In Bush’s Chanukah message is a Straussian communication that alerts those who understand Strauss’ and his neoconservative ambiguous ways to expect much more war. The kosher president said, “After Jerusalem was conquered by an oppressive king and the Jews lost their right to worship in freedom, Judah Maccabee and his followers courageously set out to reclaim Jerusalem from foreign rule. Though their numbers were small, the Maccabees’ dedication to their faith was strong, and they emerged victorious.”

In another speech shortly after his Chanukah spiel, Bush said while presiding over the menorah lighting in the White House, “We pray that those who still live in the darkness of tyranny will someday see the light of freedom.” Chanukah George went on to tell his Jewish guests that “Terrorists can’t be God-believing people.” I’m sure he didn’t mean the state terrorists who blow people up with the F-16's and Apache helicopter gunships the American taxpayers give them. He must have been thinking of the Islamic non-governmental terrorists who use roadside bombs and the like to remove occupying forces from their soil.

In Straussian lingo, what Chanukah George is saying is that Israel will reclaim Jerusalem and eventually Israel will bloat to Biblical proportions, which will require war with Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The neoconservative worldview looks at life in a very simplistic way, much as Chanukah George does. There are people of “darkness,” which represents everyone who denies the “revelations” found in the Hebrew (Old Testament) Bible, and there are people of “light,” which represent the Jews and people who buy their nonsense of being God’s chosen ones “above all people on the face of the Earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

Unlike the Christmas story/myth of the baby Jesus and peace on Earth and good will to men, the Chanukah story is based on a Jewish military victory over Hellenistic civilization. The Jews and the neocons see Hellenistic civilization as “darkness” and their ignorant superstitions as “light.”  This theme is at the core of neoconservative thought.  Strauss repeatedly wrote, spoke and taught these unreasonable anti-progress ideas to people like Paul Wolfowitz, who was the first one to push for the war in Iraq.

This time the war the neocons and Chanukah George are pushing for is a war against Iran. Before Israel can try to regain its Biblical territory, they must be sure they are the only ones in the Middle East with Weapons of Mass Destruction. As Avi Mayer said regarding Chanukah George’s mindset at the menorah lighting, “A lot of the conversation centered on Iran and on the
president’s conviction that they not be allowed to pick up a nuclear weapon.”

Currently Israel IS the only country in the Middle East with nuclear bombs. Recently the Iranian government petitioned the United Nations to condemn Israel’s nuclear arsenal and to compel Israel to submit to UN inspections of its nuclear facilities and weapons.  As everyone knows, this resolution will be smashed by Israel’s 50 colonies, the US, which has veto power in the UN. This hypocrisy is evident to anyone who looks at it.

The interesting and informative book The Book On Bush - How George W. (Mis)leads America quotes longtime Washington insider David Gergen as saying Chanukah George believes “he’s on a mission that has some sort of theological roots.” The “theological roots” can be traced back to the Bible and the neocon philosophy of Leo Strauss.

In his essay "Jerusalem and Athens," Strauss points out the difference between Jewish thought that’s grounded in the Hebrew Bible that teaches the beginning of wisdom is “fear of the Lord” and the ideas and ideals of the Western philosophers that is grounded on free-thought and that teaches that “the beginning of wisdom is wonder” by writing, “. . . the opposition of the God or
gods of the philosophers to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the opposition of Reason and Revelation.” Chanukah George is squarely in the camp of Jerusalem with its "revelations"! That is why our soldiers and Marines are in the line of fire right now!

We all know Chanukah George likes to play dress-up and pretend. In his simple little mind he probably, based on his actions of war-mongering for Israel, sees himself as a modern day Judah Maccabee waging war for the benefit of the Bible god and his “chosen ones.”  In his twisted, born-again, Bible-based ideas, reason and enlightenment are darkness and evil, while the superstitions and ignorance of the Hebrew Bible are good and reign supreme. This dangerous and deluded worldview can only lead us to more war and more suffering.