The Irresponsible, Miraculous Maccabean Revolt – Then and Now

by Haggai Huberman , journalist and author, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Judah Maccabee's war against the Syrian Greeks was not logical or realistic, and basically had no chance of succeeding. But then came the miracles… Things didn't work then by logic – and the same is true today.

If someone in the year 167 BEC had made a cold calculation of the balance of power between the Hasmonean rebels and the Greek kingdom in the Holy Land, he would not have recommended that the Jews start a war against the latter. In fact, there was truly no realistic chance for them to win. They started off with only 3,000 soldiers (or possibly 6,000, according to Maccabees II), while the Greeks had anywhere between 20,000 and 100,000 troops. Things did not look rosy for the good guys.

Even worse was the quality of the respective forces. The Seleucids were well-trained, well-organized, and well-armed, and could boast of infantry, heavy and light cavalry, elephant units, and catapult units for hurling large rocks. In contrast, Judah Maccabee's small army used primitive farming tools and home-made weapons. What chance did he have?

And yet, the Jews won, after a very long war. They utilized a unique combination of Judah's battle tactics: guerilla warfare integrated with unpredictable miracles. The first Chanukah miracle was not the famous "flask of oil" incident, but rather a seemingly "natural" battle development. It happened during the fourth of the eight battles between the Hasmoneans and the Greeks, which took place in Beit Tzur, south of today's Gush Etzion bloc. [One of the modern Jewish communities there is known as Carmei Tzur, in commemoration of the town.] Practically in mid-battle, Greek commander Lysias suddenly left for home to try to inherit the apparently-deceased Antiochus – and Judah rushed in with his forces to fill the void. Announcing, "The Temple Mount is in our hands!" a bunch of centuries before anyone ever dreamt of Al-Aqsa, they purified the Holy Temple, found a lone flask of ritually pure oil, and lit the Menorah for eight days until additional pure oil could be produced.

The fifth battle also took place in Gush Etzion, one of whose communities is named Elazar – after the brother of Judah Maccabee who was killed at this time while bravely stabbing a Seleucid elephant from beneath.

After this defeat, another Chanukah miracle took place. Lysias had retaken Jerusalem, and was about to pursue Judah's army to the north. However, he received word of a rebellion in the eastern part of the kingdom, and again he abruptly and surprisingly left the scene, though not before offering Judah a ceasefire of sorts. Judah the Maccabee utilized the situation for good advantage, and retook the entire area of Judea. This did not mean the onset of a Jewish State, however, as Judah was killed in the next battle: the Battle of Elasa, not far from today's Beit El.

For the next seven years, the Jewish forces were led by Mattathias' youngest son (Judah's youngest brother) Yonatan. He spent this time building up a larger and better-trained army, and in the year 152, he and his forces again liberated Jerusalem and purified the Temple. This time, the Jewish autonomy and Temple dedication lasted for over 200 years, until the Romans sacked the Holy City in 68-70. Yonatan also achieved the nullification of the anti-religious decrees.

Paradoxically, then, it was precisely the Greek decrees aimed at separating the Jews from their Judaism that caused them to rebel and ultimately oust the Greeks and their culture from the Holy Land.  

Miracles are of course not a good work plan. But it's also true that Ben-Gurion - who declared the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 even though it was militarily expected not to last more than a week - famously said: "In Israel, whoever doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist."

We can also now give new meaning to the words of our prayers, "He Who wrought miracles to our forefathers in those days – at this time" - for in our times, too, we are living through a period of an ongoing miracle. It will take years before we truly comprehend what an amazing Heavenly miracle these entire last few months have been, and internalize that nothing that happened here could have been forecast by any realistic observer.

Could anyone have believed on Simchat Torah of 15 months ago, with thousands of Hamas terrorists overrunning our southern border, capturing communities and kibbutzim, slaughtering over 1,200 Jews – that a year later, Hamas leader Sinwar would be turned to dust, most of the Gaza Strip would be turned into piles of ruins, and .Iran would abruptly lose much of its military power in the Middle East and would be closer than ever to economic collapse? Could it have been foreseen that within this time period, Hizbullah would lose not only most of its military strength, but also its legendary leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack? Would anyone have believed that a long strip of villages in southern Lebanon would be razed and Hizbullah would be pushed back from the Israeli border? How about that Assad would be in exile in Russia, Syria would be left without an army, and the highest peak of Mt. Hermon, as well as other parts of Syria, would be under Israeli control without even a battle?

