I get your point about suicide bombers willing to die for their cause.  OK.

But, um, who is the empire and who is the victim?

To compare Al Qaida and the so-called "insurgents" to the Maccabees, and therefore the Greeks to the US or UN or {fill in your good-guys of choice} is insane.

You pretend to say that the US invaded the Midle East and slaughtered those peaceful Muslims, who were just minding their own business.  That Bush exiled their religious leaders and replaced them with his own hand-picked, bastardized pretenders.  And that those poor, put-upon Muslims dared to fight back because their prophet told them to.

You wanna draw a comparison?  OK, only if ancient Israel was evangelical, had its designs on world domination, developed clearly superior military power, invaded Athens, Cairo, Babylon, Rome, suppressed their people, and tortured to death a thousand innocents for every rebel.

The torture you cite from the Book of Maccabees is indeed gruesome, and is very close to what was taking place in Baghdad before {thank G-d} the regime change.  You libs like to think such 'torture' takes place in Gitmo, where the detainees' rights are protected more than US citizens.

Dream on.

Hag Sameach.