The days pass and Arab aggression grows more blatant and deadly. The world becomes less and less friendly towards the Jewish state, but in turn, the response from Israel’s present leaders - Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni - can be summed up as humiliation piled upon humiliation.

Israel, under the present government, stoops low like the ghetto Jew.

Both the United States and Russia are rushing to arm Lebanon with new deadly weapons, knowing full well that they will fall into the hands of Hizbullah, yet not a murmur of protest has been heard from the three leaders who have brought Israel to the edge of the abyss. Israel is humiliated.

The farce that was the truce between Hamas and Israel was always a lie. The three politicians, whom the Israeli people endure, bought into a deceptive Arab ploy that any schoolchild could see for what it was.

How many times must it be restated that no Muslim entity, especially Hamas, will ever honor any agreement made with non-Muslims. It is in the Koran for all to see, except, of course, those who lead Israel and choose not to see. Again, the Jewish state is humiliated.

Hamas used the illusory ceasefire to build up its weaponry and defenses, while the Israeli people suffered from intermittent shelling and missile attacks from the Gaza Arabs. Now, the missile barrage grows daily in its intensity and lethality, while the Arabs look at the Jews’ timid response with derision and contempt.

When Hamas announced that the so-called six-month ceasefire was over, Ehud Barak pleaded with them to continue the farce. Again, more humiliation.

The Israeli Supreme Court declared that in the course of responding to Arab aggression from Gaza it is illegal to fire at Arab civilian populations, thus rendering retaliation against Hamas and Islamic Jihad impossible. Meanwhile, the Arabs deliberately aim at Israeli civilians.

If Israel had fought such a war in 1948, then the state would never have been reborn. Sixty years afterwards, Israel no longer stands as the symbol of pride and pluckiness that so many in the world once respected.

Now Israel, under the present government, stoops low like the ghetto Jew. Forced to survive but fearful to strike back at his tormentors, he is always seeking that delusional opiate called "peace," which is but a bitter herb.

The new Obama administration is looming large for Israel. It will not be friendly. It contains officials hostile to the Jewish state. They will lean with growing brutality upon Israel to force it to give away its Biblical homeland, to make Judea and Samaria judenrein in order to create a new Arab state.

The “two-state solution” will be for the Jews of Israel a new “final solution.” Within the mere fifty miles which is the width of Israel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, a hostile Arab state will emerge. What southern Israel has endured from Gaza will be repeated from Judea and Samaria. Israel will be reduced to a nine-mile-wide insanity within lines once called by Abba Eban, "the Auschwitz borders." Humiliation will give way to annihilation.

Are we to be the generation that witnesses the destruction of the Jewish state; a destruction primarily self-induced by sad and sorry leaders?

How long before a leader returns the Jewish state to a condition of pride in itself and a terror to its enemies? We know it is hated by the world, even though it conducts itself in a more humane way towards its implacable and barbaric Arab foes than any other nation has ever done or would.

Let us pray for a leader like Judah Maccabee.

Is it not better then to do what it must to survive, knowing that it will be hated anyway? Is there any purpose served in trying to be liked by such a world? Must Israel heap more humiliation upon itself in order to win brownie points from a world that scorns it?

Have not all the past examples of the world’s deceptions and intrigues against the Jewish state taught Israel’s present leaders anything? Alas, it would seem not.

Let this era of humiliation end speedily in our time. With the miracle of Chanukah fresh in our minds and in its spirit of re-dedication, let us pray for a leader like Judah Maccabee to arise and once more give all who love and cherish Eretz Yisrael reason to feel pride and hope.