Yes, miracles cannot be the main feature of a national battle strategy. And even for a miracle to take place, we must work hard – or at least, fight hard. Without the initiatives that the IDF took, to what would the miracles have adhered or applied? On the other hand, no matter how much we do, without Heavenly providence, our success, especially in these wars, is very far from guaranteed. Both of these have always been true, throughout our history, and including of course that of the State of Israel.

Very soon, we all pray and hope, we will merit to experience possibly the happiest miracle of all: The safe return of dozens of Israeli captives to their families and country, Amen. 

The 76-Year-War

by Yossi Achimeir, journalist and former politician, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The trauma of Oct. 7^th is not over, the war continues – and Israel lives on.

It's now been nearly 15 months that Israel has been living in the shadow of the trauma of Oct. 7^th. The horrendous calamity that fell with a frightful thud that morning of Simchat Torah has swollen into a multi-front war, unprecedented since our War of Independence. The matches lit on the Gaza envelope have set raging fires in the northern border and Judea and Samaria as well, ignited by the pyromaniacs sitting in Tehran.

The flames, of course, have not yet gone out. Even though two of our greatest enemies – Hamas in the south and Hizbullah in the north - have been soundly defeated, the Ayatollahs in Iran have not given up their dream to destroy the Jewish State, and are actively employing their third proxy - the Houthis in Yemen – to this end.

Just like the Yom Kippur War 51 years ago, the current war also took Israel by surprise – and both were grave blunders that endangered our very existence. Both of them might have been avoided were it not for complacency on our side.

But our national will was strong. Though we abruptly found ourselves nearly overwhelmed both times, the IDF was able not only to recover, but also to repel the enemies, strike them cripplingly in their own territories, and thwart their plans. However, both times we paid a very steep price in the blood of our soldiers and citizens.

The main difference between the two is that the Yom Kippur War lasted three weeks, while the current war has not yet reached its absolute conclusion. Most Israelis continue to live the good life, while its best sons, in the standing army and in the reserves, continue to meet the challenges both north and south, far from their families and jobs. The Israel Air Force has successfully sent its long arms thousands of kilometers away, both to Iran and to Yemen – and with all this, the work is far from completed.

We sometimes believe that we will finally be able to breathe easily as soon as we totally obliterate Iran's nuclear and other military capabilities. Is this true?

Though we are the only country in the world under constant threat from all directions, Israel has a strong military capacity that seems to reveal itself most impressively when we are under attack – and often, after terrible internal fiascos that seem to have invited the enemy upon us. In the current case, the enemy appears to have identified the weaknesses eating away at us from within, issues that bring us too close for comfort to civil war. And yet, over the past year, we were able to climb up from the depths of defeat almost to the pinnacle of victory and national pride. The Middle East geopolitical map has been turned upside down, with the long-time attackers and war-mongerers having brought upon themselves death, destruction and suffering that will require many years of recovery.

But really this war is simply the last in a chain of hostilities that have been forced upon Israel throughout its 76 years. Basically, it's been one long, 76-year war. It would be a mistake to think that Oct. 7^th is behind us, and that we have well learned the lessons it presented us. Just consider last week's terrorist murder of Holocaust survivor Ludmila Lipovsky, 83 years old, on Holocaust Martyrs St. in Herzliya. That was her own private Oct. 7^th – parallel to the national Oct. 7^th that cruelly snuffed out the lives of 1200 Israelis in their homes and at an outdoors festival.

We must internalize that the extremist Muslims' uncontrolled hatred for us, wherever they are, is far from extinguished. They will continue to seek to murder and maim us – Israelis and other Jews alike. Even when our security forces manage, without fanfare or recognition, to thwart hundreds of attacks a year, there could still be one lone attack that could pass under the radar and bring death and tragedy upon us. We are at perpetual war with fanatic, implacable enemies who, as it looks now, will never accept our existence.

