Eighteenth Century composer George Frederic Handel who is probably best known for his oratorio Messiah, wrote and performed many more of the same genre. One, Judas Maccabaeus, was reportedly composed to celebrate the victory of the Duke of Cumberland over Charles Edward Stuart (known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”) at the Battle of Culloden during the 1746 Jacobite rebellion. The libretto, with considerable dramatic license, comes from the Bible’s Old Testament Book of 2 Maccabees that chronicles the period 170–160 BC when Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Greek Empire.1 The then ruler Antiochus IV had undertaken to defile the Second Temple in Jerusalem and destroy the Jewish religion.
Judas Maccabeus, son of a priest who defied Antiochus, became the leader of the resistance and inspired the people with thoughts of liberty and victory through the power of Jehovah. When victory was finally achieved for the Jewish people, Maccabeus was celebrated as their hero (the chorus “See the Conquering Hero Comes!” in Act III). News arrives that Rome is willing to form an alliance with Judas against the Seleucid empire. The people rejoice that peace has at last come to their country (“O Lovely Peace”).2 The Jewish feast of Hanukkah commemorates the victory and the cleansing of the Temple.
Mark Twain is reputed to have observed history does not repeat itself but it rhymes.3 So go recent events in the war of Israel against its Hamas enemies in Gaza. That war, or at least that phase is over. The result has to be regarded as an Israeli victory, the return of the hostages eliminated Israel’s internal opposition to continuing to fight. If Hamas reneges on the rest of the deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netaynahu will have free hand to deal with it as he chooses, and President Donald Trump has said the U. S. will back him.
The Israeli success was multi-factored. The competence of the Mossad and the competence and courage of the Israel Defense Force were two of them. Netanyahu’s resolve in the face of a internal dissent and international disapproval (and condemnation) was another. But Donald Trump, deal maker extraordinary, orchestrated the process. After giving Netanyahu a green light to eliminate Hamas leaders in Iran and control Iranian airspace, Trump delivered the coup de grace and destroyed Iran’s incipient nuclear capability. The combined Israeli – U.S. forces thus neutered Hamas patron. Iran’s proxies Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yeman were also neutralized; Hezbollah leaders decimated by the exploding pagers, dubbed “grim beepers.” Trump publicly urged Netanyahu to seek a peace deal, but appeared to privately support whatever Israel did. When Netanyahu bombed the Hamas leaders in Doha, Trump publicly expressed disdain, but this act appears to have had the President’s tacit acquiescence to the deed. In any event it seems to have motivated the Qatari rulers to force Hamas to the table.
After the combatants agreed to the cease fire, Donald Trump went to Jerusalem to address the Knesset.4 He was greeted with a standing ovation and a trumpet fanfare. Benjamin Netanyahu was similarly, if not as ostentatiously, honored. There is no report that the fanfare was based on Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus choral anthem. How apropos would that have been!
Postscript
While the Second Century B.C. Maccabees ultimately prevailed against the Seleucids, It was slightly less than a century when their erstwhile Roman patrons under General Pompey, during the conquest of the rest of the Levant, entered Jerusalem and established Rome’s rule over Judea and the rest of what is now the State of Israel. The downstream effect of the Trump-Netanyahu cease-fire, whether soon or distant, is anybody’s guess.
For now we can enjoy Handel’s oratorio, like the rest of his music is, in a word, glorious.
Footnotes
- Alexander the Great’s empire was partitioned among several factions after his death.
↩︎ - Maccabeus, the spelling varies, was actually killed in the final battle. But the Maccabees fought on.
↩︎ - Mark Twain, The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-Day (1873) Ch. 47. What was actually stated was in a quote“History never repeats itself, but the Kaleidoscopic combinations of the pictured present often seem to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends.” Later writers interpreted it to the shorthand version.
↩︎ - The Israeli parliament. ↩︎
