Israeli 'elite' did not exactly tolerate Samson, who was not a member of the 'clique' and who and burned Philistine fields.

"The story of his last days is similar to today's events," according to Rabbi Eliyahu. "He stands at the base of the columns in the presence of thousands of Philistines who laugh" at his being apparently powerless.

"What would you do?" the rabbi asked rhetorically. "Samson intended to bring down the building on the residents and asks for help from the Almighty. Will He answer him? Are his intentions positive that he wants to him to kill thousands of people, women and children, because they want to kill him?

"G-d helped him. The Philistines learned a lesson not to mess around with those Jews. Twenty years of quiet" followed.

He concluded, "We hope that that Israel today will succeed in its task against the same Philistines from the same place and not fold its hands in 'morality' and prefer that Philistines live instead of Jews."