Dangers also face us from the "quiet" Jordanian border. The Hashemite Kingdom, with which we have a peace agreement, is facing the threat of destabilization by Iranian elements. We also have a treaty with Egypt, which for some reason has begun arming itself to the teeth. And even in crumbling Syria, the dreaded Assad regime is in the process of being replaced by an unknown quantity – i.e., not only the rebels, but partially also Erdogan's threatening Turkish forces.

What we can do is the following: We must not ever give our enemies reason to believe that we are crumbling from within, busy with our own disputes and arguments while ignoring the threats from without. And 15 months after Oct. 7^th, the IDF needs a new leadership, ready to spring like a lion, aware and ready for all scenarios

I read recently of a small, little-known country named the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is barely 1.5 times the size of Israel, with less than 1/12 of our population. Despite its precarious location between superpowers China in the north and India in the south, this "Land of Happiness," as it is known, manages to live in peace and serenity, away from major headlines. Israel is far from being Bhutan or Switzerland, but it is still the "Jewish Kingdom of Happiness" – even if in the coming years we will continue having to live on our sword.

Higher Than Ever: Israel on the Snow-Capped Hermon

by Haggai Huberman, State of Israel historian, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Taking quick advantage of the overthrow of Syrian dictator Assad two weeks ago, Israeli military forces captured what some refer to as the Syrian Hermon, the highest of three very strategic peaks in the Hermon range. Israel is currently in the midst of a rushed and complex logistical operation to build army camps on the summit before the first snowstorm hits. The plan is to remain there until at least the end of the winter, if not for the foreseeable future. State of Israel historian Haggai Huberman, providing a historic overview, explains that the time has come to decide how to refer to this historic and important mountain – but certainly not as "the Syrian Hermon."

On June 11, 1967, a few days into the Six Day War, the headline of the HaTzofeh newspaper blared out: "Syrian Heights in the Hands of IDF Forces." The paper, and others, apparently found it hard to break the Israeli habit of the previous 19 years, since Israel's War of Independence, of referring to the area by the name of the ruling entity.

But within a very short time, the original name – the Golan Heights – made its way back into our lexicon. On June 12, the left-wing Al HaMishmar featured an article that referred to the area as the Golan Heights, noting that it had been called "the Syrian Heights."

Just a few days later, another story referred to the Golan Heights, and by 1981, when Israel extended its sovereignty over the area, the name of the legislation was "the Golan Law" – certainly not "the Syrian Heights law."

I was reminded of this nomenclature change this week with the reports of our capture of the Syrian Hermon (pronounced Hĕrmone). Many people, quietly but insistently, are demanding that the Hebrew term be used, and that "Syria" be taken out of the "Syrian Heights."

Hebrew linguist Dr. Avshalom Kor has proposed that our new Hermon be termed "the Hermon Crown" – a phrase taken from a poem written by none other than Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He wrote it when he was in the British Akko prison with his Haganah comrades for their role in protecting the Jewish community in the Old City of Jerusalem during the pogroms of 1920. The poem ends: "We are in captivity, but our hearts are directed towards Tel Chai in the north; we will yet have the Crown of the Hermon."

This of course referred to the entire Hermon range, for no one then dreamed that it would ever be divided between a Syrian entity and a Jewish entity less than 30 years later. The term "Hermon Crown" came into popular use in the Hebrew language. On April 23, 1925, Jewish National Fund leader Yosef Weitz, whose views were much to the left of Jabotinsky even as he engaged in the purchase of lands for Jews up through the first years of the State, wrote:

"I walked after the plow through a long furrow, back and forth. To my north, the crown of Mt. Hermon gleamed, and to my south, the mountain tops were tinged with blue and red..."

Another Land of Israel lover and expert, Ze'ev Vilnai, later came up with another name for the Hermon: Sion. It was taken directly from Deuteronomy 4,48, which states that the border of the Promised Land ran from "Aro'er on the Arnon bank, up to Mt. Sion, that is Hermon." In his work "Love Your Land as Yourself," Vilnai wrote about one of several tours he led on the mountain:

"At sunset – and the sunsets are amazing from the heights of the Hermon – we reached the sion, the highest summit of the Hermon range. Though it was summertime, we still found fields of snow and ice, especially on the northern side. We had a great time throwing snowballs; for some of the hikers, it was the first time they had ever seen snow. On the sion [summit] is a small cave, where we spent the night… As a memento of the occasion of our visit, we planted a national flag on the summit before we left. We then steeply descended from the sion to the village of Hatzbia [now in southeastern Lebanon]…"

What could be more appropriate than to call the highest point of the Hermon range Sion, a Biblical word related to the Hebrew si, meaning climax and top?

