The light will prevail

The story of Hanukkah, which began with a tyrant who made practicing Judaism punishable by death, is the miracle of the people of Israel.

It is the story of our faith and resilience.

This miracle has been repeated over and over, century after century, for more than 2,000 years.

As we read on Passover, in every generation there are those who rise up to destroy us, but our spirit and our faith have prevailed.

This Hanukkah, our modern day Maccabees – our security forces – are working to destroy Hezbollah’s terror tunnels in northern Israel.

These cross-border tunnels are built by Hezbollah with direct support and funding of Iran.

Like the Hamas tunnels from Gaza on Israel’s southern border, this blatant act of aggression has one purpose and one purpose alone: to attack innocent Israeli civilians.

We will not allow Iran to entrench itself in Syria – or via its proxy Hezbollah – in Lebanon, or use Gaza as a base from which to attack Israel.

The light of our determination – like the lights of Hanukkah – will prevail over the darkness around us.

We are a small, but ancient people who were gathered back to the Land of Israel as the Bible tells us from the “four corners of the earth.”

Our strength is not just our wonderful military.

It is our inner strength.

It is strength of purpose and strength of mind.

It is the strength of conviction.

Our message today is as it was in the ancient time of Hanukkah: We will prevail!

The writer is Israel’s social equality minister.