Hanukkah isn’t just about lighting candles, spinning a dreidel, or eating latkes. The holiday exists to commemorate the Maccabees’ victory over the Syrian-Greek army in Judea. A fight to remain Jewish in their own land.

It celebrates Jews defeating their oppressors, preserving their identity, and rededicating the Second Temple. None of that is a miracle without the central fact it all depends on Israel.

Hanukkah is a Zionist holiday. Without Jews free to be Jewish in their ancestral homeland, it’s reduced to candles, games, oily food, and stripped of the meaning that made it worth celebrating in the first place.