During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Syrians briefly captured the one Hermon peak that had been in Israeli hands. However, the IDF soon recaptured it, and also the other two peaks, including what was known as the Syrian Hermon. [Israel withdrew from them after the war ended.]

An article in Al HaMishmar related the events: "The IDF Golani Brigade troops took upon themselves a very difficult mission. While the Paratroopers were flown to the Syrian Hermon in helicopters, some four kilometers from the Israeli Hermon, the Golani fighters had to break through frontally against well-prepared Syrian commando units… Israel's recapture of the Israeli Hermon, as well as its taking of the Si HaHermon and the Syrian Hermon, crowned an amazing IDF operation, which included heroism on the part of every single IDF soldier who took part."

On June 24, 1974, when Israel and Syria carried out the Separation of Forces agreement that ended the Yom Kippur War – and which came to an end after over 50 years two weeks ago – the Maariv newspaper reported: "Tomorrow at 3 PM the IDF will hand over to the United Nations the northernmost area, termed the Syrian Hermon, as well as the Kuneitra area…"

Now, with the return of the IDF to the Hermon summit, it would be appropriate to erase the name "Syrian Hermon," and return to use one of the Hebrew names – either Sion or Keter (Crown) HaHermon.

Made in Gaza

by Dr. Meir Seidler, senior lecturer in Jewish Philosophy in Bar Ilan and Ariel Universities, translated by Hillel Fendel.

A British research center reveals how the Ministry of Health in Gaza manipulates and falsifies data on Hamas and Gaza casualties – the very data on which the international community and the International Criminal Court in The Hague rely when condemning Israel. 

Following the IDF's three-week long Operation Cast Lead military campaign that began in December 2008, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza reported that 1,300 Gazans had been killed, of which only 48 were Hamas members. At the same time, an IDF report noted 1,166 Gazan deaths, including 709 Hamas terrorists.

Ultimately, the Hamas administration was forced to change its version and admit that some 600 to 700 Hamas terrorists had been killed in the operation. The correction was published at the time by the Haaretz newspaper, but did not receive much attention in the press.

During the weekly violent Gazan protests between March 2018 and December 2019, known by Hamas as the Great March of Return, the Gazan MoH reported 55 protesters killed on one day in clashes with IDF forces at the border. This figure was adopted in a report by OCHA (the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), leading to a sharp condemnation of Israel by UN Secretary-General Guterres and a demand from the head of OCHA to prosecute those responsible for killing "innocent civilians." However, two days later, Salah al-Bardawil, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, was asked sharply by a PA journalist why Hamas sent civilians to die at the border. Al-Bardawil answered that 50 of the 55 killed were actually Hamas fighters. This admission that the official Gaza numbers were false changed nothing in the UN's accusations against Israel.

These are just two examples cited in a report published a few days ago by a Middle Eastern affairs think-tank operating under the auspices of the conservative British research institute HJS (Henry Jackson Society).

But it's not the past that is the main point of the HJS report, which is entitled: "Questionable Counting: Analyzing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza." It is rather the current war in Gaza on which the report chiefly focuses. This comprehensive survey, the first of its kind since the war broke out close to 15 months ago, relies on a very large number of sources and research institutes, including the Washington-based ISW (Institute for the Study of War). It presents and analyzes many statistics and data, and provides conclusions. The report's data is verifiable by the sources cited in the notes, and in fact, I randomly checked some of the information and found that all of it was reliable.

I would like to note that behind the dry numbers of Gazans killed in the current war stand, as in every war, some people who are in fact innocent, as well as many children. Even after the atrocities that we so painfully experienced on that infamous Oct. 7^th, and even after the resulting cheers of glee that we saw in Gaza, I personally am sorry for the death of every Gazan who did not cheer, as well as for the children who died.

