"Solidarity in Struggle: Black and Palestinian Resistance" - a shameful discussion in Ithaca on February 1, 2025

The Southside Community Center in Ithaca is hosting a panel discussion on "Solidarity in Struggle: Black and Palestinian Resistance," on February 1. One of the speakers is Russell Rickford, a professor at Cornell University whose first response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 250 more was that he was "exhilarated"!

This is some of what he said at a rally on the Ithaca Commons on Sunday, October 15, just a week after the massacre (text is from the Cornell Daily Sun article on the rally):

“Hamas has challenged the monopoly of violence. And in those first few hours, even as horrific acts were being carried out, many of which we would not learn about until later, there are many Gazans of good will, many Palestinians of conscience, who abhor violence, as do you, as do I. Who abhor the targeting of civilians, as do you, as do I,” Rickford said during the rally. “Who were able to breathe, they were able to breathe for the first time in years. It was exhilarating. It was energizing. And if they weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, by this shifting of the balance of power, then they would not be human. I was exhilarated.”

He added: “What has Hamas done? Hamas has shifted the balance of power. Hamas has punctured the illusion of invincibility. That’s what they have done. You don’t have to be a Hamas supporter to recognize that,” Rickford said. “Hamas has changed the terms of the debate. Israeli officials are right — nothing will be the same again.”

Russell Rickford was exhilarated by murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping. By the time he made that speech, we already knew about the about the "horrific acts" that he pretends to condemn by saying that he "abhor[s] violence." Those of us paying attention, like I was, knew about them already on October 7, because we were following the reports from Israel. For him, "Hamas has changed the terms of the debate" - and he commends them for it.

Another speaker is Momodou Taal, a graduate student at Cornell. He was one of the leaders of the Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation group, which was one of the main organizers of the Cornell protests last year and this year. He has spoken out in support of "armed resistance."

This is a quote from a speech he made on campus in early February, 2024 (text from Cornell Daily Sun).

About 70 demonstrators gathered outside of Day Hall on Friday afternoon to protest the Student Assembly’s 16-4 rejection of Resolution 51, which called on Cornell to end partnerships with and suspected investments in arms companies — such as Boeing and Raytheon — that provide weapons to Israel.

“We don’t take our cue from some bullsh*t Student Assembly at Cornell,” said Momodou Taal, grad, who led chants throughout the event. “We take our cue from the armed resistance in Palestine. We are in solidarity with the armed resistance in Palestine from the river to the sea,” he continued, garnering some cheers from the crowd.

Ceasefire? Return of the hostages?

I feel tremendously embittered. The war between Israel and Hamas has gone on for fifteen months since October 7, 2023. The Israeli hostages are still rotting in the tunnels in the hands of Hamas guards who abuse them physically and sexually. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza have been killed, and Gaza is full of rubble where homes and schools and businesses used to be.

"Light at the end of the tunnel"
Today's "Daily Postcard" from the Israel artist Shoshke (Zeev) Engelmayer,
depicting Israel hostages in the tunnels with a tiny flower of hope blooming. 
Link to his Facebook page with this image. 

Apparently Israel has finally agreed to the ceasefire with Hamas, as of a few hours ago, but the security cabinet will only vote on it on Saturday night, according to the Times of Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu the coward is still trying to keep the criminal Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in the cabinet (he actually is a convicted criminal - look it up). This means that the hostages who were supposed to be released on Sunday will be released instead on Monday. If Netanyahu and the government ministers truly cared about the lives of the hostages they would have agreed to a ceasefire many months ago. 

Happy Eighth Day of Hanukkah!

This year Hanukkah extended over two secular years - into January 1 and 2, 2025. A few years ago the first day of Hanukkah was on Thanksgiving - so it is a moveable feast, as a friend of mine said today when we talked.

Links to a couple of interesting articles about Hanukkah from the Torah.com website -

Chanukah: The Greek Influence of Martyrdom.

On Chanukah we celebrate the miraculous military victories of the “few over the many,” and of Jewish culture over Greek. Ironically, however, Chanukah has also bequeathed to us a new genre of Jewish literature, one that has been in frequent use ever since: Greek-style stories of bravery in defeat and dying for the cause.

Megillat Antiochus: The Biblical Chanukah Scroll 

The medieval Scroll of Antiochus does more than enrich Chanukah with details. It models the holiday after Purim by telling the story in the biblical language and idiom of Daniel, Ezra, and Esther.

For a minor Jewish festival with no biblical command or account as its origin, Chanukah plays a major role in the Jewish yearly cycle. It includes a highly visible formal ritual —the lighting of the chanukiah/menorah—its own liturgy, folk practices like spinning the dreidel and eating latkes, jelly donuts, and chocolate coins, and the singing of catchy tunes. For many diasporic Jews, Chanukah is the Jewish answer to Christmas while, for many Israelis, it provides an opportunity to reflect upon Jewish military might. 

What does Chanukah celebrate? The books of 1 and 2 Maccabees present the earliest and most comprehensive versions of the story, but as they were not accorded canonical status by Jews, they were soon lost to Jewish tradition—though preserved by Christians in the Apocrypha. In contrast to Purim, whose story is told in the biblical book of Esther, traditional Jews for millennia relied mostly on bits and pieces preserved in the Chanukah liturgy, the Talmud, rabbinic midrash, and collective memory. Thus, most Jews throughout the ages were aware of some form of persecution, Judah Maccabee, a hard-fought war won, and something about a miracle involving oil. 

To fill this gap, an author living in the mid to late first millennium C.E. composed the Megillat Antiochus (The Scroll of Antiochus; also known as “The Greek Scroll” and “The Scroll of the House of the Hasmoneans”), which presents itself as the narrative explaining the events leading up to Chanukah. The author has little direct access to more historical sources like 1 and 2 Maccabees, and he uses biblical and rabbinic ones as well as his own expansions and Jewish collective memory to tell the story.

Megillat Antiochus was written in something akin to Late Jewish Literary Aramaic, yet, at the same time, anyone familiar with Biblical (i.e., imperial) Aramaic would sense that the text wishes to give a feel as if it were composed in that dialect, by deploying words and forms that characterize Biblical Aramaic but were no longer used in later Aramaic dialects. In addition, it copies, draws on, riffs upon, and develops the language and narrative style of Daniel, Ezra, and the book of Esther to enrich and inform its overarching narrative.