The primary feature of this report is the finding that the Hamas-run MoH has "systematically inflated the death toll [among Gazans] by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children, and even including individuals who died before the conflict began." This is no accident, but is rather the official policy of Hamas, as evidenced by a document revealed as early as a decade ago by the Hamas interior ministry. The instructions there were very clear: 'Whoever was killed and became a shahid [holy martyr] will be counted as a Gazan or Palestinian citizen… When describing those killed in Israeli attacks against Gaza, do not forget to always add that they were 'innocent citizens.' In conversations with friends from other countries, do not praise the [fallen] military commanders regarding their military successes."

The overall picture is that Hamas is reporting nearly 40,000 total deaths, while Israel states that of these, nearly half were Hamas terrorists. (American intelligence sources say that Hamas deaths numbered only 12-14,000).

The lack of differentiation between terrorist deaths and civilian deaths is particularly blatant given the fact that the official Hamas numbers do specify how many men, women, and children were killed – even if not quite accurately. For instance, among the women killed in one particular month, were more than 100 whose names were given as Muhammed… Many of those originally listed as aged 18 and above suddenly were counted as having been 17 years old – thus increasing the number of dead "children."

An interesting anomaly that arises from the statistics is listed on Dec. 5, 2023, when the MoH reported a total of 16,248 deaths in Gaza. Some 1,353 women and children were reported killed on one specific day – way more than the total number of deaths that day, which was only 1,041.

The report notes the following brazen attempt to deceptively increase the numbers of dead: More than 5,000 people who died natural deaths during the course of the year of the war were counted as having been killed by Israel! Concrete examples of Arabs felled by cancer are presented in the HJC report as having been killed by Israel. So are Arabs killed in criminal murder cases – and even those who were killed as a result of the commandeering of humanitarian aid deliveries by Hamas.

And get this: Hundreds of Gazans were killed by the more than 1,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets that didn't quite reach their targets and instead exploded inside Gaza – and they are counted as having been killed by Israel! The report cites the famous case of the Al-Ahli Hospital that was hit by a rocket. When the rocket was thought to have originated in Israel, Hamas reported that 471 were killed, but when the truth was learned that it was a mistakenly-fired Hamas rocket, the reported numbers went down considerably.

Fake Media Reporting

The report also examined some 1,400 English-language articles written about the war for eight leading websites between February and May 2024. It found that 98% of them relied on the Hamas MoH stats – and of these, 19% did not even mention their source. Only 5% relied (also) on IDF numbers.

Fewer than 2% of the articles that used data from the MoH indicated that the data was questionable and could not be verified. In contrast, half of the articles that mentioned IDF-provided data noted that its numbers were questionable. Only 16% of the articles noted that the MoH does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

It is hard to say that we were surprised by the report's findings, but for the rest of the world, such a report by a prestigious think-tank such as the HJC is of supreme importance. It is incumbent upon the State of Israel to use it proactively in its hasbara (PR) efforts around the world.

The Prophet Isaiah's Vision Coming True – Let's Do It!

by Ziv Maor, Editor-in-Chief of the news broadcasts at Galei Israel radio station, translated by Hillel Fendel.

A cursory glance at the new residents in the palaces of our Syrian neighbors, currently known as "the rebels," leads more to feelings of concern than of optimism. This is because of our long-standing acquaintance with the Arab enemy, and our general perception that the Arabs continue to be the same Arabs and the sea that they wish to push us into is the same sea…

To this is added the knowledge that our new neighbors have frightening associations with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. And even more worrisome is the fact that Julani and Shar'a, the two new sheriffs in the neighborhoods, are long arms of the Turkish enemy octopus.

If we look at Syria as a square on the checkerboard of the Middle East, we can note that there is a Qatari-Jordanian-Syrian-Turkish contiguity. This is a critical route for the entire region that can provide oil from Qatar to Europe. In the developing Middle East, the diplomatic engine will no longer be the "Palestinian problem," but rather, who will control the European gas market. For while on the one hand, there is this pipeline that can open in the wake of the fall of Assad, but there is also a developing and competing maritime axis of Israel-Cyprus-Greece.

Despite all, many experts are expressing very non-cautious optimism in light of the events. Shar'a himself declared that he does not see Israel as an enemy country, and Israeli expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar speaks of key Sunni figures in the rebellion who say they plan to open a Syrian embassy in Israel's capital of Jerusalem. Ziv Jenisov, an independent journalist who spent much time in the areas of the battles in Syria in 2018, has related that when he whispered to some Sunni rebels that he was Israeli, their admiration was palpable. And demographer Prof. Yaakov Feitelson has been speaking about Syria's return to the days before the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement [which defined the respective spheres of control of Great Britain and France following the expected downfall of the Ottoman Empire]. In those days, each ethnic group in what was to become modern-day Syria lived securely in its own area: the Alawites along the coast, the Druze south of Damascus, the Kurds in the northeast, and the Sunnis everywhere else.

Two important ethnic groups in Syria, the Druze and the Kurds, are supporters of Israel. The Kurds have expressed pro-Israeli sentiments for many years. The Druze indeed remained loyal to Assad, despite his oppression of them, but the spontaneous joyous reactions to his overthrow in the Druze villages in the Golan leave room for optimism that the Syrian Druze will join their brethren in Israel.

Time for a New Conception

The events that have so suddenly overtaken us are an opportunity to take a hard new look at a certain long-running Western, left-wing approach – and throw it out the window. This approach, or conception, holds that sovereignty is a binary situation: Either there is sovereignty, or there isn't. It has been a fundamental element of the twisted Israeli policies towards Judea and Samaria since the first intifada. That is, it is commonly held that either there will be two states between the Jordan and the sea, or one state, which will either be binational, or a Jewish-run apartheid. Any middle ground is not even considered, but rather denounced as an unstable temporary solution that will perpetuate the conflict forever.

The revolution in Syria invites us to introduce a new word into our vocabulary, which can not only help us formulate a new solution to the problems of the Arabs of the Land of Israel, but can also serve as a key to a reorganization of the entire Middle East. The word is: suzerainty. It generally refers to the partial control of an area, or even a country, by another country. There are many regions in the world that enjoy a certain measure of independence, but at the same time entrust certain important functions associated with sovereignty in the hands of a different country (usually a stronger one). The classic example of such is the state of relations between Puerto Rico (and also Guam) and the United States. There is also suzerainty between Montana and the U.S., between Belgium and the European Union, and between Flanders and Belgium.

The Left, and anti-Semites around the world, define Israel's position in Judea and Samaria as a "conqueror" or "occupier," thus distorting the meaning of "occupation" in international law. In practice, the more accurate term for Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria is "suzerainty." A deep understanding of the concept of suzerainty, and of the ways in which it is implemented in various areas of the world, opens before Israel a wealth of possibilities in the new Middle East that is currently taking shape. Internalizing Israel's suzerainty means understanding that Israel is a regional power and can use its power unapologetically to fortify its status and interests.

This is how it can look: Judea and Samaria will be recognized immediately as an integral part of the State of Israel; its Arab residents who remain here will receive Israeli citizenship; and Arab Palestinian nationalism will be outlawed. The Arab cities will have the status of local autonomies, run by the families that already run many of their affairs. The Gaza Strip will retain, for now, the status that the Palestinian Authority currently enjoys, with Israel overseeing its education network (to prevent anti-Israel incitement and the like). Perhaps in a few decades from now, Gaza will be ready to join Israel.

The Druze and the Kurds in the new Syria will exist as autonomies, with their own armies and with military guarantees from Israel. Southern Lebanon will be governed by Druze and Maronites (Christians), who will also enjoy Israeli military protection. Israel will open a gas pipeline to Europe, thus subordinating the economies of Lebanon and Egypt. Israel will also be able to leverage, without compunction, its control over the drinking water that it supplies to the Kingdom of Jordan, and will be free to enforce Israel's political interests over King Abdullah.

Who doesn't know the Prophet Isaiah's famous prophecy: "Nation will not lift a sword against another nation, and they will never again wage war." But when it is understood as a simple vision of peace and serenity, it is being taken out of context. Just a few verses before it, which are somewhat less well-known, the true and complete prophetic vision is laid out:

"And it shall be at the end of the days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all the nations shall stream to it. And many peoples shall go and say, "Come, let us go up to the Lord's mount, to the house of the God of Jacob, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths" – for from Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge between the nations and reprove many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks…"

Thus we see that even the Prophet says that the condition for regional peace is suzerainty of the Holy Temple mountain over the neighboring peoples. G-d has opened the way for us – let us go forth and ascend it.